whatsoever afloat. Not a single British ship is reported to have been so much as sighted. It is impossible to conceive that no ship remained in the country, and what happened can only be explained upon the assumption that the seafaring districts, which were then chiefly, so far as can be gathered, to the westward, were either at enmity with the men of Kent, or received no intelligence of the intentions of the Romans. That even Kent did possess vessels of some kind, though perhaps no warships, is evident from the fact that it sent over an embassy before Cæsar quitted the Gallic coasts, and that almost immediately after his first invasion, it dispatched to Gaul some, but not all, of the hostages whom he had demanded.
Cæsar caused preparations to be made during the autumn for another descent in B.C. 54. He himself went to Illyria; his troops wintered in Belgic Gaul; his old ships were repaired at Portus Iccius, and new ones of shallower draught and broader beam, suitable for carrying burden as well for being hauled ashore, were built. Rigging and stores for these was ordered from Spain. Returning in the spring, Cæsar found all ready, and as the Britons had not sent over all the hostages whom they had agreed to send, he had a pretext for an immediate renewal of operations. He left Labienus with three legions and two thousand horse to hold Portus Iccius, and to watch the Gauls, and, himself embarking with a similar force of cavalry and five legions, he weighed at about sunset with a light gale from the south-west, which, however, died way towards midnight. The consequence was that he found at break of day that the tide or the currents had taken him too far to the eastward; but thanks to the hard work of the men at the oars, he gained the British coast at about noon, and landed at the same place as before.
He had with him six hundred transports, besides other vessels, some of which had been fitted out by private persons for their own use, making upwards of eight hundred in all. No enemy was visible, either afloat or on shore, but it afterwards appeared from the reports of prisoners that the Britons had assembled in great numbers on the coast, and had been prepared to resist until they realised the imposing nature of the armada arrayed against them. They had then retired to the hills.[1] Cæsar therefore landed without opposition, marked out a camp close to the shore, and, having discovered the whereabouts of the foe, left Quintus Atrius with twelve cohorts and
- ↑ 'De Bell. Gall.,' v. 8.
