Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/51

 friends, rather than prolong those dreadful wars, which had already caused so much misery.

24. He therefore proposed to the Danish chief that, if he would promise to keep at peace, he should have a wide tract of country, which had been desolated by these wars, all along the east coast, from the river Tweed to the river Thames, for himself and his people, to be called the Dane land; so Guthrun, the Danish chief, accepted the offer, and parcelled the land out amongst his followers, who settled there with their vassals, and lived the same manner as the Saxons.

25. You may think how glad the people were that the wars were over, and the king was very glad too, for he now had time to do what was more pleasant to him than fighting, which was, to do all the good he could for the country. He thought the best way to defend it against its enemies was to have good ships to keep them from landing; but, as the English did not know much about ship-building, he sent for men from Italy to teach them, and also had models of ships brought that they might see how they were constructed, and men were taught to manage them, so that England, for the first time, had a navy.

26. These ships were called galleys, and were