9. The battle was fought in April, 1782, near a group of islets called the Saints, which gives its name to the battle. For four days the two fleets manoeuvred, circling round each other like two birds of prey on the wing, each admiral trying to place his antagonist at a disadvantage. At last Rodney's chance had come. The signal was given for attack. The British fleet glided on, each ship a cable's length, or about two hundred yards, from her neighbour; and so perfect was the line, we are told, "that a bucket dropped from the leading ship might have been picked up by almost any ship that followed." Rodney drew his ships within musket-shot of the enemy's, and then began a cannonade that soon wrapped the two lines in smoke and flame through their whole length. All the time the ships are in movement, the two lines sailing in opposite directions, and pouring in their shot as ship passes ship.
10. At length the crisis has come. One of the French ships is disabled and leaves a gap between itself and the next. Rodney immediately pushes his ship through the gap, thus breaking the French line. In breaking the line, says an eye-witness, "we passed so near the lame French ship that I could see the gunners throwing away their sponges and hand-spikes in order to save themselves by running below." The captains coming next to the admiral follow him through the fatal gap, thus crumpling up the French centre, and placing the French flag-ship and six others between two fires.
11. De Grasse fought his flag-ship like a gallant sailor. She was the finest ship afloat carrying 106 guns and a crew of 1300 men. In vain he signalled for help. The ships that had formed his van and his rear were flying in opposite directions. The British ships, one after another, drew round the doomed ship. When his cartridges were exhausted, De Grasse ordered powder barrels to be hoisted from the hold, and loose powder to be poured into the guns with a ladle. By sunset there were but three unwounded men on the upper deck. More slain or wounded men lay around her guns than in Rodney's whole fleet. At six o'clock, the unfortunate admiral, with his own hands, hauled down his flag.
12. Six ships fell to the British, but one caught fire and burned to the water's edge, while three were so mauled that they foundered before reaching port. The battle of Saints is famous for the skilful tactics of the victor and for the important results of the victory. Combined with the successful defence of Gibraltar, it induced the allies to bring the war to a close by the Treaty of Versailles (1783). By this treaty the independence of the United States was acknowledged. But beyond the loss of her American colonies, Britain had weathered the storm with little damage to herself.
13. The forcible separation, however, between the mother-country and her colonies bequeathed for many generations a feeling of bitterness between the two nations. But a better day has now dawned. A new bond of sympathy has arisen between them as two branches of the same Anglo-Saxon race. They are divided by a wide ocean, but at critical times it has been plainly proved that "blood is thicker than water." A voice has passed across the ocean from either side, and this is the message it tells:—
"Kinsmen, hail!
We severed have been too long:
Now let us have done with a worn-out tale,
The tale of an ancient wrong,
And our friendship last long as Love doth last,
And be stronger than death is strong."
(3) AUSTRALASIA BROUGHT TO LIGHT.
1. Britain had now lost her chief colonies in the New World, but a newer world was waiting for her to occupy. This newer world was Australia, whose existence was not known until fifty years after Columbus made his famous discovery. The first to get a glimpse of Australia were the Dutch, who called it New Holland; but they only touched on its northern and western coasts, and knew nothing of the extent and character of the interior. To a Dutchman also, named Tasman, is due the honour of having first lighted on New Zealand and Tasmania, but he did little or nothing in exploring these lands and mapping out their coasts. It was reserved for an Englishman, the famous Captain Cook, to explore the coasts and definitely fix the situation of those southern lands that now form so important a part of King Edward's Realm.
2. This celebrated explorer was the son of a day-labourer in Yorkshire, and, when a boy of six or seven, was set to work at bird-scaring on a farm. The farmer's wife, taking an interest in the lad, taught him to read and write, which few poor boys in his days were able to do. A year or two later we find him ship-boy to a collier. Whilst serving as a sailor before the mast, James Cook did what was seldom done by men in his position, he went on with his learning, and mastered the rules of navigation and the mode of making charts. For thirteen years he went on learning his business as a mariner, and training himself to take things as they came and to look on hardships and coarse or scanty fare as matters of no account in a seaman's life.
3. On the outbreak of the Seven Years' War Cook's chance came to him. He entered the royal navy, and by his talents attracted the notice of his captain and was appointed "master" of the Mercury. Whilst holding this post he was sent to the St. Lawrence to prepare for Wolfe's expedition to Quebec, by taking soundings of the river and laying down a chart. So well was this work done that not only did the fleet reach Quebec without a mishap, but the work has needed but little re-doing from that day to this. This service to his country was not forgotten; and when it was resolved to send an exploring expedition to the Southern Ocean, James Cook was placed in command.