was their due and what was forced from him that concern'd their Liberty and that he might recover all that the People of England had got of their own of him and his Predecessors at once by the Sword he set up his Standard at Nottingham bidding thereby defiance to the Parliament and the Laws of England whereupon the flames of War broke forth in every part and nothing but the levying of Arms and the sad calamities of War abounded in all parts of this Nation When the Parliament were thus enforced to wrastle with the powers of the King the Malignity and opposition of most of the Nobility and Gentry the whole Prelaticall and Atheisticall party the Court and Monopoly Dependants the name of a King which had then some awe amongst the people the Treachery and apostacy of many of their Members and Officers in Civil and Military Imployments The War of Ireland and the Powers of forraign Kingdoms who in point of Interest might be expected to ingage against them and that through the blood of the People and the hazards of War they were constrained to proceed for the obtaining of that Liberty which the King was in duty to have preserved From whom could they expect any affections but from the Dutch who in point of Interest being themselves a Commonwealth but even now torne out of the Jawes of Monarchy through a sea of Blood and millions of Treasure In point of preservation we being the Generations of those who took their Cause out of the dust and set it in the Throne and who ballanced always the late Kings envy and malice to that State themselves also having the designes of the Prince of Orange in their own Bowels working up towards the height of that Tyranny which the Enemies sword would have set up in England And in point of gratitude to those people who had chosen the Neatherlanders before their own safety in theirs and the Neatherlanders greatest times of danger were so deeply engaged One would think that their affections their bowels their money their force and their very souls should have been ready to be powred out for the Parliament whom God made formerly the very Instruments of their beeing and upon whom they might write the Foundation under God of their Prosperity at least that they should not maligne their Cause or advantage their Enemy But instead thereof their Envy to our Nation Malignity to our Cause assistance to our Enemy affronts and scorns to us and our friends in the day of our calamity have exceeded Shall I say any nay all our neighbours round about they became our enemies Treasury for Money their Magazine for Armes and Ammunition their Arsenall for Artillery and warlick provisions both by Sea and Land their refuge and shelter their place for counsell and advice and no doubt had publickly asserted our enemies interest had not the consideration of their great advantage in getting the Trade and Riches of England into their hands by our wars perswaded a seeming Newtrality Nor did these things satisfie them as if they thought they could never shew respect enough to our enemies and enmity to us Borrel and Raynswoold their Ambassadors in the year 1645. coming into England upon pretence of recōciling our differences besides other disservices in the then House of Commons assigned the Justice of the quarrel on the Kings side an unparaleld affront and every way unfit to be given by any especially by Forreigne States who were not concerned in our civill differences and which the Lords and Commons in Parliament then took notice of in their Declaration to the States Generall of those Provinces Afterwards Mr. Strickland our Agent had the Door of the States Generall shut against him for the space of about one year and a halfe and never admitted audience though at the same time Macdowell Agent for the King of Scots had admittance to whom when Dr. Dorislans was added he was assassinated in their Provinces and to this day not so much as a Warrant sent forth by the States General for the apprehending of those murtherers nor have they proscribed them their Dominions nor any thing done by them whereby their abhorrency of the Murther of a publick Minister might appear Nor have things rested here but when the Lord Saint Joh◠and Mr. Strickland were lately sent over Ambassadors after the death of the Prince of Orange upon whom as a cause some of the former injuries against us were laid how were they affronted and endeavoured to be mischieved by Prince Edward who called them Doggs to their faces and Apsley who designed to strangle the Lord Saint John in his chamber to say nothing of all the abuses attempted upon them by the ungoverned multitude on their followers and the assaults on their houses and though they were some days in their power after complaints and demands of justice made yet were not secured and brought to justice or proscribed to this day which being added to the former affronts and injuries and the delayes in the treaty though it provoked not the Parliament to a demand of present reparation so tender have they alwayes been of a breach with them yet they so ill resented it that it was one reason wherefore they recalled those Ambassadors It will be too long to reckon up the severall supplies of Officers Souldiers Arms Ammunition Artillery Money Ships and Provisions that have been issued from those Countries for the assistance of the late King and the then King of Scots his son in their warres against the Parliament of England in England Scotland and Ireland particularly the 20000 Arms 26 Field Guns and 250 Barrels of powder shipt aboard two ships at Amsterdam for England when the King of Scots was lately at Worcester with his Army and at the said Kings desire Likewise the many intollerable injuries depredations and Murthers committed on severall of the English Nation as in the case of Amboyna sufficiently known to the world which was perpetrated even when the people were alive that saw what the English had done for them in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and soon after a solemn Treaty and Agreement made of all differences between the Nations in those parts The many high Insolencies and affronts given this Nation at Sea in dragging the Colours of England under the Sterns of their ships after they had most injuriously taken their ships and goods from them and caneing the Seamen for being as they call'd it against their King some of this practised on severall English but the last Summer and the robbing of the English Merchants of their ships and goods at Sea to very great values Such things being fitter for a Volume then a few sheets of paper It will take up too much time also to particularize their late securing our ships and goods severall times that were within their coasts there being no cause given by us for such proceedings The marching of their Forces to their frontier Towns beating up of Drums for
contrary to League and Agreement Plundred and robb'd in the taking of our ships and goods that traded that way and to other places to great values Trod underfoot in their disgracefull dragging our English Colours after their Sterns when they had robb'd our ships Thus dared by the Commonaltie beyond measure in their belching out of Oaths Curses Slanders and by their Masters in preparing Fleets to infest our Coasts beating up of Drums for Voluntiers and endeavoured to be destroyed in Trump's late assaulting our Fleet in the time of Treaty and whilst there was Amity between us Greater Love and Assistance then by the English to them hath not been shown to a People Never was love so ill requited and abused never was patience so much provoked nor ever had people a juster ground to look them in the face in case of Engagement which they have now forced the righteous God will judge between them and us The People and Cause of God in this Nation is Holynesse to the Lord All that devour it shall offend Evill shall come upon them Scotland hath found it so with a witness Even the People of God amongst them who endeavoured its destruction Ireland is yet paying dear for it and upon France are the Vials powring out those of our own Nation that assisted this Cause in the beginning and were eminent therein in Godliness and honesty falling upon this stone afterwards have been broken in pieces so tender hath it been in the sight of God Even as the apple of his Eye Oh thou Belgia what will become of thee in the day when thy rage thy cruelty they malice thy scorne thy ingratitude thy opposition to this hallowed thing shall come into remembrance and is not that day already begun When every crying a aha every b clapping of thy hands every stamping with thy feet Every rejoycing in thy heart with despight every of thy taking c vengeance and revenge for the old hatred every of thy saying she is d broken she is turned unto me I shall be replenished she is laid waste Every of thy taking them up on the e Lips of talkers and making them the infamy of the People Every of thy f Blasphemies in saying they are laid waste they are given us to consume g when as the Lord was there Every of their h Reproaches and Revilings shall be remembred and carry with it a weight of vengeance for Recompence Every i evil neighbour will be visited in the day that God doth k avenge the Controversie of his Cause what then will become of you that have done more against it then all the ill Neighbours He hath begun it already the Kings and great ones of England Scotland and Ireland have drunk deeply of the l Cup they are become a desolation and their Cities shall not return The People have wallowed in their blood have m cursed their God and their King and looked upwards Even Godly men that have walked in this n craoked Path God hath led them forth with the workers of Iniquity God hath been o jealous for it with a great jealousie and out of the p mouth of the Lyon and the jaw of the mighty hath he pluck'd it and set it up on q high He hath lift up his r Banner upon it and advanced it as a Å¿ signe to the Kingdoms of the Earth whoever will not bow down unto it we may rationally expect according to the precedent series of divine Providence must be broken in pieces And who are you oh yeNeatherlanders that dare to set your selves against the Lord against what he hath done and is doing in these Nations to endeavour to strike out all the glorious Characters of his footsteps and presence what his Arm hath brought to pass for him and his mighty Power establish'd in these Dominions Who are you that dare to think that you can root out this Cause and give the lye to all the appearances of God the Prayer the Faith the Prayses of his Saints in these Nations Who are you that say their t Gods are Gods of the Hills therefore we will fight with them in the Valleys They stood against their own Forces but they shall not against ours The Land is given them in possession but the deep is ours and we will swallow them up as in the belly of Hell Our God is the same and so is our Cause on the Sea as well as the Land Spain found it so in the year 1588. and All others have since our late Wars and Troubles Take heed least Divine Power work revengeingly there as it hath begun upon you already and burie your Carcasses in the mighty waters and take heed least that though we would pass by yet God will not pardon what you have done against his Cause and us What is it that hath turned your hearts against your friends and set you to so ill requite their Love their bloud their hardships for you What is it that hath made you to affect and assist that cursed thing of Monarchy in these Nations which you before us saw to be a Plague and adventured your All to be rid of it and which hath confounded all its supporters and which God hath made to appear to be an accursed thing as clear as the Sun at noon day What is it that makes you retrograde to your Principles of a Free State that having known the benefit of Freedom through the Bloud of England you should endeavour the slavery of England Why should you be angry that we stand upon our Legs and honestly proceed to serve the advantage of our impoverish'd Countery and to improve what God in nature Providence and by the dreadfulness of War hath handed to us Why should you covet our Trade and Riches and not rather be contented with what God gives you though it were with a sparing hand Why should you rather delight to see us in our Blood our Cities and Habitations laid waste Our Bodies Wives Virgins prostituted to the mercy of the Bloody Enemies of God and us and rather then fail endeavour it with your own hands then that you should be disappointed of the sweetness of that gain you got by our Losses and Ruines Why should you be grieved at the heart that you did not fully assert the King of Scots interest when as you see God is against him and against his bloudy House And the Lord knows how much you are under vengeance for what you have done for him already Would you be thus measured to your selves Doe you think that the Cause here which hath in its weakest condition born down all before it like a mighty Torrent will not quit it self against your unrighteous Attempts Think you that this State who to do their People Right have not spared King nor Constitution Friend or Brother but have travelled through ten years bloudy Wars waiting upon God for such a day as this Even
Voluntiers to man 150 sail of ships of Warre which they declared to us they were providing their people calling for Arms against us and raging after such a manner as the English Merchants went not without danger in their streets and all this when their Ambassadors were treating with us here for a strict League and Union and when we had no thoughts of engaging against them or began any preparations to reinforce our Navy though it was high time after such alarms as those for the Parliament of England to provide for the security of their Seas and Traffick And that they might indeed shew their good will to this Commonwealth after much time had bin spent in treating for a more strict Union and things were drawing to some conclusion is it not manifest that they meant nothing lesse then a peaceable accommodation and intended their treaties as the disguised Ushers of treachery and warre in that Trump on the 19 of May 1652. with 42 ships of warre came up to the Downs and there assaulted our Generall Blake who riding neer Foulstone with fourteen ships only was enforced for some time by himself and afterwards with the rest of his Fleet to maintain four hours sharp fight till night parted them In which the providence of God mightily appeared in preserving our Fleet and repelling the enemy to his losse dishonor and therby delivered this Island at that time from the design treachery domination and cruelty of those people who when their tongues were smoother then oyl prepared war in their hearts and with their hands put it in execution Nor can it be otherwise understood then a designed engagement if so be his anchoring in Dover Road with his Fleet when extremity of weather did not enforce him his refusing to strike when Dover Castle by their shot summoned him thereto the denying the Merchanrs of Dover the night before the fight to perform their accustomed civility to visit their Fleet his sending two of his ships to Major Bourn who lay there onely with eight sail of ships the striking of those ships and their endeavours seemingly to excuse Van Trumps coming so neer and alledgeing the reason why he came no neerer viz. to avoid giving offence in regard of the controversie as he called it of the Flag and that he intended no injury to the English Nation which made Major Bourn jealous that they intended some mischiefe therefore he commanded out two ships to attend their motions and sent Generall Blake notice of their being there His moving the next day towards the French Coasts when Generall Blake came in sight of him and upon speaking with a Dutch Vessell which made all the sail she could to him and wafted her Flag to signifie as much his comming up presently with full wind and sail to Generall Blake who rode alone from his other ships his refusing to strike the ancient and undoubted acknowledgement of the English right and soveraignty in the adjacent Seas when Generall Blake summoned him thereunto by a Gun without a Ball another with a Ball his fiering through Generall Blakes Colours and falling upon him with a broad side immediatly without any parly before Generall Blake gave him a broad side his setting up presently a red Flag which being the signe before given the rest of his ships fel on our General and maintained with him his other ships a very hot fight as aforesaid and as by the narrative of the engagement and the examinations of his own Officers and letters relating thereunto printed by order of Parliament and ordered to be given unto their Ambassadors as an answer to their Papers and Desires for the proceed of the Treaty doth appear Together with his being angry with one of the said Captains in Holland because he struck sail to our Friggats as he came from the Streights as the said Captain and the Lieutenant now taken prisoners upon their examinations acknowledge besides what other accounts we have received of their debates and preparations to engage our Fleet Now what hath England done to these people that might occasion any such disingenuous and hostile proceedings Oh that they would produce their cause that we might answer thereunto and leave it to the world to judge Certainly had they any reall cause to assign that might bear weight in the ballance we should have heard thereof ere now for they are a people that are seldom wanting in things of that Nature Only we heard that the granting of Letters of Mart by us hath been made use of to incense those people against this State and by making of them mad under that pretence to shed their blood in an unjust war and to hasten their own and the destruction of their Countrey There is nothing more clear then that the granting of Letters of Mart in cases where Justice is denied to be done after it hath been duely sought as is our case is a necessary lawfull and just way according to Reason and the Laws of Nations practised throughout the world and by themselves and that such Letters of Reprisall are so far from being the occasion of War that they are in such cases the ultimate Preservatives against Nationall Engagements otherwise for Injuries done to the Subjects of any Nation by a Forraign People War must effect the satisfaction or it may be lawfull for any to rob and spoyl on the Seas that are enabled with power so to do it might occasion some discourse of that nature at large and the quoting of their own as well as the practises of other Nations for Instances but thus hath been the case with us that for very great Injuries and Blood and after above twenty years waiting in some cases for Justice of them which being denyed the Justice of this State renewed but one Letter of Reprisall upon them in the case of Mistriss Paulet granted by the late King for recōpence of 20000 l. principal besides charges of 20 years standing her self and Family being brought thereby to a morsell of bread yet when that was understood to be made use of by some Malignant spirits to prevent that Union which was said to be endeavouring by their Ambassadors in their Treaty that all occasion might be taken from those that sought occasion of difference this State suspended that Act before it was fully satisfied and not only so but all Letters of Reprisall upon the French who had so notoriously and to very great damages injur'd the Merchants of England notwithstanding that these wronged men had been at a great deal of costs to set out ships for recompence and had not accomplish'd it being thereby enforc'd to sit down by the loss of those charges also And all this to remove any occasion of clamour that might unduely happen upon the searching of Dutch Ships for French Goods though it is a known thing that the French covered their Goods in Flemish bottoms to avoid giving the English satisfaction and this we did notwithstanding that we paid the