contemplated such a step, iMargate would have been as convenient a place of waiting as the neighhourhood of the Isle of XVight. The junction was not to be needlessly postponed, the coast of Flanders being dangerous one, and the Armada having to fear that many of its ships might be driven ashore iu case of hevy weather arising For this reasou Parma was requested to join immediately upon Medina SitIonia's arrival ou the coast, and not to cause the fleet a moment's delay. But again the exact place of junction was not spccilied.

Valdes, however, wrote that, on July th, l)unquerque was the poiut of destination. ()n July 21st, after the first battle, Medina Sidonia's idea a was to contiuue his passage without halt, until he should learn from Parma what to do, and where to wait for him. If Margate was still the goal, it is evident that }:?dina Sidoni;t understood that the junction was to he effected before his arrival off that place. The coast of Flanders, then, in spite of the dangers of its shoals, may be accepted as the locality for the intended meeting. 5loreover, on July 21;th. 5Iedina Sidonia, as Vahles had done previously, indicated Duuquerque as the point. Parma was to join the Armada as soon as it came in sight of l)unquerque. But when the Spanish admiral drew near Calais, he was informed hy the pilots that, owing to the currents, it ottld he risky to lncecd farther on his intended course. Itc therefore altered his plau. The new heme was that Parma should join off CMais. = After the juuction had hceu efibcd, the combined fit was seek solne secure harbour, in default of which the large shil,s of the Armada would certainly drive ashore. Nor is it clear that there was any longer an idea of making Margate the common point of destination. On the contnu3,, Medina Sidonia seeins to have again turned his mind the Isle of Wight, and to have proposed to I'arma to seize the requisite secure harbour in that neighbourhood.

In spite of M1 this wtgucness, alration, aua amhiguity, one

I ])uro! doe. 95, pp. l-l, 15. The duke is therein st,-icily lbrbidMcn to attemptlany- thing against the Isle of Wight I,elbre first proceethng to M.'trgate. a S. P. Dom. ccxv. 36. a Exp'esscd in a letter to P;trma of July 21st. Fl'oude's Transct'ipts in B. M. 4 l)uro, doc. 165, p. 238; doe. l;,g, p. 259.

Ib., doc. 165, p. 238; and ]ledina Sidonia to Parma, July 27th, in Froude's 

Transcripts.

Ib., doc. 183.