That in Private Affairs if an Attorney or Proctor or in Publick Affairs if a Minister of State offers to pass the Duties of his Office or if a General of an Army without any Order from his Soveraign Ravages and lays Wast the Countries of his Allies or like a wild unruly Beast that has broken his Chains runs about the Fields and does all the mischief he can then in such a case it is but Justice to hold the Soveraigns blameless and to charge the â—rime upon those who are the true Authors of it and especially if the Soveraigns disavow the Fact as there is reason to expect the States will do in the case now in debate However there is no doubt but that it would be a thing altogether unheard of and condemned both by Divine and Humane Laws to go about to commit any acts of Hostility without hearing first what reasons the Adversary had to alledge for himself 'T is a Maxime universally received by all Nations conducted by the light of Reason That when any mischievous fact is committed the examination of the crime should precede before Sentence be given But likewise if the Party offended receive ample satisfaction ought he not to lay by his Resentment And it is not to be wondred at if all Nations naturally avoid War and are inclined to Peace since War is a horrible Monster that causes a thousand unhappinesses and feeds upon nothing but innocent Blood Some holy Fathers of the Church have very truly and pertinently said That men ought to have War in abomination even when Justice or Necessity it self obliges them by force to take Arms but especially Christians who ought to have learnt to be sparing of the Blood of other people as well as of that of their own Subjects Experience shews us in natural things that when the most excellent Wines come to corrupt they change into Vinegar most extremly sharp So likewise if these two Nations that have for so many years been united together in Religion Commerce and Liberty and whom the Neighbourhood of the Sea the Glory of Arms and their known valour have rendred yet more inseparable should come once to break that Vnion what else must be expected thence but their common Ruine Would not they be then like thâ—sâ— Sons of the Earth that destroyed one another as we are told in the story of Cadmus And will not even our Religion be thereby exposed to contempt and will not our common Enemies draw from our troubles new matter of triumph Truly our sense in this case differs nothing from that of some of your Writers who have very judiciously compared our two Republicks to two Earthen Vessels floating on the Sea with this Motto Si collidimur fragimur i. e. If we fall foul on one another we shall certainly break That is an Emblem that admirably well shews that a perpetual Peace ought to render them inseparable For if a well cemented Vnion might once be settled between these two Nations what felicities are there they might not enjoy By that we shall see Religion firmly established the Sea open to us Navigation free and the Enemies of the two Nations put out of all power to hurt them Peace and Tranquility secured and what is still more to be desired the Blessing of Heaven entailed upon us In fine to conclude we therefore most earnestly beseech you that you would order a Copy of a Relation of the late fight as it really passed to be delivered to us and to permit us to send it to the States General of the Vnited Provinces that by examining carefully the relations of both Parties the truth may the more easily be detected That in the mean while all Hostilities may cease on both sides That the Negotiation for a Treaty of Peace may not be broken off on this occasion That so by remedying the misfortunes lately hapned we may at last effect the conclusion of a solid and durable Peace which we passionately wish for and which we pray God the Soveraign Arbiter and Lord of Peace to be pleased to grant us After this discourse the Ambassadours retired and were guarded home to their Lodgings by a Party of the English Guards The Parliament seemed to them to be extremely divided and to waver much in their Resolutions about so weighty and Nice a Point but yet without positively declaring which of the Admirals they judged to have begun the Fight The major part of the Members maintained that the English Admiral had right on his side but Tromp was not of that opinion The rest of the Parliament being stirred up by the secret practices of the Spanish Faction said that the Hollanders had by the late action given an evident proof of their Treachery That the Republick of England had reason to be much alarmed at it and to look upon it as an assured presage of their future Ruine Yet there were several Members of that Illustrious Body whether moved by some private interest or by a principle of friendship that were more inclined to an accommodation with the Hollanders than to a Rupture in the number of which were these Gentlemen viz. Mildmay Vane Pembrook and several others But Cromwel who was in the highest degree of his fortune of which he made his Idol was the only man that had the secret of working upon the spirits of that Nation His Party was backt by Harrison Whitlock Bradshaw St. Johns Harrington Fleetwood and Mr. Scot who fomented the Jealousies and lying stories that the hatred the people had conceived against the Hollanders had lately produced nay and they had blown up the flame to so great a height that they reported that Tromp was come to London with a design to make a general Massacre of the people but his enterprise not taking effect he had commanded those of his Fleet to put all the English they met with to the Sword and that besides he had given orders to all his Captains upon pain of Death that at the approach of any English Man of War if they found themselves in danger of being taken having got all their Seamen upon the Deck they should clap a lighted Match into their Powder-room as well to destroy their Enemies by blowing them up into the Air as to take from them all hopes of any Booty The Sieur Nieuport who was sent some weeks before as well to carry some Papers to the Ambassadors concerning their Negotiation as to tell them several things by word of mouth that were intrusted with him by the States run great danger of his life because he was taken for a Spie In a word the mutual hatred between both Nations was risen to that high degree of bitterness that there was reason to fear they would never be reconciled more The Ambassadors well observed that Cromwel acting like an able Politition used great dissimulation with them and that besides other motives that actuated him he was further influenced by his own private Ambition He appeared the first days
full Assembly to declare the Subject of my Ambassage and the sincerity of the intentions of the High and Mighty Lords my Mrs. I thought my self indispensably obliged to appear before this August Council as well to present them my Credential Letters as to assure them for my own particular how much I tender the prosperity they enjoy in the management of those great and important affairs intrusted to them by the Commonwealth and which they discharge with so much Wisdom and Prudence And as I have already declared to the Parliament so I Reiterate again here that the States General desire nothing so much as the Continuation of a good and intimate Correspondence and the Renewing of a durable and solid Friendship with England of which they had in several Rencounters given very signal marks It is Certain the States my Mrs. wish nothing more heartily than to see the Treaty of Peace brought to a Conclusion and the Union between the two Republicks thereby Re-establisht and Corroborated and all Subjects of hatred and mis-understanding that might be able to disturb it thereby entirely dispell'd Gentleman it is the Aim of the Enemies of the Reformation by Divisions not only to weaken but totally to ruin the two Republicks but the two Nations having received so many great marks of the blessing of God as well by their partaking in the true Religion of which they are the trusty Guardians as by the prodigies that have appear'd in their foundation and establishment in several parts of the World whither they have so happily advanced Commerce in spite of all the dangers of the Seas the States my Mrs. Judge it absolutely necessary to maintain Religion and strengthen our Republicks which cannot be effected otherwise than by a happy Complication and an agreeable confusion of their Riches and common Interests that will be the true means with the assistance of Heaven to prevent all that may be capable to trouble their happiness and felicity Upon which considerations the States General were so extremely surprized at the news of what past lately between the two Naval Armies and at the mutual jealousie the two Nations have conceived thereupon That they thought it most highly important to depute me extraordinarily towards the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England and towards this Venerable Council to represent to them the true State of things so much the rather because having the honour to assist in two Assemblies namely that of the States General and of the States of Holland and West-Friesland I have a full knowledge of their most secret and most weighty Affairs and that by consequence I am able to assure them that there never was any Project form'd any Resolution taken nor any Commission given directly or indirectly to offend the Republick of England and to give them any just Cause of Jealousie and much less to go and attack their Fleets But rather on the contrary it was ordered That wheresoever our Men should meet with those of that Nation they should treat them as true Friends tho in the fatal rencounter we have newly mentioned things hapned quite otherwise of which I gave yesterday a Relation ample and particular enough to suffice at present because it is not convenient to be so often Renewing the Memory of past things that ought to be buried in eternal oblivion in the mean while finding by the last answer given to our Ambassadors that you pretend satisfaction for what is past and assurances for the future and besides the States my Mrs. Judging it Requisite first to remove all preventions and mistaken prejudices concerning what is past and that the two Republicks should endeavour to find out means to secure them against the like accidents for the time to come that the Treaty of Alliance already in good forwardness be without interruption carried on that besides the surest means imaginable be provided to prevent all suspicion and distrust and that a standing order be establisht according to which the Naval Armies on both sides shall be obliged to Regulate themselves concerning which points I have received the necessary instructions from my Mrs. I intreat you Gentlemen to be pleased to name some of your Illustrious Body to treat with me out of hand concerning the affairs in Question I must add to all I have just now asserted that the States never had any thoughts to dispute with the Republick of England that Grandure and Sovereign power that distinguishes it with so much Glory from all the other Republicks of Europe Heartily wishing besides that by the Union of two such potent States as England Holland the two Republicks may contribute to the mutual preservation of one another be secured against the Conspiracies of their Enemies and assure to themselves a firm and lasting Peace In the mean while I pray you to give order by your Wise Conduct as soon as possible that the mischief caused by that unfortunate Rencounter may not be increased by new Hostilities committed against the Ships of the States but rather that you would straitly forbid the same without staying till the sore be grown incurable and till by that we awake the drooping hopes of our Enemies being perswaded that we shall find out effectual means to reconcile us to the shame and confusion of those that are jealous of our prosperity and common feâ—icity I shall be most sensibly obliged to this August assembly if they will please to give me a speedy answer that so without losing time I may fall to work upon a business of so great advantagâ— and importance recommending my self in the mean time with all possible respect to your Benevolence June 24. Two days aftâ—r the Mr. of the Ceremonies gave notice to 〈…〉 â—â—eemsted that the Parliament had apâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 â—â—mmissioners to Treat with him And 〈…〉 â—â—â—â—ence being thereupon entred into Mr. â—â—â—â—sâ—ed begun with declaring to the Commissioners That the States had never given any cause of Complaint to the Republick of England but rather all the demonstrations of a true and sincere Amity that their intention could not be doubted of since it was Notorious that it had been always such in time past and should be so for the time to come that if there had hapned any thing that seemed contrary to that intention it ought not to be imputed to the States as an offence proceeding from them nor any occasion taken upon that account to attempt any thing against their Subjects but that generously forgetting on both sides what was past Provision ought to be made for their mutual security by giving the necessary Orders to prevent the like accidents for the future unless the Parliament should think it fitter to name Commissioners on both sides to make a through scrutiny into the Business in dispute and above all to enquire who was the Aggressor That their High and Mightinesses in case Tromp should be found to have begun first would not only disown his Conduct as contrary to their Orders but would cause him
to the pacifying of those two Crowns and to the maintaining a perfect Union between the two Republicks Answer was made him That the Dutch had no other Design neither but that Upon which the English Admiral set sail and after noon advanced further into the Belt The Dutch perceiving it unmoored likewise and stood after the English to hinder them from cutting off the Danish and some Holland Ships that lay at Anchor near Nyburg by separating them from the Body of the Dutch Fleet. But the English making off into the Main Sea retired to Kallundburg and the Hollanders towards the Isle of Rouse where the Danes came and joyned them In the mean time while the Ambassadors of the States that came with de Ruiter's Fleet were negotiating a Treaty of Peace between the Two Crowns at Copenhagen the English interrupted it by their underhand Practices in proposing a Cessation of Arms for Three Weeks which extremely troubled the Hollanders and obliged de Ruiter to write about it to the College of the Admiralty of Amsterdam intimating to them That the English as far as he was able to judge by their manner of Proceeding seemed ill intentioned notwithstanding all their fair Protestations and that he believed they turned Affairs in that manner with Design to favour Swedeland Three Days before the Term prefixed for the Suspension of Arms was to expire which was on the 10th of July Lieutenant-Admiral Opdam's Fleet in conjunction with the Danes making together about Thirty seven Sail of Men of War set sail directly for Copenhagen which the Swedes kept besieged with a Fleet of Thirty three Ships of War but at the Approach of the Admiral of Holland they retired without daring to stand a Fight which much surprized Opdam who expected not to be rid of them at so cheap a rate In the mean while the English Ministers that were endeavouring with those of Holland to mediate an Accommodation considering it was not necessary the two Mediating Powers should have such numerous and formidable Forces towards the North only to counterbalance Swedeland proposed that they might be diminished But the States suspecting there was some Mystery in the Matter on the English side ordered That but 20 of their Ships should be recalled causing private Notice to be given to Lieutenant-Admiral Opdam not to send them away neither till a like number of the English were gone before them But all those Precautions of the States became in short time needless by the Revolution that was ready to happen in England by the Intriegues of General Monk whose Aim was to pull down Cromwel's Party in order to restore King Charles to the Throne For Admiral Mountague who held Intelligence with Monk burn'd with an impatient Desire to quit the North with the English Fleet and to hasten home to the Assistance of King Charles's Party and seeking all the Pretences he could think on to promote his speedy departure he gave out That for want of Provisions his Fleet was able to subsist no longer abroad and so setting Sail on the 5th of September he returned back to the Coasts of England Vice-Admiral de Ruiter having weighed Anchor the same day moved and cast Anchor again at Amak near Copenhagen from whence he went ashore and went to a Tent set up between the Town and the Swedish Army where the States Ambassadors and those of Sweden and Denmark were in Conference about a Peace But Affairs going quite another way than towards an Accommodation Hostilities were begun again In the mean time Lieutenant Admiral Opdam having written to the States to desire leave to return home because of his indisposition he accordingly set sail at the beginning of November with a Fleet of 20 sail of Men of War and a great Number of Merchant Ships accompanied with the Vice-Admiral's Evertsz and Meppel De Ruiter then being left in the North to Command in chief in the absence of the Lieutenant Admiral joyned his Fleet with that of the Danes Commanded by Admiral Bielke and having taken on board a good Number of Troops both Horse and Foot steer'd directly towards the Isle of Funen To attempt a descent there and if it were possible to drive out the Swedes from thence On the 8th of November he advanc'd as far as before the Town of Nyburg situated in the East part of Funen upon the Belt Tho a great body of Swedish Horse appeared upon the Coast to oppose a descent yet Marshal Schak and other General Officers resolved to fall upon them notwithstanding the night was coming on But that Undertaking was not so well backt as it should have been because there was no body that was well acquainted with that place In the mean while the Swedes having raised some batteries begun to fire upon the Dutch Fleet and they fired no less briskly again upon the Swedes and upon the Ramparts of Nyburg The next morning before day the Officers Soldiers and Seamen that had passed the night in Boats and suffered much by the cold came back again on board the Fleet without having done any thing because it was so very dark that they could not see the Coast After this attempt the General Officers resolved to weigh Anchor and to draw towards Kortemunde another Town in the same Isle where they arrived on the 10th about noon De Ruiter thereupon gave order immediately to Evertsz de Wilde to Rear Admiral Bâ—akel and to the Captains Van Amstâ—l and Aldert Machysz to joyn him and to draw up in a line of Battle in Order to Batter the Town with their Artillery so that soon after it was seen all in flames and the Swedish Horse was forc'd to scamper here and there not knowing where to shelter themselves De Ruâ—ter observing that disorder without losing any time posted 4 men of War more in such a manner that their guns swept all the plain Country clear and gall'd the Flank of the Swedish Cavalry In the mean time the Danish Admiral Bielke and Vice Admiral Held coming to de Ruiter prayed him to be pleased to go to Marshal Schak to endeavour to perswade him upon that fair opportunity to put in Execution without delay the descent he before had designed to make because it was already 2 a Clock in the Afternoon After several deliberations the Danish and Holland Troops chosen to form the Van guard entred into Boats which landed them within Pistol shot of the Town Bridge The Swedes had retrenched themselves in two different places and had raised Forts from the Town to the Bridge having posted on one side 2 Regiments of Horse and on the other 3. Whilst the Dragoons were left in the Town to defend that At the approach of the Danes the Swedes fired hotly upon the Boats and killed some of the Hollanders De Ruiter being in Person in one of those Boats seeing the danger cried out My Boys Have Courage advance and march up to the Enemies Or else you are all lost men That discourse so extreamly revived
case the Allies proved victorious by Land The 25th of the same Month the Swedes having been constrained to quit the Fort Knotshover because it was laid flat by de Ruâ—ter's Guns some Men of War of the Fleet went and anchored so near the Town that they could make thâ— least Guns they had bear to fire into it with effectual Execution And the whole Fleet being thrown into a Line of Battle fired â—o furiously into it with all their Guns that so many Houses were beaten down by them that the Swedish Horse and other Soldiers that were retired thither knew not where to fly for Shelter and that small Place was soon reduced to Ashes by the continual Broad-sides that flew from the Navy that swept away Men Women and Horses and made the Air most dreadfully echo with the lamentable Cries of an infinite number of wounded People and the Desolation was so great and so universal that very few Persons could escape from it The Swedes therefore having lost all Hopes of being able to defend the Place any longer sent a Trumpeter to the Generals Schak and Eberstein to let them know They were ready to capitulate and to desire them to give order for the Cannon to cease Firing But they replied They must expect no other Accommodation from them but to surrender themselves at Discretion In the mean while the Cannon played upon them without Intermission and a little while after three Swedish Lords came out to the Camp with Offers to yield at Discretion Whereupon the Allies named the Sieurs Alefeld and Tromp to go on their part into the Town to treat with the Swedish Generals and a Trumpeter was sent on board de Ruiter to desire him to intermit Firing in regard the besieged were treating to surrender at Discretion De Ruiter answered That they must resolve to do it out of hand then or else he would reduce the Town to a Heap of Rubbish Those Words were followed with a short Cessation of Arms but because the besieged made some Demur in coming to an Execution of all those Offers de Ruiter fired upon them again more fiercely than ever till by a Letter from General Schak he was informed That the Swedes had at last submitted to the Clemency of the Victors and that the Allies were infinitely obliged to him for having brought things in so short a time to so happy an Issue Twelve Regiments of Swedish Horse making in all 3000 Men were made Prisoners of War on this occasion The Prisoners of note were 12 Colonels and the Majors General Horn Weyer and Waldeck and the Duke of Weymeren and the Count Coningsmark were taken Prisoners in the Battle That Victory was so compleat that there never was its parallel known since of all the whole Swedish Army in the Isle of Funen consisting of above 7000 Fighting Men there escaped but two General Officers and some few Private Soldiers that saved themselves in the Woods when they were defeated And besides it 's worth remark That those Troops so defeated were the Bravest most Faithful and most Veteran and Disciplined Soldiers of all the Forces of the King of Swedeland On the Danes and Allies side there were about 500 Men killed among whom were reckoned 8 Officers of note among whom was Captain Hemmema The Hollanders lost very few tho' they bore the greatest brunt of the Battle All those happy Progresses were followed by the speedy reduction of the greatest of the Danish Isles except Zeeland to that before oppressed Crown and that in less than 16 Days Near 100 Pieces of Cannon and great store of Ammunition were taken and 120 Standards or Colours About 2000 Swedes were kill'd and 5000 made Prisoners As for the Cavalry that were taken they were part of them distributed among the Danish Imperial and Brandenburg Horse The Town of Nyburg was plundered by the Imperialists and Poles whilst the Hollanders kept still under Arms. Funen being thus reduced under the Obedience of its rightful Prince Vice-Admiral De Ruiter represented to General Schak That it was impossible for the Fleet to subsist any longer in those parts because of the Dearness of Provisions adding That the swift advance of the Winter obliged him likewise to retire And accordingly unmooring on the 28th of November he sailed away to Lubeck with a Fleet of 120 Sail great and small to take in a Supply of Provisions The News of so many Advantages gained by the Arms of the Confederates was like a stroke of Thunder to King Gustavus for after that Time he gave himself so much to Melancholy that he was never after seen in a good Humor Nay his Health was sensibly endamaged thereby He retired into the Castle of Knonenburg where Reflecting upon the declining Condition of his Affairs he judged there was no other way for him to take to retrieve them than to reconcile himself with the Vnited Provinces as the only Power that had broke his Designs and interrupted the Course of his Conquests And so earnestly did he prosecute that expedient that on the 9th of December that is to say fifteen Days after the Reduction of Nyburg the Treaty of Alliance between Swedeland and the States was renewed and signed by the Ambassadors of both Powers which Treaty was followed with the Conclusion of the Project formed before at Elbing with all its Dependencies with this provisional Condition That the abovesaid Treaty should be of no Validity and should not be put in execution till a Peace were first made and ratified between the two Crowns of Sweden and Denmark Such were the first Fruits of the Conquest of the Isle of Funen The 1st of December De Ruiter having Orders from the States to winter in the Baltick in order to take care to secure Copenhagen came to an Anchor in the Road of Trave-Munde from whence he sailed next Day to Lubeck where he took in Provisions On the 15th he steered away for Copenhagen where Admiral Bielk coming on board him presented him with a Golden Chain and a Medal of great Value from the King of Denmark The King of Sweden having still considerable Forces in the Isle of Zeeland the Danes had some reason to fear some Irruption from them when the Time of the Ice should come so that they reinforced the Garrison of Copenhagen and planted a greater Number of Guns upon the Ramparts of the Town and every Captain had his particular Quarter assigned him that they might be ready to oppose any Assaults from the Swedes The Ice was broke for 40 Foot round every Man of War and the Danes in the mean time making several Sallies against the Enemies gained considerable Advantages over them 1660. This was the state of the War in the North when de Ruiter at the beginning of the following Spring having unmoored from Copenhagen on the 3d of March 1660. went and posted himself with his Fleet before the Haven of Landskroon to block up its Passage and hinder the coming out of the Swedish
Nations Your Majesty alone is Witness of the advantageous Propositions that have been made you in order to attain a Good and Solid Peace We have offered to conclude it as your Majesty should desire either that each Party should restore what they had taken from each other or else that if England should think that best for its Interests each side should keep and remain in possession of their Conquests and that with this Advantage for England that those Propositions might have been accepted by your People at a Time when the United Provinces as yet were ignorant what had been taken from them in remote Countries To which may be added that it cannot be said That we flattered our selves with the Hopes of receiving any other Fruit from thence than a bare indemnification for the Losses the States have suffered incomparably greater than those of England Notwithstanding all this your Majesty has not only refused to accept all these advantageous Conditions which may convince you of the sincere Desire the States have for a Peace But further were not pleased to be satisfied with those other Proposals so disadvantageous to the States offered you by the Mediation of France which they never consented to Besides your Majesty would never make or order any one to make the least Overture on your Side of any Conditions upon which you pretended to enter into Negotiation with the States And tho' you have been pleased to testifie to our Ambassadour That you desired nothing so heartily as Peace yet you would never determine to make choice of any means by which it might be attained or explain your Mind clearly thereupon either to him or to the other Mediators We are persuaded there is no Christian Prince in Europe who would not chuse rather at all times to prefer the Sweetness of a good Peace before the Mischiefs of a Cruel War how just soever it may be and we make thereupon the same Judgment of your Majesty's Sentiments since you exercise the same Religion with us But reflecting upon your Majesty's manner of dealing with our Ambassador in contempt even of those advantageous Propositions made you by the French Ambassadours tho' they were altogether contrary to the true Interests of our State in that you would never vouchsafe to make any advances that might serve for a Ground for us to treat upon together we thought then that our Ambassadour could no longer stay in the Court of England without Injury to the Reputation of the State and therefore have thought fit to recal him and that so much the rather because by recalling yours has been pleased to let us know you would not take it ill at our Hands This shall not hinder but that we shall ever retain a sincere desire to come to a good Accommodation as soon as we shall have Opportunity to do it in conjunction with our Allies In the mean while we shall wait the time till it shall please God to inspire your Majesty with such Sentiments as may dispose you to declare what your will is and what are the Conditions that may reconcile us that we may stop and prevent the Effusion of so much Christian Blood which is now spilt and still ready to be spilt in this unhappy Quarrel We can say That we shall not be responsible for it since both before and since the Rupture we have done all we could imagine to be just and reasonable and that could be expected from us and that we are still actually in the same Mind and yet without ever having been able hitherto to find out what your Majesty's Intention is upon that Subject We will therefore wait till you have more Inclination for Peace but yet it were to be wisht you would be brought to those good Thoughts of your own accord without staying till the Mischiefs and Disasters that are now ready to afflict Christendom inspire them into you We pray God to avert them and to take Sir your Majesty's Sacred Person into his holy Protection The Threats made by the French Ambassadours at Oxford to the King of England were soon followed by a Declaration of War from that Crown For Mr. Van Beuningen Ambassadour from the States at the Court of France had a long time before powerfully sollicited them to declare by vertue of the Treaty of Alliance concluded in the Month of April 1662. with the Vnited Provinces urging them out of Hand to unite their Forces with those of the States against the King of Great Britain the Violater of the Peace Upon which the Most Christian King being easily Persuaded that the best way for him to bend the King of England to a pliable Temper to him and to make his Ends upon both Nations was to declare War against the English in that Juncture published the following Declaration The French King's Declaration of War against England HIS Majesty being informed there was some mis-understanding between England and the United Provinces gave order to his Ambassadors in ordinary to employ all imaginable care in his name to endeavour to stifle all those troubles in their birth and having with displeasure heard that things were carried to that extremity as to come to a Rupture his Majesty sent Extraordinary Ambassadors to the King of Great Britain to endeavour by new Instances to pacifie those two powers and induce them to come to some Accommodations but his mediation had not all the success that was to be wisht for In the mean while the States General of the United Provinces strongly soliciting his Majesty to execute the Treaty of a defensive Alliance concluded the 7th of April 1662 between the States and his said Majesty the King finding himself thereupon obliged to perform his Royal Word and the Engagements into which he entred by an Authentick League in a time when England and Holland were as yet in good understanding together and out of all appearance of a Rupture his Majesty has declared and does declare by these presents signed with his own hand that he is resolved to assist the said States General of the United Provinces in pursuance of the said Treaty of a defensive League and to joyn all his Forces to theirs in Order to Act joyntly with them against the English as well by Sea as by Land And for that effect his Majesty Commands expresly all his Subjects and Ships to attack and fight the English forbidding them on pain of death to have any Communication Commerce or Intelligence with them And for those ends His Majesty has revoked and does revoke all permissions Pass-ports Safe-guards or safe-Conducts which may have been granted by him or by his Lieutenants General and other Officers contrary to these presents declaring them null and of no effect forbidding all to whom they shall come to have any regard to them And his Majesty commands the Duke of Beaufort Peer of France Great Master Chief and Super-intendent General of Marine Affairs and of the Commerce of France and likewise to the Marshals of France
and Havens of the Vnited Provinces being freed from the Oppression of two powerful Fleets that kept them as it were besieged the Dutch had thereby time to take Breath and to draw from thence the Troops that were posted there and to employ them elsewhere For the Prince of Orange seeing Fortune begun to declare her self for his Arms marched the States Army that was reinforced by some Spanish Troops towards Naerden in order to besiege it and after the Reduction of that Place he joyned the Emperors Army under the Command of Count Montecuculi and formed the Siege of Bonne that was taken on the 14th of November Which happy Successes and the Arrival of the Imperialist absolutely broke the Measures of France and its Allies and forced them all at a spurt to quit the Conquests they had made with so much Rapidity by disabling them to preserve them without leaving themselves without Troops sufficient to oppose to the Prince of Orange and Imperialists in the Field which it was much more dangerous for them to let their Enemies be Masters of than it was prejudicial to quit their late Conquests and the Pride they took in having gotten them Therefore on the 7th of October they quitted Woorden on the 14th of November Bommel and on the 23d of the same Month Vtrecht and in general all the Conquests they had made in the Provinces of Vtrecht Guelders and Over-Yssel But before their Retreat they extorted immense Sums from the Inhabitants and committed all the Depredations Cruelty and Despair could incite them to So many fortunate Successes happening in so short a time not only freed the Vnited Provinces from the Disasters they were like to sink under but put them into a condition to take some Revenge for them For that effect the States redoubling their Care and Diligence begun to think of Manning and Arming out a powerful Fleet Preparations of War for the Year 1674. and resolved it should consist of 90 Men of War 24 Fireships and 24 Galliots c. amounting in all to 162 Sail. Whilst they were making those vigorous Naval Preparations the Spaniards who had declared War against France by vertue of their Treaty of Alliance with the States General of the Vnited Provinces employed the Marquess de Fresno their Embassadour in the Court of England to endeavour a separate Peace between the King of Great Britain and the States A Peace concluded between Englâ—nd and Hâ—lland by the Spanish Ambassadour The Negotiation that had been set on foot for a General Peace at Cologn was just then like to be broken off by the exorbitant Demands made by France and its Allies so that the States finding there was no trusting to any Hopes on that side of a General Peace used all their Artifices to separate England from the other Allies and for that purpose sent full Power to the Marquess de Fresno to treat on that Subject with that Crown who managed it so dextrously that on the 19th of February 1674. a Peace was effectually concluded at Westminster between the States and the King of England to the Exclusion of France and its Allies That Peace caused an unexpressible Joy to the Vnited Provinces and raised hopeful Expectations in all their People and as the Union of England with France formed together had they acted unanimously so formidable a Sea-power that it seemed at first to the Hollanders to have been invincible tho' the Event and ill cemented Correspondence of those two Nations shewed the contrary so now the Vnited Provinces had reason to flatter themselves with the Hopes that they should be able with much more ease to reduce France to Reason being alone after they had dividâ—d England from it which was the more powerful of the two at Sea than they could expect before Which Atchievement was as terrible a Stroke to France as it was a Glorious and Advantageous Omen to the Vnited Provinces That troublesome Thorn being pluck'd out of their Foot the States reflecting upon the immense Charges they had been forced to be at for equipping out a Fleet numerous enough to encounter two such formidable Sea-powers as they had had before upon them thought they might now well enough retrench some of them now they had none but Franâ—â— to deal with And therefore they ordered that thâ— Fleet for the Year 1674 should be composed only of 66 Men of War 18 Fireships 12 Great Galliots and as many smaller ones and 24 Flutes c. making in all 150 Sail and that 9000 Regular Troops should be embarked thereon and that they should carry with them 6 Months Provision that a part of that Fleet under the Command of de Ruiter should sail towards the Caribbe Islands belonging to the French to destroy them whilst the other part under the Conduct of Lieutenant Admiral Tromp should advance towards the French Coasts in order to make some Descent and Diversion there And the General Rendezvous of that Fleet was appointed to be at Wielingen A Relation of the Principal Adventures that happened at Sea in the Year 1674. taken out of the Original Memoirs of Lieutenant Admiral Tromp THE Fleet of the Vnited Provinces weighed Anchor on the 24th of May and on the 26th arrived before Dunkirk from whence they departed on the 27th towards Dover where the Marquess de Fresno the King of Spain's Embassadour at the Court of England came on Board the Admiral to see it They afterwards kept cruising along the Channel and about Torbay till the 7th of June and during all that time kept the Coasts of France in a continual Alarm Lieutenant Admiral de Ruiter in pursuance of the States Orders separated from Lieutenant Admiral Tromp on the 8th with a Squadron of Men of War and some Troops and sailed away for the West-Indies And then the rest of the Fleet under Tromp unmoored from Torbay and arrived the same Evening near the Goutstart On the 19th and 20th they discovered the Isle of Vshant At the approach of the Fleet the French fired their Beacons all-a-long the Coast and the Arrierbann of Britainy were most of them posted in and about Brest which they had taken great Care to fortifie And they had placed a great many Ships at the Mouth of the Harbour upon which they had placed Cannon and erected Batteries The French being so strong upon their Guard on that side the Generals of the Dutch Fleet found it impossible to execute their Projects there and unanimously resolved to move towards Belle-Isle and there to wait for such of their Ships as were straggled from the Body of their Fleet and then to sail all together towards the Mouth of the Loire According to that Project the Fleet unmoor'd and on the 22d a small English Vessel that was sent out a scouting returned to the Fleet and brought with her a French Sounder of S. Lazar. On the 23d the Fleet went and anchored on the East of Belle-Isle As soon as the Duke de Chaulnes Governour of
present Answer Tho the Parliament were inclined out of a principle of affection and tenderness to receive favourably the expressions contained in the abovesaid writings tending to represent the late Fight between the two Fleets as a thing that hapened without the knowledge and against the will of their High and Mightinesses yet upon due reflection made thereon it appears That the Resolutions of the States and the Conduct of their Admirals do no ways agree with all those protestations especially in a time whilst a Treaty of Alliance was managing which they themselves had sought for and which had been Negotiated by their own Ambassadors Besides what could be the scope of so formidable an Arming of 150 Ships of War made by them without any occasion for it was it not for the design which has now lately broken out Which is nothing else but the effect of a real jealousie even by the confession of the Ambassadors themselves at the same time they pretend to excuse themselves of it and according to the Tenour of the Commissions their High and Mightinesses have given to the Chief Commanders of their Naval Armies there are but too many reasons that perswade us to believe that the States do thereby but aspire to Ravish from England by force of Arms her ancient Prerogatives and the Rights she has over the Seas and that further they aim at nothing else but the destruction of our Fleet which is our Barrier and our securest Rampart and by that means to expose this Commonwealth to an Invasion as they intended to do by the late attempt Upon which the Parliament think themselves indispensably engaged with the assistance of Heaven to exact speedy satisfaction for the outrages done to the Nation and to put themselves in such a condition that the like may happen no more for the future And yet they do all this with design however to appease if possible the Troubles that have lately risen between the two Nations by all ways of Humanity and moderation if God who by his Wisdom and Almighty Power is able to do all things shall please to furnish us with more proper and efficacious means for that end than have been hitherto employed This Answer together with that proud and haughty way the English have with them begun to give new alarms to Holland and make her fear the Consequences would be fatal It was a very sensible Vexation to the States to see themselves upon the point of coming to a Rapture with that New Republick whose happy progresses in her beginnings had made them conceive fair hopes that she would let her Allie Holland share with her in the prosperities she enjoyed by the good Correspondence and strict Friendship which was like to Reign between them The Merchants were almost out of their Wits at it by reason of the great loss they daily suffered both of their Ships and Goods which unhappily became a Prey to the English Privateers Which obliged the States before the Negotiation already begun was quite broken off to dispatch another Extraordinary Ambassage to London being willing to appease all disputes by Amicable ways if it were possible to find out any means to do it and it being necessary for that purpose to make choice of some person of great Merit they cast their Eyes upon Mr. Pauw Lord of Heemsted Pensioner of Holland one of the ablest Ministers even by the Testimony of Foreigners themselves the Republick ever had He set out from the Hague the 25th of June on his way to the Brill and at 6 a Clock at Night the same day he got on Board a Dutch Man of War the 28th he arrived at Gravesend and sent notice of his arrival to the States Ambassadors and to the Parliament who were not a little surprised at it The Ambassadors came presently to him to inform him of all that had pass'd The 30th Mr. Heemsted was Conducted to London with the Ceremonies usual at the Entry of Ambassadors He was received at the Tower by three members of Parliament and Conducted thence by them to the House appointed for his Lodging attended by a very fine Train of Coaches of many great Lords and persons of Quality He presently demanded Audience of the Parliament which being granted him the very next day he there pronounced a discourse in Latin whereof here follows the Translation Most Honoured Lords The Speech of Mr. Heemsted Ambassador Extraordinary to the Parliament THe Publick Testimonies and Authentick proofs of a sincere and cordial Amity which the States of the United Provinces and their Subjects have always shewn to the British Nation and especially towards the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England whose Government is at present so happy and flourishing are so well known to all Christendom that no body doubts of them any more than they do of the ardent passion they have had to render it perpetual firm and unmoveable But because by reason of the inconstancy of worldly things there often happen unlucky accidents and disorders in Humane life that change the State of affairs and seem to cover over its face with a thick and sable Cloud that obscures for a time that agreeable Union and happy mutual Benevolence there is need of a great deal of precaution to stop its mischievous Consequences above all if it be considered that when such kind of troubles are timely stifled in their birth and that unhappy misunderstanding started by them comes once to cease it may be said they serve more to strengthen and confirm that mutual Union than any way to weaken or dissolve its Bonds 'T is for this design that my Mrs. the States General of the United provinces have been pleased to send me in Quality of their Ambassador extraordinary to the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England tho' otherwise they had no reason to doubt either of the Prudence or of the Capacity of the Ambassadors they had here already for Affairs of high importance I am therefore sent to assure the Commonwealth of England from them of the sincere and inviolable desire they have to see its Government continue in that Peace Happiness and Prosperity which at present it enjoys and to offer it at the same time all the services they are capable of And I can give you this Testimony of them with the more assured fidelity because having always been present in their assemblies and coming now but newly out of them I have been an Eye witness of the zeal and ardent passion they have to contribute all that lies in their power that may possibly conduce to the maintaining a firm and solid Friendship between the two States and to prevent all that may shake it And therefore 't was with great Astonishment and with a very sensible Regret they heard of what has past between the Admirals of the two Republicks and for fear that fatal Rencounter altogether unexpected should cause some new mis-understandings and raise new Jealousies or that by putting a stop to
the present Treaty it might make it impracticable to come to a conclusion of a Renovation of the Ancient Amity that has always been between the two Nations the States my Mrs. judg'd it necessary I should come hither because having been always present at all their deliberations by reason of my Employment I was best able to Represent to the Commonwealth of England the naked truth and all the Circumstances of that Action as they have been related to them in order to the rasing out all suspicions that might be capable to distemper or destroy the good intelligence and true Amity that is between the two Nations and remove all obstacles that might hinder the conclusion of the Treaty already began Moreover I protest and declare in the presence of the Parliament of the Republick of England by vertue of my Credential Letters and in the Name of the States General my Mrs. that they never had any thoughts to attempt any thing or give order that any thing should be attempted that might give any just cause of Umbrage to the Sovereign power of this Commonwealth to break or weaken the Union and good Correspondence that has been so long cultivated between the two Republicks or under what pretence soever to sow any discord between them But rather on the contrary I can say that the States have been moved by their own inclinations and by the sentiments of a real Friendship carefully to study out all that might conduce to the hastning the conclusion of a strict and inviolable Alliance between the two Nations It 's true a very considerable Fleet was Equip'd in Holland but at the same time there 's no body but knows the States were forced so to do by the continual complaints of their Subjects and that they gave notice of it to the Parliament And they published beforehand that this arming was for no other end than for the liberty and security of Commerce which was much endamag'd and interrupted by many very sensible Losses the Subjects of the United Provinces daily suffered of their Ships and Goods and certainly it is but natural to make use of the means that force and necessity put into our hands to protect oppresed innocence But they thoughr of nothing less than a fight to create new troubles between the two Nations and Revive the disputes that were already terminated But things being so and there hapning by accident a fierce Battle between the Fleets of the two Nations the States General have thought fit to Communicate to the Parliament of England an exact and faithfull Relation of all that passed such as they have received from their Admiral authorized by the Testimony of all the Captains and other persons worthy of Credit namely that Admiral Tromp came towards the Fleet of this Republick more by necessity than out of any premeditated design and that after he had paid his Civilities to Major Bourn as he was pursuing his voyage he fell into the presence of Admiral Blake before he was aware that presently he ordered an advice Boat to be made ready to send some Officers of the Fleet to Compliment him but that Blake answering him with Civilities of a quite contrary nature let flie all his Guns at him and that then Tromp discharg'd his more to defend himself than to offend the Aggressor This was the cause of an Engagement in which the Capricious humour of Fortune had more share than any design of Council premeditated and swell'd up with Ambition so that it being begun about a mistaken point of Honour and not continued by our men out of any principle of animosity the States General pray the Commonwealth of England to be perswaded they had no hand in that Action but to take it for an Event of pure chance and of the inconstancy of Worldly affairs and that accordingly they would be pleased to recall their Orders and Commissions and to let all Acts of Hostility cease that now disturb Commerce and the States on their part are ready to consent to the same and always to employ all possible means to facilitate an Accommodation They are very sensible that all Christendom is deeply concerned in so great an affair as this and especially the reformed Churches of all Europe who all equally wish and desire that our troubles may be stifled in their Birth as being perswaded that discord arising between Neighbouring States of the same Religion may not only draw after it the Ruin of that Commerce that makes them Flourish but likewise awaken the drooping hopes of both their secret and open Enemies who would not fail to take occasion thereupon to foment some new Plots in some Province or other of this Commonwealth which would afterwards break out and so passing from one to another we should see our States become the bloody Theater of a War To prevent therefore and put a stop to the Course of so great mischiefs I have Orders without further delay to Represent to you and employ all my industry that some assur'd means may be agreed upon on both sides to accommodate the differences about what has past and for the taking such just Measures for the future that there may never happen the like accidents again between the two Fleets and that so thereby the Greatness and Glory of the Parliament of England may be secured from the danger of all sorts of attempts against it Since then the States General openly declare to the Parliament the ardent passion they have to see the two Nations perfectly United together and their differences entirely composed and that the propositions on both sides may at last terminate in a strict Alliance all the favour I desire of the Parliament is that they would please to give order to their Commissioners and to the Council of State to give me speeddy Audience and to labour joyntly with me for the Conclusion of the Treaty in order to terminate the principal business that is the foundation of my Negotiation as well as of that of the other Ambassadors In extraordinary of the States In the mean while I acknowledge my self infinitely obliged to the Parliament that they have been pleased to grant a Ship to Mr. Nieuport to repass the Sea and go into Holland I will add here that being a Member of the State he has had order to remain with me to assist me with his Council till my return which I dare be confident the Parliament will not take ill and that they will be pleased favourably to accept my most humble services which I present them Mr. de Heemsted going the next day to the Council of State Mr. de Heemsted's Speech to the Council of State made them the following Speech which he pronounced in French Since it has pleased my Lorâ—s the States General of the United Provinces besides the Ambassadors they have already here to send me extraordinarily in the same Quality to the Parliament of the Republick of England to whom I had the Honour yesterday in a
to the Republick of England a compensation towards the indemnifying them for the losses they had sustained by the Arming of the Holland Fleet and by the attempt they had lately made upon them of which the particularities should be reported at large in time and place 2. That presently after the payment of the said sum the Parliament should surcease all Acts of Hostility against the Hollanders and all Ships seized since the last troubles should be released 3. That these two Conditions being first agreed to and put in Execution they would proceed to a Treaty of Alliance which should straightly Vnite the two Republicks together render their interests common and their Friendship perpetual and inviolable and that for this effect the Parliament would be always Ready to accept all just and resonable ways proposed to them The Ambassador of the States being astonish'd at such an answer demanded on the 6th of July a new Conference wherein he Represented That their High and Mightinesses had been obliged to make an Extroardinary armament and to be at Excessive Expences for the Reasons he had already mentioned that their Subjects had suffered considerable damages by the taking of a great many Holland and French Ships that the States and their Merchant Subjects still felt the losses that had been caused to them that if they would needs stand upon the point of indemnifying they needed only to compare the losses of the one Nation with those of the other to be convinced that the States General had been the greatest sufferers which would be easy to demonstrate provided the business were not spun out to too great a length by an over Captious discussion That if the said Commissioners would on their side make a just and Reasonable estimation It would then plainly appear that the true intention of their High and Mightinesses is to terminate things by an amicable way As concerning the Treaty of Confederacy between the two Republicks and the mutual assistance they might afford one another upon occasion in case their common Enemies should go about to attempt upon their liberty the States other Ambassadors had sufficiently before explain'd the intentions of their Mrs. upon that Subject being always ready to pursue the said Treaty if it would be consented to That if the said Commissioners should think fit to render that Treaty more ample and Authentick it would be a very agreeable thing to him and that he passionately desired they would please to give him all possible instruction imaginable thereupon That moreover he thought it would be highly important if not very necessary that orders should be given to the two Fleets not to come near one another and that they might not come to any new Engagements as 't was to be feared they otherwise would And that besides that he insisted that they would without delay release the Ships that were seized that so their Spirits being once calmed the two Nations might be â—indly disposed of themselves and without any Constraint to the concluding of a firm solid and unmoveable Alliance that in fine He waited with the greatest impatience for a favourable answer to all he had jâ—st then proposed that so being animated with the hopes of a happy success he might employ his industry with the States to endeavour to find out proper means to effect an Accommodation that he desired it the more earnestly because he was obliged to obey the Orders of his Mrs. The Council of State made answer The Answer of the Council of State that having maturely Examined the writing delivered by Mr. de Heemsted Ambassador Extroardinary from the States General of the Vnited Provinces into the hands of the Commissioners and having found nothing in it that answered clearly or directly to the last proposition made to his Excellency by the Parliament the Council demanded of him a speedy and positive answer at least to the first Article which being granted they would apply themselves to the fixing a moderate and Reasonable sum that so after that they might proceed to the Execution of the second Article by the restitution of the Ships seized and the suspension of all acts of Hostility And that as for the third Article it should be taken care of afterward more at Leisure The 7th of July the Sieur de Heemsted demanded another Conference in pursuance of the orders he had received from his Masters adding that if the Republick of England would not openly declare themselves he would demand his Audience of Leave and that with so much the more Justice because instead of an Accommodation with which they had flatter'd themselves the Parliament had given orders to their Fleet to destroy the Dutch Herring Fishery and to sink all Holland Ships whilst to the Northward they were watching for our Ships that were returning from the Indies He represented therefore in that Conference That whilst he was busied in answering the Writing that was delivered him by Mr. Oliver Fleming from the Council of State he had with much displeasure been informed that the English Fleet was put to Sea in order to some enterprize That he had likewise received Letters by which the States his Masters had ordered him that since he had used all his endeavours to no purpose to obtain a Cessation of acts of Hostility he should demand his Audience of Leave in order to return with all diligence into Holland to give the States an account of his Negotiation And therefore in Obedience to the Orders of his Mrs. he damanded he might be permitted to take his leave of the Council of State the next day and might for his Transportation make use of the man of War commanded by Captain John Verbaaf in which he came into England That the said Captain might be provided with a Passport that he might not be molested in his way by the Parliaments Ships Adding that because the other Ambassadours had signified to him that they had likewise order to retire he desired they might be permitted to take their Audience of Leave at the same time and to provide themselves with Ships necessary to transport their persons and Equipages The Council of State answered That they were obliged first to make their Report to the Parliament who were to sit the next day or the Tuseday following after the Memorial was delivered from the States Ambassador Extraordinary to the Commissioners And that till then they could give no other Answer to the said Ambassador But that on the 8th of July Mr de Heemsted presented to the Council of State two Memorials The first of which was conceived in these Terms The Ambassadour Extraordinary of the States Mr. Heemsted's first Memorial having seen the Answer given by the Council to his last Proposition has thought fit to declare a new that he intended as soon as he came back into Holland in consequence of the Overture made to him for that purpose to apply his whole endeavours to find out some proper means for the Reuniting the two
Nations and dissipating all the Umbrages that seemed then to render them irreconcilable that having at length attained to that happy Union so necessary for their common Security there might be noâ—hing able to disturb them And as that Resolution was full of sincerity and aimed only at the tranquility and happiness of the two Republicks so it was accordingly expedient to prevent by a diligent execution some Evils that otherwise would grow incurable if they were not stopt in their very Source That upon this consideration he requested the Council would be pleased to order he might be speedily dispatcht by granting him his Audience of Leave and the necessary Passports for his Ship that waited for him at Gravesend and that being perswaded That the Council of State would have regard to his Quality and Character he dar'd to flatter himself they would render him the same Honours at his Audience of Leave as were done him at his Entry and for which he was very much obliged to the Council The other Memorial imported The second Memorial that the Ambassador Extraordinary of the States found it necessary to Represent to the Council That if they thought it fit after he should have made his Report to their High and Mightinesses he desired his Secretary or some other trusty Person might come back to London to maintain a Correspondence together whether by delivering or receiving to and from the two States all that might any way conduce to the re-establishing a strict Alliance and perfect Union between them And that in order thereunto it would please the Council to Grant the necessary Passport for the security of that Person That he should also have permission to stay at London so long as the Parliament or the States should think fit or else that the Council would name some person themselves whom they thought fit to receive the Letters that should be written to that purpose and to solicit their Answers But they made no Reply to this last Proposal how equitable soever it appeared as being jealous that under that Covert some Dangerous Intelligence might be carried on against them in favour of the pretensions of the Family of the Stuarts The three other Ambassadors presented likewise to the Council of State the following Memorial on the 8th of July That since the Ambassadours of the States General had Orders by the last Letters they received to Retire without delay to go and give an account of their Negotiation to the States their Masters they therefore prayed the Council they might be permitted to take their Audience of Leave of that August Assembly and that accordingly Ships necessary for their Transportation and that of their respective Equipages together with Passports for their security might be granted them adding that there were some Ships of their Nation ready for that purpose as Captain de Boet and three other Ships of Dort The Republick of England fortifying every day more and more their Authority began to render themselves insupportable by their excessive Pride and Haughtiness For Sweden and Denmark several Princes of Italy the Hanse-Towns of Germany and other Free Cities of Europe were forced to acknowledge their up-start Government And they troubled themselves not much about the States Ambassadors as the scornful disdain they shewed of all their Remonstrances was a visible proof so that no body was surprized at all to see with what facility they granted them their Audience of Leave They consented that two of their Men of War should Convoy them and two other Ships Transport their Equipages And so the next day the fear Ambassadors were conducted to their Audience and Mr. de Heemsted made the following Discourse in the name of them all The States General of the United Provinces have sent their Ambassadors Extraordinary to the Parliament of the Republick of England Mr. de Heemsted's Speech at his Audience of Leave to endeavour by all sorts of ways to induce them to renew the ancient Amity between the two Nations and to confirm more straitly their Alliance They were followed a little while after by Mr. Nieuport a Member of the States of Holland and Westfriesland who was sent to clear some difficulties and to give a more Authentick proof of their Good Intentions concerning the Treaty of Confederacy In fine it pleased their High and Mightinesses some days after to make yet another Extraordinary Deputation and to make choice of me for that with Express Order to come and give the Republick of England new more particular and stronger Assurances of a faithfull and sincere Amity in order to dispel all Umbrages and all Subjects of misunderstanding and to prevent all Obstacles that might hinder the Execution of so laudable a Design For that effect it was proposed That an enquiry should be made by some judicious persons on both sides into the Action that lately passed between the two Fleets and which happened not by any premeditated design but by pure accident that so according to their Verdict satisfaction might be given to the Party offended For we Protest before God and before Men and in presence of the Parliament of the Republick of England That the States our Masters never had it in their thoughts to offend this Republick and much less to commit any act of Hostility against it But that they were more disposed by a sence of a true and sincere affection to contribute to the maintaining a stable and good understanding and inviolable Peace between them But since unfortunately in spite of the steps that have been made and the pains taken to pacifie all these Troubles the two Ambassages have proved ineffectual and frustrated of the hopes they had with so much justice conceived and that by new Disputes that have arisen and caused great losses and that besides the States are threatned with new Hostilities from the Parliaments Fleet without having had the least notice given them of it The Ambassadors thought themselves obliged in prudence to prevent the Storm and to retire into their own Country as well to go and give an account of their Negotiations as to take new Instructions from the States their Masters For this end we present our selves all together before this August Assembly to give them notice That we have received order to retire and are upon the point of our departure We have already represented to the Council of State what things are necessary for our departure with Respect to the Juncture of time and our Character and we wait their Answer In the mean while it is not only our Duty but a point of Justice to intreat you that all our Ships that have been brought into the Ports of England or been stopt there before the publication of any Declaration of War without any offence given by any of the Masters of the said Ships may at last be released with all their Men that they may pursue their intended Voyages without being molested in any manner whatsoever and that all be done according to
their Confinity in Religion and Government and their neighbourâ—ood to the Sea secured motives rather to engage those two Republicks in an inseparable Vnion and to link them so straâ—tly together as to oblige them to assist one another That the sworn Enemies of the Reformation were ravisht with joy to see two Allies of the same Faith thus Remorselesâ—y to shed Christian Blood and that they who never could resist one of the Republicks now flattered themselves with the hopes of destroying them both That it would be impossible to resist them if the Party of the two that should prove Victorious after they had so vainly exhausted all their strength should be afterwards suddenly assailed by a new Enemy being reduced into an impotent condition and deprived of the succour of its former Ally That was no Victory more unhappy than such a one as was gained over an Ally without whose assistance one could not be without a notable weakning of ones self That if the English would seriously reflect on considerations oâ— such high Importance there was no doubt but things might be soon brought to an accommodation but since they found that such equitable sentiments as those made no impression on their minds they were resolved to wait from the hand of God the event of all things The Parliament assembled at Westminster having Read their High and Mightinesses Letter sent an Answer to the States General and another to the States of Holland The first of which intimated That the Sincere Amity of which the English had given sufficient proofs to the Hollanders at all times was well known to all the world That besides that they might rely upon the Passion they had to re-establish the ancient Peace and Amity between the two Nations That the Parliament were not inclined to continue the War with an Ally which the ties of Religion ought to render inseparable from them but that rather they were ready to do any reasonable thing in order to stifle these troubles in their beginning that so they might amicably come to an accommodation The Letter which the Parliament of England writ to the States of Holland was to this effect viz. THat since the happy Revolution that had changed England into a Commonwealth The Parliament of England's Letter to the States of Holland they had extreamly well considered how important it was straitly to unite themselves with a Nation the least difference with whom might draw after it very mischievous Consequences because in regard of Religion the two Republicks were so dependant one of another that they ought to be inseparable That if they came to a Rupture with them it was much against their wills that the Parliament consented to the effusion of Blood that was so dear to them being fully perswaded that the Enemies of the Reformation had conspired their common ruine by making use ef their own Arms to destroy them That if Mr. De Heemsted's proposals to which they had yet made no answer because of his hasty departure had been debated in their Assembly the Peace would be at present concluded That the sincerity and ardent passion the Parliament testified for the renewing of a Peace fully justified to the world that it was never their intention to have any hand in so ruinous a War And that their present Conduct and the Protestation they now made that they were ready to renew the Negotiation for a Treaty upon the same Foot as before sufficiently manifested what their Sentiments were in that matter At the same time Mr. Appleboon presented a writing at the Hague to the States General in the Queen of Swedland's name which was to this effect That her Majesty did not so much as pretend to penetrate into the bottom of their Affairs having no other end in so pressing an occasion but to manifest the sincere desire she had to mediate a Peace between the two Republicks so much the rather because her Majesty and particularly the late King her Father had always lived in perfect good intelligence with the Vnited Provinces That ' twâ—s to be feared if they too obstinately persisted in a War with England it would prove a fountain of irreparable mischiefs That her Majesty offered her Mediation and that if the States thought fit to accept it he would wait for the necessary instructions to enable him to make a more particular Overture of it to the Plenipotentiaries The States General made answer to the Parliaments Letter That the inclination they always had had for Peace and for maintaining a strait and inviolable Vnion with England was well known to the Council of State nay and to all the woâ—ld And that they were ready on their side to use all sorts of reasonable means to put a stop to the dismal consequences of so fatal a War and disposed to send Plenipotentiaries with full power for that purpose to any Neuter place that should be agreed upon The Parliament having discontinued their sitting there was nothing left at the Helm but the Council of State and Cromwell remained the sole Arbiter of all the Affairs of the Government who replied to the Letter of the States General That the change that had newly happned in England had not at all changed the just inclinations the Nation had for Peace That the offers the last Parliament had made by their Letter to the States General and to the States of Holland to renew Mr. de Heemsted's Negotiation and pacifie the Troubles between the two Nations were approved by the Council of State That if they would prevent the Obstacles that might happen in the way there was grounds to hope for a perfect union and perpetual good correspondence between England and Holland and that the project of it would without contradiction be the sooner advanced if the Disputes about chosing a neuter place for the Ambassadors of both Parties to treat in did not drill on the Negotiation to too great a length especially considering that affairs were then in such a posture as would admit of no delays And that as soon as their Plenipotentiaries should be arrived thither from the Hague the Council of State would be ready to enter into Conference with them with a promise to neglect nothing that might conduce to the facilitating of an accomodation Upon all these fair appearances the United Provinces dispatcht away Mr. de Bevering and Mr. de Nieuport Ambassadors from the States of Holland Mr. Vander Perre from those of Zealand and Mr. Jongstal from the States of Friseland Whilst they were thus flattering themselves with Peace the States were minded to reward the merit of those that had signalized themselves in the last Battle Lieutenant Admiral Tromp had a chain of Gold valued at 2000 Livers The Vice-Admirals de Wit Evertsz and de Ruiter had each of them one of 1500 Livers and the other Officers were gratified by the Council of the Admiralty every one according to their deserts But the Captains Lueas Albertsz Reinier Sikkema Look Hansbek Ewood
mischiefs after the Peace was concluding with England the Admiralty of Amsterdam sent de Ruiter into the Mediterranean with 5 men of War partly to Convoy outward some Merchant Ships and partly to Conduct others homewards at his return He therefore set out from the Texel the 17th of June with 14 Merchant Ships accompanied by the Captains Brakel Verburg Ooms and Pietersz In his way he joyned Rear-Admiral Tromp with the Captains Vander Hulst Verveen Huiskin's and 6 Merchant Ships that sail'd out of the Texel two days before him And proceeding from thence together as far as Ayamonte they took leave and parted one from the other De Ruiter past the Streights steering his course towards Legorn where he staid upon the instant solicitation of the Dutch Merchants there about the space of a Month to wait the coming in of some more of them During his stay there the Captains Verburg and Ooms saild away for Venice to convoy from thence 5 Merchant Men. De Ruiter having unmoored from Legorn set sail towards the Island of Minorca and from thence proceeded to Alicant Cartagena and Malaga where he was informed that there were arrived at Cales 2 Zealand men of War Commanded by the Captains Mangelaar and Water Drinker who were ready to return for Zealand assoon as some Merchant Ships of that Province should have taken in their freight Upon which advice he left the rest of his Squadron at Malaga to convoy thence the Wine Fleet and setting Sail the 29th of September he arrived in the beginning of October in the bay of Cadiz and Anchored there At his arrival the Dutch Consul and chief Merchants of his Nation came on board him and with a sensible displeasure delivered him some Letters from Sally which related with how much inhumanity the Sid treated the Hollanders upon the taking of a Flute from them near Mamora called the Hound by Rear Admiral Tromp and the Sid highly incensed thereat having by way of reprisal seized 3 Merchant Ships of Amsterdam full freighted had imprisoned all the Masters and men in the said Ships and threatned to make them slaves unless the Flute and her Cargo were speedily restored In the same Letters it was intimated that the Prisoners passionately desired that de Ruiter would come to Sally in hopes they should obtain their Liberty by the influence of his great Experience and the acquaintance he had formerly made with the Sid. De Ruiter accordingly being willing to prevent those growing troubles and the mischievous consequences they might draw after them set sail the 6th of October accompanied with the Captains Mangelaar and Water Drinker and arrived in Sally road the 10th of the same Month. The next day he received a Letter from the Dutch Consul informing him how that the Sid extremely provoked at the Hostility committed by Rear Admiral Tromp had sent for him into his Palace and had demanded of him an indemnification for the Ship and her Cargo that was taken telling him that as Consul of the Dutch Nation he was respoâ—sible for the damages done by the Dutch men of War Adding that after he had answered all those complaints as well as he could he had promised the Prince of Sally to write to Tromp to come himself in person to that road to justifie himself and to pray him in the mean while not to suffer the Cargo of the said Ship to be meddled with that having accordingly written such a Letter Tromp thereupon came to Sally road accompanied with Captain Huiskens from whence he had notified to the Sid by a Letter THat the Ship he had seized Tromp's Letter to the Prince of Sally having refused to send a Boat on Board him tho' he had put out a White Flag that upon that refusal he was confirmed in the Opinion he had that she was an Algerine he had taken her with so much the more reason because all her men deserted her and run away to shore after they had taken with them all that was most valuable on board her And that if the Prince of Sally thought himself offended by that proceeding he might Complain to the States General who were accustomed to do Justice to every one concluding his Letter with this protestation that he had no Commission to do the least wrong to any of the Subjects of Sally That after the reading of that Letter the Sid answered he could give no credit to it for that he could not believe that Rear-Admiral Tromp would have dared to venture upon any such attempt upon those of Sally without Express Orders from the States so to do Adding that on the other side if it were true that he had acted as he had done without the Consent or Privity of his Masters he had no occasion to wait their Orders for the Restitution of the Prize in Question to its right owners De Vries likewise informed de Ruiter withall that the Prince of Sally's answer could not be carried on board of Tromp because the Sea was then so very rough that no Boat durst stir out of the Port so that Tromp not being able to stay any longer there hoisted sail and went away for Cales He reported likewise that the Sid two or three days before his departure had caused the Master of the Ship called the Tyger to be seized and imprisoned with all his Men after he had given leave to two other Ships of Amsterdam to unmoor Vice Admiral de Ruiter sent likewise the same day a Letter to the Prince of Sally De Ruiter's Letter to the Prince of Sally which was to this effect That upon his arrival at Cadiz he had with much displeasure heard of the difference caused by the taking of the Flute called the Hound and how that in Consequence of it The Master of the Ship Walishsz with all his Men had been seized which News had obliged him with all diligence to come before Sally to assure his Highness that their High and Mightinesses the States General had no other design than to preserve and maintain the Treaty of Peace concluded with Sally And if there had hapned any thing prejudicial to it by the seizure of a Vessel through mistake the States having nothing so much to heart as Peace would be sensibly concerned at it That for his own particular he was extremely sorry that the Orders of the States his Masters would not permit him to leave his Ship and go ashore to kiss his Highnesses hands and wish him a long and happy Reign as undoubtedly promising himself withall that if he could but have the advantage to tell him his reasons by word of Mouth that he would be fully satisfied with them and would thereby be induced gladly to renew the Friendship that had so long continued between the Vnited Provinces and the people of Sally and in fine since necessity engaged him to stay on board his Ship He prayed the Sid to be pleased to give leave to the Consul de Uries and to Walishsz the
seize unless they timely opposed it The States therefore knew of what great Consequence it was to keep the Sound open to have a free passage into the Baltick Sea when they pleased resolved to Equip out a Fleet aâ—d to give the Chief Command of it to Lieutenant Admiral Opdam But whilst that was preparing not to lose time they Ordered De Ruiter and Vice Admiral Florisz and Rear Admiral Tromp to get all the Men of War together that were ready and to sail away into those parts before the Grand Fleet. Most part of those Ships were Equipt at Amsterdam and some of them in North Holland and some Regular Troops were put on board them to succour Dantzick in case it should be besieged by the Swedes De Ruiter then having divided his Fleet into 2 Squadrons whereof that which bore the Admiral 's Flag was under his own Conduct and the other under the Command of Vice Admiral Florisz set sail the last day of May and on the 8th of the next Month came to an Anchor near the Sound where as soon as he was arrived he went on shore at Elsenore accompanied by Tromp and Florisz and thence went on to Copenhagen to confer with their High and Mightinesses Ambassadors there who were at that time Mr. Van Beuniegen Pensioner of Amsterdam Amerongen and Van Viersen After which they were all three to make a visit to the Chief State Minister of the Kingdom to the Chancellor and to Admiral Lindenhout and then returned again on board their Fleet which in the mean while entred the Sound in expectation of new Orders and of a reinforcement with Admiral Opdam The 13th of the same Month 2 fresh men of War four on the 16th and afterwards several more joyned the Admirals Flag and reinforced the Fleet. On the 27th 3 Men of War more were discovered approaching the Sound which proved to be Admiral Opdam Captain Van Nes and Kuiper who joyned the Fleet the same evening The Orders Lieutenant Admiral Opdam received from the States on that occasion Imported That he should secure the Commerce of the North That he should defend and Protect by force of Arms the States Merchant Ships against all that should attempt upon their liberty impowring him besides to Free the Baltick Sea from the oppression of all those that should offer to disturb its Navigation Afterwards he received new orders to go and Anchor with all his forces in the Road before Dantzick to prevent the Swedish Fleet from blocking up the passages of it and to facilitate the going in and coming out of the Dutch Merchant Ships by taking them into his Protection And in all other things to regulate himself according to the Commission he had in general to oppose all manner of attempts Mr. Opdam going likewise presently ashore speeded away to Copenhagen where he had a Conference with the States Ambassadors after which he had Audience of the King of Denmark and received all imaginable honours from the Grandees of the Court. And his Danish Majesty being willing to give some marks of the concern he had in the laudable intentions of the States his Masters in sending him for the Protection of Dantzick honoured him with the Collar of the Order of the Elephant which was carried him the 19th of July by the Vice-Roy of Norway after he was returned on board his Fleet. Vice-Admiral de Wit putting out likewise from the Meuse with several men of War more came and joyned the Fleet which afterward setting sail arrived at Copenhagen on the 29th of the said Month and the next day the States Ambassadors advising them to continue on their way they set sail again to enter into the Baltick Sea so that 6 days after the whole Fleet came to an Anchor in Dantzick road being 42 sail of Frigats and men of War viz. 7 of Rotterdam 24 of Amsterdam 7 of North Holland 2 of Zealand and 2 of Friesland At the arrival of this Potent Fleet the Castle of Termund which is at the Mouth of the Vistula in the Gulf of Dantzick saluted them with several Guns and immediately after some Eminent Persons came in a Galliot from the Town on board the Admiral to salute him and to let him know the Joy the whole regency was in at his arrival Mr. Fabricius Pensionary of the Town and famous for his great learning Complimented Lieutenant Admiral Opdam from the Magistrates and invited him in their name to be pleased to come ashore into their Town and the publick rejoycings and other transports of joy which all the People shew'd upon that occasion lasted several days The States had had notice given them some time before as from the King of Sweden that his said Majesty had form'd a design to block up the Town of Dantzick and afterwards to besiege it and that he prayed their High and Mightinesses to be pleased to suspend their Commerce during that time and to forbid all Merchant Ships belonging to their State to go thither to take in any fraight But the unexpected arrival of that Fleet broke all the designs of Swedeland and tho' it was sent out for no other end but to free the Baltick Sea from the Yoke of that power yet it was strong enough to make all the fair hopes that Crown had conceived of Compassing so great an Enterprize as that vanisht to into smoak and that without any effusion of blood On the 1st of September following there appeared likewise at Sea a Fleet of 9 Danish Men of War under the Conduct of Admiral Lindenhout which came also and Anchored before Dantzick They had the same design as had the Dutch Fleet which was to defend that Hanseatick Town and the Freedom of Navigation In the mean time the States Deputies Slingeland Van Dorp de Hubert and Jabrandt being entred into a Negotiation at Elbing with the King of Swedens Plenipotentiaries about a Treaty of Alliance the Dutch Fleet that continued still before Dantzick Contributed much to advance it so that it was concluded and signed on the 1st of September on both sides The States knowing the abovesaid Treaty with Swedeland was upon the point of being concluâ—ed thought fit to recall Lieutentant Admiral Opdam with 30 of the biggest Ships of War of the Fleet and to leave Rear Admiral Tromp in his place with a Squadron only of 12 oâ— the lightest Ships And the Letters that contained this order were delivered him at Dantzick at the beginning of October The Danish Squadron was already sailed away ever since the 25th of September for Copenhagen whither the King of Denmark had recalled it as being ill satisfied at the Treaty Concluded with Swedeland without his privity In fine on the 6th of October the most part of the Troops that were on board the Fleet were removed and distributed into the 12 Ships that were to stay in the road only 280 men which there was no room to place there entred into the Town by the Magistrates leave and towards the
Fleet which was then about 50 Sail strong of Men of War He had likewise at the same time detached from his Fleet a Squadron of 16 Men of War to convoy home some Merchant-ships to Holland Amidst those Transactions he heard the News of the Death of Charles Gustavus King of Sweden which happened on the 23d of February at Gottenburg a violent Distemper of not above 6 Days continuance having carried him off in the 36th Year of his Age. The unexpected Death of that great Prince revived the Hopes and raised the palled Courage of the Danes who not without sufficient Cause looked on him as the Scourge of their Nation by reason of his extraordinary Valour and Success In the mean while the Negotiation for a Peace which the Plenipotentiaries of thâ— mediating Powers were endeavouring was drilled on to a tedious length notwithstanding the frequent Conferences they had about it in the Tent erected for that effect between Copenhagen and the Swedish Army which Delay was caused by the Intrigues of the French and English Ambassadours at the Court of Swedeland for that they were so far from endeavouring heartily to bring that Power to an Accommodation that underhand they blew the Coals and exasperated Matters by luring on that Court with the Airy Hopes of several Conquests But However at last after many Obstacles it was happily concluded on the 6th of June And four days after the Swedish Army raised the Siege of Copenhagen and the two Northern Crowns thereby put an end to those Troubles that seemed to have rendred them irreconcilable and that had kindled the Jealousie and raised the Arms of so many Princes against the growing Power of Swedeland The States seeing Affairs were happily terminated on that side sent Orders to de Ruiter that as soon as the Swedes should have restored to Denmark all the Places they were obliged to restore by the Treaty he should re-imbark the States Troops and return back with his Navy to Holland But the King of Denmark considering the great Service he had received from de Ruiter not willing to let him depart without giving him some Marks of his Acknowledgment would needs honour him with the Order of Knighthood for him and his heirs and with Letters of Nobility to which he added an annual Pension of 800 Crowns Pulchler likewise who Commanded the Land Forces was gratified with an annual Pension a Golden Chain and a Medal And the other Officers received also every one presents proportionable to their rank and the merit of their Services The War the United Provinces had with Portugal which we have already mentioned was also terminated by a Treaty signed the 6th of August to the extreme displeasure of the Privateers of several Nations that made use of the Commissions of that Crown the more securely to go a Pyrating after the Dutch Merchant Ships In the mean time the Corsairs of Barbary did so much mischief in the Mediterranean that the States were forced to send thither Vice-Admiral de Ruiter with a Fleet of about 20 men of War For about the space of 6 Weeks he only sailed about the Mediterranean Convoying Merchant Ships without discovering any Pyrate but on the 26th of February he gave chace to a Corsair Ship of Tunis called the Crescent and forcing her to run a ground upon the Coast he delivered 40 Christian slaves Two days after he went and Anchored before Tunis where he Concluded a Treaty of Peace between the United Provinces and those Barbarians and delivered 60 Dutch slaves more who were Exchanged for the Turks taken in the Corsair called the Crescent which he had lately taken But because there were some Articles in that Treaty that displeased the States de Ruiter at his return to the Coasts of Barbary in November following caused them to be altered There was likewise a Treaty of Peace Concluded with the Algerines about the end of the Month of March in which likewise some change was made by the consent of those Corsairs but they soon after broke it Rear-Admiral Tromp and Captain Schey had likewise orders to go into the Mediterranean with a Fleet of 10 Merchant Ships and on the 1st day of January 1663 the two Fleets having met and saluted one another De Ruiter steer'd towards Alicant and Tromp towards Leghorn Some weeks after namely on the 17th of March de Ruiter having receiv'd order from the States to leave the Command of the Fleet that was to stay in the Mediterranean to Tromp and to return back himself into Holland accordingly left it to him together with the necessary instructions relating to what remained yet to be put in Execution and at the same time put on Board of Tromp the Fiscal Vyant who had assisted at all the Treaties that had been made with the Turks that he might serve him for his Counsel But instead of being able to pacifie the turbulent humour of those Barbarians the Algerine grew thereupon the more insolent For because the Ratification of the Treaty was not presently sent them and that several months had past without their seeing either any one Dutch Man of War or the promised ransome for the Slaves of that Nation they began to grow so much the more impatient because the Plague that then raged among them sweeping away many of the Dutch Slaves deprived thereby their greedy Patrons of their Ransom too So that the murmurs of those discontented Barbarians soon after broke out in new Hostilities For at the beginning of the Summer they took upon them to visit the Dutch Merchant Ships and then under pretence they were laden with Merchandises belonging to their Enemies they pillaged them without Controul And not long after they carried a Dutch Merchant Ship to Algiers confiscated her Cargo and sold her Men for Slaves The States hearing of all these mischiefs Writ to their Consul there Vanden Burg to sollicit the Restitution of the Effects that were seiz'd and the Liberty of the Slaves those Barbarians had newly made But the Corsairs refusing to give any satisfaction the States gave Orders they should be obliged to it by force of Arms. Rear-Admiral Tromp therefore having begun to give them Chace took several of them and freed thereby a great number of Christian Slaves And among others he took two Algerine Corsairs on the 10th of January near Malaga whereof one carried 18 and the other 20 Guns and had on board her 180 Turks or Moors 25 Christian Slaves and 5 Renegadoes These Prises caused great alarms at Algeirs where the Barbarians gave out that their losses in them amounted to the number of 6 or 700 Turks Moors or Renegadoes for which they demanded Reparation of the Dutch Consul Offering to make satisfaction for their own Hostilities to Re-establish all things again upon a good Foot and to break the Treaty Concluded with the English They promised likewise they would stay for the Money designed for the Ransoming of the Dutch Slaves and demanded earnest for it thinking it was not
yet too late to obtain a Ratification of the last Treaty of Peace But the States being but too well acquainted with the Perfidiousness and Inconstancy of those Barbarians were so far from hearkning to them that they sollicited the Kings of France Spain and England to joyn their Forces with those of the United Provinces to Destroy them since they exercised their Piracies no less upon the Subjects of those Crowns than upon those of the United Provinces And the States would fain have perswaded those Powers to have set out three several Fleets under the Flagg of each Nation to go and Besiege their Harbours Chace them from the Sea and utterly ruine their abominable and insupportable Domination without having any regard to any former Treaty of Peace or Alliance Which Project seemed very important and well contrived But yet not one of those three Princes could be perswaded to hearken to it The French King indeed highly praised it and gave leave to the Dutch to erect Magazines for that effect both of Provisions and Ammunition at Thoulon or Marseilles The King of Spain gave Order that the Dutch Men of War might have free Ingress and Egress in and out of his Ports And the King of Great Britain resolved to send a Fleet into the Mediterranean but it was more to give new Umbrages than to correspond with the design of the States and many already could see in the shuffling conduct of that Prince certain presages of an approaching Rupture of the Peace between him and the United Provinces For at the same time that he proposed to send a Fleet into the Mediterranean to act in concert with that of the States he had on the other side given private order to Captain Holms to sail to the Court of Africa to ruin there the Commerce of the Dutch West-Indian Company and to seze their ships and Forts The States therefore seeing there was little Reliance to be made upon the assistance of any of all those Foregin Powers in order to free the Sea from the intolerable Robberies of the Algerines Resolved to concern themselves no further than for the preservation of their own Subjects by sending another Fleet into the Mediterranean under the Conduct of de Ruiter because Rear-Admiral Tromp had not sufficient Forces to accomplish so great an Enterprise That Fleet was composed of 12 Ships of War and one Flute laden with Provisions They put to Sea about the beginning of May and on the 19th of June arrived in the Road of Algiers De Ruiter presently sent notice of his arrival to the Divan to remind them to pay him the usual Honours and to Congratulate his arrival But they were so far from acquitting themselves of the Duty he pretended from them that they refused to let the Dutch Consul come on board to speak with the Vice-Admiral and to send Hostages for the security of the Credential Letters which were to be presented to the Divan from the States for all they would do was only to Grant a Passport by vertue of which the Commissioners Mortaigne and Reynâ—ld de Koeverden went into the Town who in the first Audience they had demand the exchange of Prisoners and the release of the Christian Slaves at the rate they were first sold for according to the Conditions of the last Treaty of Peace adding that as for other differences they should be adjusted by the Commissioners to be appointed for that purpose on each side All which was refused by the Divan who pretended before they entered into any Conference about the Release of Prisoners to know upon what grounds they might be assured of a Peace De Ruiter upon that sent them a Memorial that made a great noise amongst those Barbarians because they would by no means consent to any indemnification nor to the Condition insisted upon by the Dutch that no free Ship should be liable to be visited which was the Grievance of the Hollanders So that that point was hotly disputed on both sides in the Divan But after all the Algerines were obstinate and would absolutely reserve themselves a power to visit all Dutch Ships and to declare for Lawful Prize all the effects they found in them to belong to other Nations In fine the Conclusion of the Negotiation was this That those Barbarians declared to de Ruiter that if he would not accept their propositions he would not permit the Dutch Consul to retire on board him till he had before hand sent on shore 37 Turks or Moors that were Prisoners in his Fleet. Which demand of theirs he thought fit to grant to prevent the mischiefs that might otherwise happen to the Dutch Consul and his Retinue of which he had a fresh Example in the Person of the English Consul whom those Pyrates had cruelly handled after they had broken the Peace with England De Ruiter therefore plainly finding that it was to no purpose to use any gentle methods with them Juâ—gâ—d there was no other way to be taken but to reduce the Algerines to reason by force of Arms and accordingly he declared War against them the 4th of June The next day the Fleet unmoored and went and Anchored on the 7th of the same Month at Alicant where de Ruiter Received a Letter with advice of the new Troubles that Threatned the United Provinces from the English and with orders to him to uâ—e great Prudence and such Complaisant measures with the Ships of War that Crown had in the Mediterranean as to give them no new causes of Umbrage or dissatisfaction And accordingly there were no Acts of Hostility Committed between them at that time but when the Captains of both Nations met they Reciprocally saluted one another with some Guns in a very amicable manner whilst the main Body of the English Fleet consisting of 13 sail of Men of War under the Command of Admiral Lawson kept at the Mouth of the Straits Scarcely had England and Holland begun to tast of the fruits of Peace which had cost so much Blood to the two Nations but it was disturbed again by new Hostilities as the Dutch pretend begun by the English out of Jealousie at the flourishing Commerce and great prosperity of the United Provinces which prepared for de Ruiter who was then busie in scouring the Mediterranean of the Corsairs new work in the Ocean whither Rear-Admiral Tromp was already returned In the Months of May and June news came to Holland that the English under the Command of Robert Holms Committed strange depredations towards the Isles of Cape Verd and that in January before they had taken a Ship called the Spectacles and a Yacht called the Neptune which belonged to the Dutch West-India Company The English Ship that took the Neptune the better to deceive those she had a mind to attack put up Dutch Colours The same advices likewise reported that Holms had on the 31st of the same Month summoned the Fort of Cape Verd situated in the Isle of Goe-rede and that upon
with a Squadron of 18 Men of War was ready to set out for Guiney whither he was going to favour the depredations the English were making in those parts The States in regard of the Good Services they had received from the West-India Company in several occasions were resolved to employ their Forces to protect them And for that end gave order to Captain Kampen with a Squadron of 10 Men of War to Convoy to Guiney the 4 Ships bound thither belonging to that Company But because they doubted not but that the King of Great Britain would construe that Resolution for a new attempt on their side towards the Breach of a Peace they sent orders to their Ambassador at London to present his Majesty the following Memorial thereupon The Memorial presented to King Charles II. by the States Ambassador's Concerning the Squadron of men of War sent to Guiney THE States General of the United Provinces having had advice from their Ambassador at London by their last Letters from him That the King of Great Britain the Duke of York and his Majesties chief Ministers of State had testified some discontent at their arming out some Ships of War designed for the Coast of Guiney have thought fit for the taking away of all sort of Umbrage to declare the Reasons that moved them to that extraordinary Arming Which are That the States of the United Provinces having heard with much regret That some Nation among which were some Subjects of his Majesty contrary to his approbation and his repeated Protestations that he had given no order for it had some time since by some hostilities attempted upon the Liberty of the Good Subjects of the State and especially those in their Countries in Africk belonging to the West India Company and principally upon the Coasts of Guiney in seizing upon their Ships and Effects and attacking in the bosome of Peace this State by taking of the Forts and Places it possesses The United Provinces judging it their Duty to Protect their Good Subjects in those Countries as far as it should be in their Power and to secure them for the future from the like attempts had resolved to send thither a Squadron of 10 Men of War and so much the rather because the West India Company is about sending thither four Merchant Ships richly laden which it was not thought fit to expose without a Convoy to the danger the others have incurred knowing â—hat the Enemies they have in that Country by means of a Re-inforcement they have lately received have sufficient Forces to make themselves Masters of the said four Merchant Ships at their arrival there as they have done of the others And that his Majesty may be fully assured of the sincere intention of their High and Mightinesses principally in what concerns their maintaining of the Peace and preserving of a perfect good understanding between England and the United Provinces the States were willing by this Memorial to let his Majesty know That their Resolution is to give Order to him that shall have the Command of the said 10 Men of War that in case he comes to meet on the Coasts of Guiney or any where else in his way with any of his Majesties Ships or with those of any other Ally of this State he shall not do them any offence against their liberty tending to the interruption of their Commerce provided they have the same regards for the Subjects of the United Provinces upon which his Majesty may entirely rely And forasmuch as their High and Mightinessâ—s expect from the Justice of his Majesty that his Subjects who without his orders and approbation have committed all sorts of Hostility out of his Kingdom shall not be protected or supported in their enterprises and that it will please him to give his orders to that purpose to the Admiral of his Fleet that has been already sent into those Countries or to others that shall hereafter be sent thither In that confidence their High and Mightinesses are assured there will not happen on their part any mischievous Rencounter between his Majesties Ships and the States 10 Men of War that will be capable to disturb the Union and good Correspondence of the two Nations On the other side may it please his Majesty in order to the taking away all cause of complaint and jealousie by a Generous and equitable Resolution to assure their High and Mightinesses of the Restitution of the Ships and Forts that cause so great damage to the Subjects of this State and to their West-India Company which is what their High and Mightinesses expect from the Friendship and Generosity of his Majesty The States being glad to use all imaginable precautions to prevent any attempts of the English against those Ships because they knew well enough from good hands that the English-Fleet was ready to put to Sea gave order to Lieutenant Admiral Opdam who was then at Goree with a part of the States Fleet to Convoy them the length of the Channel That Fleet that had been equipt with all diligence was composed of 39 Men of War But it seems afterwards the Guiney Expedition was countermanded both by the English and the Dutch For Prince Robert received other Orders and the Ships of the Company as well as their intended Convoy were detained by contrary Winds In the mean while news came to the Dutch That the English had appeared with some Men of War before New Amsterdam situated in New Holland in the West Indies and had taken it and forced all the Colony to submit to their Obedience with so much the greater Facility because the Hollanders had no relief to hope for and the English were ten to one The Capitulation was signed the 8th of September under the following Conditions Articles of the Surrender of New Holland to the English 1. WE consent that the States General or their West India Company shall keep and possess peaceably all the Buildings and Houses except those which shall be found within the Fort And that they shall be permitted to transport within the space of 6 months all the Arms and Ammunition belonging to them or else they shall be paid for them 2. All the Publick Houses shall be employ'd to the same use as at present 3 Every Private Man shall remain a free Burgher and shall retain his Lands Houses Goods and Ships in what part of the Country soever they be to dispose of them as he shall think Good 4. That if any of the Inhabitants have a mind to retire elsewhere they shall have a year and six weeks time granted them for transporting their Wives Servants and Effects and disposing of their Lands 5. That if any of the Publick Ministers there shall resolve to retire into England they shall be transported thither in his Majesties Frigats without paying any thing for their Passage 6. It is likewise freely granted to any person to come freely from Holland into this Country to make Plantations here and Dutch Ships may
given that the said Treaty shall be inviolably observed in all things as the Mediators shall find agreeable to Reason and Justice In fine we expect that in order to the promoting so pious and important a work as is that of the Peace to be made between us and which is to confirm and preserve that of all Christendom you shall depute some person to come to us to Regulate the Preliminaries that may contribute to bring the Treaty to perfection This being done we doubt not but God will protect us and that he will turn all things to good which will appear principally by reciprocal Testimonies of tenderness and on our part by the continuation of the good will we always have had for your State but if for particular reasons you reject this expedient and that you obstinately persist against your true interests to refuse to accept the Peace that is put into your hands I leave it to the publick to Judge whether of us ought to be charged if the War continue with the fatal Calamities and terrible misfortunes that will accompany it and whether we have not done on our side all that our honour would permit us to prevent them I pray God so to dispose your Hearts as to make serious Reflections upon the true interest of Protestants and to consider how much it will be exposed to the rage of its Enemies if the War continue We Recommend you High and Mighty Lords to his holy and happy protection c. This Letter extremely surprized the States they thinking it a very hard and sensible thing to the United Provinces that the English should pretend to have all restored that had been taken from them without being willing to restore any thing they had been taken from the Dutch The States therefore in order once more to shew all the fair appearances of Justice on their side and of the pretended sincere desire they had for Peace caused remarks to be made upon the King of Great Britain's Letter tending to justify their Conduct and to answer separately to the Five points that were there advanced and sent them to the King joined with the following Letter The States Answer to the King of England's Letter of the 14th of October 1666. SIR WE have received your Majesty's Answer dated from Whitehall the 4th of October Old Stile or on the 14th of October last to the Letter we writ you dated on the 16th of September and tho' at the very beginning of your Letter your Majesty endeavours to justify your Arms against this State we believe it to no purpose to enter actually into any dispute about that Subject because we are perswaded that if your Majesty would take the pains to peruse the writings that have formerly been delivered into the hands of your Ministers and that have been likewise made publick that you would be undoubtedly convinced as well as all the World of the Justice of our cause and of the Motives that engaged us to our own defence As to the five points in the Conclusion of your Majesty's said answer we are in a State to protest by the faith of men of Honour that we have not violated the last Treaty in any of its parts and that we will engage for the future inviolably to observe the Peace in case it be made praying your Majesty moreover to set your self at rest in that respect and to be pleased to give order that it be punctually observed on your part As to the second point tho' your Majesty's Ministers and particularly Agent Selwyn published upon the Coasts of Africk a Declaration without Contradiction more imperious and injurious than that which ours could have invented and much less have put in execution as has been made amply to appear elsewhere yet we have silence thereupon and we have not been observed to make any noise about it in the World However to shew that we are ready to remove that obstacle we consent that the two abovesaid Declarations shall be both disannull'd and disavow'd as well on your Majesty's part as on ours To the third that we are no less inclin'd than your Majesty to consent to a Regulation of Commerce provided it be General and Reciprocal being hardly able to conceive that your Majesty would refuse in Europe and elsewhere what you pretend to be Equitably your due in the East Indies To the fourth that tho' we are so far from being in a Condition to consent to a Re-imbursment for the charges of the War or the damages suffered by your Majesty or your Subjects that on the contrary we have right to pretend the restitutien of the Ships and effects of our good Subjects stopt in the Harbors or upon the Rivers of your Majesties Kingdom or that were taken at Sea by surprize upon the Coasts of England as likewise of New-Holland Cabo Corso and other places taken in Africk without publishing before hand any Declaration of War and in the time when our said Ships entred into your Majesty's Ports trusting in the publick faith of a Treaty of Peace in confidence in the sincere Declaration which you had caused to be several times reiterated to us by your Ministers that resided then at the Hague namely that we ought not to take any umbrage at your Majesty's Arming nor in any manner to apprehend the meeting of any of your Majesty's Ships of War adding that your Majesty should always abhor the Conduct of the usurper Cromwel towards us and would never enterprize any thing against the Liberty of the State and of its Subjects but that if it should happen that your Majesty could receive no satisfaction upon the Complaints that should be made to us on your part that as a Generous Prince you would Declare War against the State before any Act of Hostility were Committed However it be we shall be always ready to stand to the Terms of the said Declaration if any thing must be expected of us As to the fifth which is that your Majesty would make a Difficulty to trust to our Word or Seal tho' on our side we were ready to trust to your Majesty's we shall readily agree to any other proposition to render it the more firm and inviolable by the Guarantie of other Princes or States that are Friends or Allies But since your Majesty testifies by your Answer above annexed that you have some grounds to hope to induce us to a particular Treaty to the exclusion of our Allies we find our selves obliged to advertise you that that cannot be and consequently it is absolutely necessary in Order to come to a good Peace that your Majesty determine to treat joyntly with us and our Confederates and that you must needs dispose your self to consent that choice be made of a Neuter place where the Plenipotentiaries as well of the Crowns of France and Denmark as those of your Majesty may jointly with ours meet with all Liberty without which all the pains that can be taken about it will be
day at that vast distance whenever we Read their story we are apt to fancy we see themselves before our Eyes But if those two Renowned Nations took such a Religious care to consecrate the Memory of their great Captains to Immortality what ought not Holland to do to Immortalize that of its Famous Admirals If ever there were any State that has made a noise in the World and made it self formidable by Sea is it not this powerfull Republick which has done more in this respect than all other States put together besides It would be but needless here to repeat the History of it's first rise and of it's progresses since and to enter into so long and particular a Narration as that would require to prove a truth so generally acknowledged Neither as to the History of our Admirals is our Age the first that has employed it's writers upon so noble a Subject our Ancestors have led the way and set us worthy Patterns how to acquit our selves of this Just duty And accordingly emboldened by their Example I venture to Compose the History of one of those Hero's who without tarnishing the glory of the others may be said to have been one of the greatest and most Renowned Commanders that ever appeared on the Ocean a Hero whose very name was a terror to his Enemies That was descended of a Father who had been present in above Fifty Sea Battles in which he either Commanded in chief or had at least one of the principal Posts of Authority whose good Conduct and undaunted courage had much contributed to make Holland one of the Richest and most flourishing States of Europe and who at last after gaining so many Triumphs and Victories died with Sword in hand for the advantage of his Country a Hero in fine that alway followed the glorious foot steps of his Illustrious Father who was as much beloved by his own Sea-men and people as he was dreaded by his Enemies and who in a supreme degree possest all the vertues of a great and accomplish'd Captain We shall say nothing of the first years of the life of Cornelius Tromp whose History we design here to write because there usually happens nothing to men in that time of infancy that much concerns or is much worth the Curiosity of the publick It will be enough only to remark to you that having been as 't were wholly nourish'd and brought up at Sea from his most tender youth scarcely was he arrived to a Capacity of Commanding but he was made Captain of a Ship which imployment he discharged with so much Courage and Ability that gave the World a certain prognostick he was destinated to exercise those of greater importance One of the first occasions in which he was imployed and of which doubtless a particular Relation will be acceptable was in the War the States were obliged to make against the Corsairs of Barbary For those Pyrates taking daily a great Number of Dutch Merchant-Ships bound either to Spain or for divers other ports in the Mediterranean the States at length tired out and vext with so many losses gave order to John de Galen Famous for his brave Actions to Joyn himself to the Commander de Wilde and to the Capt. Tromp and Van Velsen to go before Sally and to Block up that Port by Sea in order by that means to put a stop to the Course of it's Piracies He had orders to Convoy by the way as far as Cadiz all Merchant-Ships going into France or Portugal and to steer away from thence towards Sally Accordingly Setting sail and being come into those Seas he was inform'd by Captain Vries who was Cruising there that no Corsair had yet appeared in those parts because those Barbarians were at Intestine Jars about the Government and that they of the old Town had taken up arms against those of the new but that notwithstanding the differences among themselves they were unanimously inclined to hearken to a Treaty of Peace whenever it should be offered to them by the States General because they stood in much fear of their power And in effect de Galen was no sooner arrived thither but a Negotiation was presently entred into to draw up the Conditions of the Treaty In order to which it was first agreed upon that as soon as the Moors should have put up a White Flag in the Fort de Galen should put up the like upon his Main-Mast-Top for a Signal that the Deputies of Sally might safely come on Board the Admiral At which Signal accordingly four Moorish Deputies came thither whom de Galen received in the Captains State-Room with great Civility He that was the principal amongst them said that the Princes both of Old and New Sally had expected with great impatience the arrival of the Holland Fleet in hopes of coming to a Treaty of Peace with them to which they were entirely disposed and so much the more upon Consideration that they had formerly lived in good Correspondence with them before they had thrown off the Yoke of those of Morocco for that it was surprizingly strange they should whilst they were yet slaves have preserved Peace with a free Nation as were the Dutch and that now since they were come out of Slavery into Liberty they should fall out with the same people but that the cause of all those unhappy Hostilities that had happened since between them were to be attributed to some of their Chiefs and that in a word they Earnestly desired that such Reasonable Conditions might be proposed that might be the foundation of a lasting Accommodation to satisfy which desire of theirs our Admiral proposed to them the following Articles viz. 1. That all Christian slaves of what Nation soever that had been taken on Board any Dutch Ships should be Released without Ransome and without any wrong done to them 2. That for the Future no Ship belonging to the States should be stopt upon any pretence whatsoever 3. That no Corsair Ship should be suffered to go out of Sally without giving in first sufficient security that none of the Sates Ships should be molested by them 4. That such Dutch Ships as had been taken by the Corsairs of Algier or Tunis and brought into their Ports to be sold should be Restored into the hands of their Respective owners 5. That it should not be lawfull to retain any Native Subject of the united Provinces as a slave nor to sell him as such within the Countries under their Jurisdiction but he should be immediately set at Liberty 6. That the Hollanders should Trade freely and safely with them 7. That no Merchandises Imported or Exported by the Hollanders should pay any higher Duties than those of the Moors themselves 8. That if it so pleased their High and Mightinesses the Sates their Allies should likewise be included in the same Treaty And lastly that this Treaty should in all points be observed as firmly and inviolably as the Treaty before made between the said States and
the King of Morocco It was likewise thought fit by the Council on our side that Captain de Uries should take Boat and go into Sally to push on with so much the more Vigour the Negotiation of the Peace In the mean while in spite of all the vigilance of our men in guarding the Avenues of the Port one of their Corsairs slily gliding in along by the Ramparts stole into the Town On the other side Captain de Wilde was ordered to go with his Ship to Mamore a little sorry Town about 500 paces from the main Sea situated at the mouth of the River Subus and twelve Miles distant from the Town of Sally with design to stop up that passage from the Enemies and to hinder them from watering there He was received there by the Governour with great demonstrations of friendship and after he had performed the Orders he had Received he returned again to his Station before Sally where he was extreamly surprised to see the Treaty of Peace broken off For the Moors were so far from consenting to Release the Prisoners without Ransome that they would not endure to hear it mov'd and those of Aribal were so refractary as to make a difficulty likewise of accepting the other Articles of the Treaty Which obstinacy in those Barbarians had like to have provoked the Hollanders to shew their Resentment by the last extremities however they could not forbear replying to them in such high Terms as sufficiently testified how deeply they were incens'd at their proceedings But with all this Huffing they were not able to gain upon the Moors to make them alter a whit of their Resolutions nor yet by several other Negotiations by Letters which produced no effect In the interim our Admiral had advice that there had appeared about Cape St. Vincent seven French Privateers looking sharp after Merchant Ships Upon which de Wilde Tromp and Sâ—â—ert were ordered to sail away towards Cadiz to Convoy the Ships that were in that Rode till they were out of danger and then to make back again to observe those Privateers all which did not interrupt the Negotiations of Peace before Sally But still the Moors would not abate an ace of their pretensions concerning the Ransoming the slaves that were to be set at liberty nay on the contrary they were so insolent as to threaten our Fleet that if they would not agree with them upon their own Terms that they would send away all the Dutch slaves they had in their power either to Algier or elsewhere This Menace made the Officers of the Holland Fleet who were then all present to yield to those Barbarians that the slaves should be ransom'd at the Price they were first bought for And as to the rest of the Artiâ—â—es there was all likelihood they would have been agreed to if the Moors had not changed their minds on a sudden and started abundance of New difficulties against the advancement of the Treaty upon occasion of some advice that was come to them from Tetuan which gave them hopes to compass the destruction of the Holland Fleet which was this Nine Algerine Corsairs that put in for Refreshment there had signified to them that they had a design to surprize and seize one of the Dutch Ships that were riding before Sally Admiral de Galen's Ship was in most danger and most exposed because he was often all alone The noise of this enterprize being confirmed by de Vries put the Dutch Commanders upon more Circumspection in observing the Enemies The other Ships of the Fleet tackt and stood back towards the Admiral and used all the precautions vigilance could inspire them to avoid a surprize In the mean while they beginning to want fresh Water Tromp was detacht away to fetch them some from La â—ache and returned not till Nine days after During these transactions de Vries came back on board the Admiral with Letters and brought with him a Spanish Merchant But de Galen thought not fit to make any answer to these Letters because he knew well enough that the Prince of South Sally was set out some â—ays before towards Fez and that the Prince of North Sally was likewise to follow him in two or three days in order to make their Treaty with the K. of Morocco to whom the most part of Barbary had newly submitted and who most favourably received those that were most forward to range themselves under his obedience However de Galen desired the Spanish Merchant at his return to Sally to let those people know from him that if they offered to send away any of the Dutch slaves to other places as they had threatn d that he would immediately break off the Treaty and never enter into any Negotiation with them any more Assoon as the Princes of Sally were returned from Fez they presently sent to give the Fleet notice of their arrival signifying withall that there was nothing they more heartily desired than a Peace and that they passionately long'd to see the Treaty already begun brought to a happy Conclusion At the same time Captain Blok who was dispacht out of the Texel to go to Sally arrived there with orders to De Galen from the States to go away for the Coasts of Bourdeaux or Rochel to Convoy the Merchant Ships that were to go back from thence towards Holland De Galen in pursuit of those Orders went on board the Ship called the Rose leaving at his departure the care of the Conclusion of the Treaty at Sally to Captain de Wilde and other Captains of the Fleet who after many contestations on both sides concluded it at length on the 9th of February 1651 upon the following conditions 1. That the Governours and Princes of the two Towns of Sally 1651. A Peace concluded between the States of Holland and those of Sally engage for themselves and their Descendants to cause to be set at liberty all the Slaves taken on Board any Vessels belonging to the Vnited Provinces that are at present under their power according to the List already drawn or that shall be afterwards drawn up of them provided they on their part pay their respective Ransoms at the price they were first sold for each one by name and in the order they shall be set down in the List sign'd on both sides and that it shall not be lawful in any wise to raise their price for the profit of those concerned with them and much less to hide and conceal them or send them away elsewhere during the time their Friends are to be allowed to get up the Money necessary for their Ransom which shall extend to the space of three Months after the Date of the present Treaty 2. That no Corsair Ship shall be permitted to go out of Sally till he have given good and sufficient security not to molest any of the Subjects of the Vnited Provinces nor to meddle with any of their Ships or Effects against whose liberty it shall not be lawful for
notice it was an Extraordinary Signal and Judging from thence of the importance of the business might return answer thereto each of them likewise with a Gun Extraordinary after which every one of them should be obliged to make to the place whence the first Gun was fired that all the Captains of the Fleet meeting together on board the Admiral might take such Resolutions as should be most convenient for the time and for the good of the State From which Articles and Instructions of Tromp to his Officers tho' the English pretended to draw invincible proofs that the Hollanders were the Aggressors in the late bloody attempt upon their Fleet yet the Dutch on the contrary pretended it was visible from thence that their main Aim was only to secure their Trade and defend the Glory of their Nation in case they were attackt but that they had not the least design to be Aggressors against the English After this Lieutenant Admiral Tromp whilst he was Cruising below Bullen writ a Letter to Admiral Blake dated the 2d of June in which he intreated him to release the two Capt. of his he had made Prisoners and who were already carried to London and to order the Restitution of Captain Tuyneman's Ship But Blake as yet red hot with Resentment for what was so newly past between them and being much surprized that after the Rough Compliments between them in that Rencounter Tromp should presume to Write to him upon such a Subject as that in very great indignation made him the following Answer SIR NOthing ever surpriz'd me more than yours of the 2d of June last in that Blake's answer to Tromp tho you affect with so much vanity to pass for a Man of Honour yet 't is no way visible that you maintain that Character by any of your Actions The Cruel attempt you lately made against the Parliament of England's Fleet whose ruin you had conspired is an evident proof of this That Fleet I say to which you were in duty obliged to pay your Humblest Respects and Submissions since you have not refused to pay them in several other Rencounters That Act of Hostility you have so lately committed is so much the more Criminal because there was no occasion given you from England to engage you to proceed to such an extremity since you were pleased to do it in a time when your Ambassadors were flattering our Commonwealth with new hopes of Peace and Union and pretended to solicit with much earnestness a speedy conclusion of a Treaty of Mutual Alliance and Confederation That is the Brave Exploit upon which at present you found your glory and for which you frame an unjust Apology as pretending you did nothing else but defend your self But God in whom we put our greatest hopes having made your designs serve to your own destruction we have taken some of your Ships which you now are pleased to redemand with as much confidence as if the action lately â—ommitted had been no act of Hostility as it appears in your Writings by your affecting to give it another name In fine I thought not fit to give you any other answer but this That I am perswaded you will find the Parliament of England very ill satisfied with your Conduct because they cannot but regard with horror the Innocent Blood of their Subjects that has been spilt and on the other side that after all you will find your self constrained always to give them the marks of an entire submission In the mean while the States Ambassadors were at London endeavouring to Renew the Negotiation for a Treaty and having for that purpose demanded Audience of the Parliament it was granted them It was their business then to endeavour to appease their exasperated Spirits and thereby to put a timely stop to the dismal consequences of the War that was ready to burst out between these two Formidable Powers which was a Task of no small difficulty However they employed their industry and parts in it to the best advantage they could and accordingly on that Subject made the following Speech to the Parliament Most Honourable Lords WE expected nothing less than the fatal disaster which has lately hapned The Dutch Ambassadors Audience of the Parliament and their Speech to them And if what Publick Fame says of a Sea fight between the two Fleets prove true this disgrace is so much the greater and more afflicting to us because our Men are lookt upon as the Authors of it All those stories that are whisper'd about concerning this matter are already lookt upon by the people as the mournful presages of the ruine of two States that have hitherto been ever linkt together in a strict Alliance and now by this fatal blow see themselves at the eve of a Bloody War We are so sensibly concern'd at all the false Rumours that are spread abroad to the disadvantage of our Nation that we will call God to witness that the States General were so far from contributing to the late unhappy recounter that they had not the least knowledge of it and desire nothing so much as Vnion Peace and an inviolable Friendship with England However 't is not impertinent to the matter in question to let you know that it may be observ'd from the Letter written to us by the Admiral of Holland that the true Cause of that action was very different from what 't is reported to have been And what is more Tromp declares in that Letter in express terms and he repeats it three times that he had not received any other Orders from the States than only to defend the Merchant Ships belonging to the States from the oppression of those who might be capable to disturb the freedom of their Commerce and to Cruise upon the Frontiers of the State without going far from Ostend and Newport from whence 't is as clear as the day That the States General of the Vnited Provinces never had any thoughts to attempt any thing that might be capable to break the strict union that has always been between England and Holland And if any thing has hapned contrary to the sincerity of their intentions they who shall be found to have violated the Rules and passed the Bounds that were prescribed them ought to be Responsible for it According to the Orders given us by their High and Mightinesses to endeavour a Treaty of Alliance we presented some days ago to your Commissioner a Memorial in which we propose means not only for composing the differences about Commerce but likewise for the securing of it and rendering it more flourishing And we desire nothing else at present but to see them brought to a speedy and happy conclusion And indeed who could believe that a Treaty that is at present the firmest support of good and well disposed people and the most solid foundation of the Reformation should be interrupted by the capricious humour of a few ill intentioned persons It is a Natural Law acknowledged by all the World
of the contest very moderate towards them and wholly inclined to lay by some gentle expedient the Storm that was newly risen but yet at the bottom he was of the same mind with the Parliament or to speak more properly 't was he that underhand spurred them on to Revenge and he that perswaded them to employ all their Forces to destroy the Hollanders The Ambassadors having then discovered the Parliaments design and that they were fitting out a formidable Fleet to Sea on which were to be embarkt 4000 Soldiers resolved to present a second Memorial to the Council of State which was conceived in these Terms The Memorial presented to the Council of State by the Dutch Ambassadors The Ambassadours of the States General of the United Provinces having protested on Monday last before this August Council and called God himself to witness their Innocence and the Justice of their Cause declaring that the Fight between the two Fleets did not happen by any premeditated design of their High and Mightinesses They have judged it expedient for the better clearing of that point to put into your hands a Copy of Tromp's Letter by which this Republick may evidently see that their High and Mightinesses gave him no other Commission than to cruise on the Frontier Seas of their own Dominions without passing any farther for fear of giving jealousie to their Neighbours And therefore the said Ambassadors come again to day to give you new assurances upon their having received by yesterdays Post all the informations given in from the 22d to the 29th of the last month New stile concerning the Battle in Question by which it appears still more clearly That the States had no hand in that action directly or indirectly declaring themselves ready to conclude a strict Alliance that may be capable to unite the two Republicks by eternal and inviolable friendship It is certain That is their last and most sincere intention Moreover the said Ambassadors pray the Council of State to be pleased to give them a speedy Answer such as they in their prudence shall think most proper in the present juncture to prevent the mischievous consequences of some more dismal Accident Neither will it be unseasonable to acquaint the Council that the Sieur Newport sent from their High and Mightinesses to their Ambassadors for business concerning their Negotiation is upon his departure to repass the Sea if the Council of State will please to grant him a Passport as we pray them to do and that he may have leave to chuse one of the States Ships that is now in the Thames or elsewhere The Sieur Newport having expedited his affairs waited only for a Passport to be gone but he found great difficulty to obtain it which retarded his departure for several days He got at last out of London with much ado and came to Gravesend thinking to embark there But at that time the English by shewing fresh marks of their resentment rekindled those flames which were thought to be half extinguisht and made appear by their slighting the instances of the Ambassadors and by new acts of Hostility that all those troubles would soon degenerate into an open War The Channel was full of their Privateers who took without any distinction all manner of Ships that came in their way without excepting even those that belonged to France or Spain All the Dutch Ships that were in the Thames were likewise stopt the 13th of June and their Captains went to Chelsey to make their Complaints of it to the Ambassadors who were extremely surprized at all these new attempts and thought it thereupon necessary to present yet a Third Memorial more which they did the very same day in these following Terms Another Memorial presented by the Dutch Ambassador to the Council of State We having on the 3d and 6th of this Month clearly made appear to the Council of State as well by Writing as word of Mouth taking God that knows the Hearts of Men to witness That the Bloody Battle that was lately fought between the two Fleets of the two Republicks hapned without the knowledge and against the will of the United Provinces so are we more and more confirmed both by Letters and Expresses that our Masters have been sensibly grieved at this Combat and that farther upon the Advices we have given them they have applied themselves with all care imaginable to seek out Remedies that may be able to quash all these growing Troubles in their Birth and timely stop the blood of so dangerous a wound 'T was for that effect they have called a solemn and General Assembly of all the Members of the State in which we not at all doubt but with the assistance of Heaven they will find out the true means to renew again that ancient Friendship and Union that has always reigned between the two Nations and that they will remove all the difficulties that seem at present to render them irreconcileable which will be an assured advance towards the Conclusion of the Treaty already begun Their High and Mightinesses desire it with so much the more Passion and Earnestness because it so highly concerns the Welfare and repose of the two Republicks and will effectually stop the fountains of Christian Blood that has been shed This is what at present flatters the hopes of so many Nations and especially of the Protestants so that we intreat you both by the Sacred Bond of Religion that unites us together and by the Sweet Liberty we equally enjoy That nothing may be done with too much precipitation for fear the Remedies that may be afterward judg'd proper for our reconciliation coming too late may prove ineffectual We also pray you as soon as possible without delay to answer favourably to our last demand which we solicit with so much the more earnestness because we are informed that the Ships and Mariners of our Nation are taken and stopt by your orders on the High Seas or in your Harbours the one by pure force and the other after Fighting The Parliament at last answered them in such a manner as might well be expected after what had lately passed The Parliaments answer to the States Ambassadors And here follows the Tenour of their Answer The Parliament of the Commonwealth of England reflecting upon all the proofs of benevolence and sincere Friendship they have often given to the States General of the United Provinces even from the first beginning of the troubles of this Kingdom having omitted nothing of what might conduce to the maintaining a perfect Correspondence between them and it and render their union much more strict than ever before find themselves at present hainously offended by an unexpected attempt which is an act of Hostility committed upon the Coasts of England against the Fleet of the Republick after a mature deliberation and examination of the Writings which their Excellencies the Ambassadors of the United Provinces have put into our Hands we have thought fit to make them the
to be severely punish'd but that if on the contrary Blake should be convinced of having been the Aggressor the Parliament was likewise obliged to Chastise him so that by that proceeding it would be known not only what was the real intention of their High and Mightinesses but an assured way would thereby be laid open to pacifie all troubles after the Example of several other States and Republicks who have successfully practised the like Expedients That their High and Mightinesses never had the least thoughts of making any encroachment upon the Grandure of the British Nation in any way to Diminish it but that after the late unhappy Rencounter they had given new Orders that for the future at the approach of any of their Fleets or Ships of War the same honours should be rendred to the Parliament in the point of the Flag that had been usually paid to that Nation during the preceeding Reigns hoping by that means both Parties would have reason to rest satisfied that the Treaty of Alliance about which the States Ambassadors had declared the intention of their Mrs. in several Conferences might be at length continued and that it would please the Council likewise to declare their intention that the differences being once known the obstacles that hindred an accommodation might be removed and a happy conclusion of an Eternal Alliance and inviolable Friendship might be obtained that an end might be put to all Acts of Hostility and a Restitution be made of all the Ships and effects belonging to persons that were Innocent in the matter That for that end he prayed the Council to be pleased to declare their Resolution concerning the points abovementioned and principally concerning the continuation of the Treaty that was begun the Cessation of Hostilities and the Releasing of the Ships and Persons seized and so much the rather because they had not delayed a moment to inform the Council of State of the good intentions of their High and Mightinesses This Conference passing the 24th they had a second the next day which was followed by a third the 27th of the same Month in which Mr. Heemsted pressingly demanded a positive answer adding to what he had already advanced the following propositions viz. That the States were still in the same mind to live in perfect Union with the Republick of England that upon that consideration they had promised their protection to the English Company in Holland in case the troubles should happen to increase that he on either side that had transgressed his Commission in the late fight near Dover should be obliged personally to answer for it that it might be no cause of a Rupture between the two Nations that in order to pacifie all things Commissioners should be appointed on both sides to make a strict enquiry into all that had past and that they who should thereupon be found guilty should according to the Maxim of all other States be punish'd as Authors of the Misfortunes and Calamities of the people that the Ships of War on both sides being ordered when they meet one another at Sea to behave themselves as formerly they used to do there would happen no more disputes for the future about that Subject that when a perfect Union should be once established between the two Republicks very great advantages would undoubtedly result from thence for their mutual defence and preservation On the 29th the Council of State having examined all these Reasons The Council of States Answer gave the following answer to Mr. Heemsted viz. That he might well enough see what was the intention of the Parliament by the answer given to the three Memorials of the other Ambassadors before his arrival since nothing had been proposed since neither by him nor any other that was capable to make the Parliament change their Resolution that if the attempt made by the Holland Fleet as much by surprize as it was had succeeded according to their hopes it might have been said that the Common-wealth of England would have seen it self plunged into the greatest disasters imaginable and that therefore it was not reasonable after they had been so miraculously preserved they should expose themselves again to the like disgraces for the future That they could not suffer themselves to be any longer amused under the specious pretence of an Examen or by Examples not pertinent to their Case of what other States may have done but that rather they were resolved to employ those means which necessity and the Nature of the Fact Require to be used that besides they could not consent to the Conclusion of a Treaty of Alliance till they had received satisfaction about the point in Question and that as to the demonstrations of a sincere and real Friendship from their High and Mightinesses which their Ambassadors so much boasted of The English on their side likewise had no less reason to value themselves upon the Authentick proofs they have given of the like to the Hollanders either in general or particular and that in a word they could not change any thing in the Answer they had already given them Mr. de Heemsted having received this Answer demanded on the 1st of July a new Conference in which he Renewed his instances by declaring That there never had past any thing on the States side that was capable to give any just cause of jealousie to the English That they had proposed an assured way to prevent all sorts of Contestation and to discover the truth but that they would not follow it and that a Manifest injustice was done to his Mrs. That it was very easie to Judge of that by the refusal the States had made to their Subjects notwithstanding the pressing solicitations used by them for that purpose to grant them any Letters of Reprisal that lastly to shew they were wholly inclined to Peace they had promised their Protection to the English Company at Rotterdam that if the English persisted to Reject all the favourable means to procure an Accommodation it would cause a great Consternation amongst the people of Holland That in fine he therefore prayed the Council of State to be pleased to propose some other means themselues and in the mean while to forbid all Acts of Hostâ—lâ—ty and to Release the Ships that had been taken After this last Conference Mr. de Heemsted seeing they neglected to give him an answer delivered another writing to the Councel of State by which he Represented the Eminent danger that threatned the two Republicks by the mischiefs that would undoubtedly follow upon their Refusal to accept the means he had proposed adding that he desired them to propose some other of their own if it were possible that might be more effectual The Parliament could no longer Recoil Articles proposed to the Dutch by the Parliament but at last proposed the following Articles as a ground for the Re-establishment of a Peace viz. 1. That the States General of the Vnited Provinces should be oblâ—ged to pay
our ancient Friendship and the Law of Nations practised among Christians We hope the Justice of the Soveraign Republick of England will not refuse us a demand so equitable as this Moreover we Implore the Protection of Heaven and beseech God the Author of Peace that he will please of his Goodness to inspire the Parliament of this Republick with such Sentiments as may induce them to a Speedy Reconciliation with the States of the United Provinces for the maintenance of the Reformation whose firmest support and most solid foundation has always been Peace in the Bosom of which it Flourishes and quietly enjoys Prosperity and which on the contrary if our Troubles should continue any longer would see it self brought to an inevitable Destruction and plunged into the greatest Miseries We still pray God to be pleased to avert the Course of the Mischiefs and Calamities that accompany War and to pour forth his precious Blessings upon the two Republicks And as we are ordered to retire forthwith into Holland we shall accordingly take leave of this Illustrious Assembly with all imaginable thanks for the kindnesses we have received from them in full confidence that they will not refuse us the things we have already demanded of them and which are every where granted to Ambassadors in regard to their Character for the security of their Persons Lastly we recommend to you the Dutch Merchants residing at London or elsewhere within this Kingdom that their Goods and Persons may be taken into the Protection of the Parliament These were the steps made by the States Geneneral of the United Provinces to prevent a Rupture with England by which all the world may judge how great the Power of that new hatcht State was tho scarcely yet fledg'd to make them so Courted by a Nation that at that juncture more fear'd than lov'd them and how great and presumptuous their pride was too in refusing such fair offers and venturing to engage in a War with so potent an Enemy as the States of Holland when their own settlement at home was so unsecure But the flames were blown up on both sides by the secret friends of the Stuarts and by the Emissaries of those Nations that envied to both people both their Religion and above all their formidable Power at Sea and their flourishing and universally extended Commerce by some of whom out of the same malicious principles the same fire that was but rak't up for a while in Embers was rekindled and set a burning with a more pernicious violence than ever to the manifest increase of a Third Power that tho before it durst scarce peep out at Sea has since appeared a formidable Enemy even upon their own Element to those Redoubted Masters of the Ocean and has had the insolence for a while by its dextrous managing of intestine Factions among us to Brave both our Fleets till like Capaneus defying Jove its Marine Forces were at length by the magnanimous Russel and his Valiant Copartners the Dutch Admirals Thunder-struck and in a manner quite driven off the usurped Main daring never since to appear on it otherwise than only as Rovers and sculking Pirates On the 11th of July that is to say four days after the English Fleet set sail for the North Sea to go and destroy the Dutch Fleet of Herring Busses and to watch for their Ships coming back from the Indies the Ambassadors departed London The Dutch Ambassadors depart and on the 13th near Schouwen met with Lieutenant Admiral Tromp to whom Mr. de Heemsted gave a Memorial containing an account of the Forces of England he likewise informed him that Admiral Ayschew who but a little before had given chase to a Merchant Fleet of about 30 or 40 sail between Callis and Swartenes homeward bound from St. Hubes and Portugal was then in the Downs with a Squadron of 21 Men of War where he might be easily attackt and Beaten Tromp having received Express Orders from the States who found themselves obliged to make use of Reprizals not to spair the English any longer but to do them all the mischief he could resolved to go and attack Ayschew Vice Admiral Evertsz had the Command of the Van with a Squadron of 21 Ships of War Lieutenant Admiral Tromp Commanded the main Body of the Fleet consisting of 30 Ships and Rear Admiral Florisz the Rear composed of 28 Men of War But there happening a Calm and after that a contrary Wind it was impossible for them to execute that project Tromp therefore steer'd his Course towards the North in search of Blake Ayschew kept close in the Downs whilst Blake with a Fleet of between 66 and 68 Sail having discovered before Boeknes the Herring-Fleet under the Convoy of 12 Ships or Frigats carrying from 22 to 30 Guns caused them to be attackt by a Squadron of 20 men of War that composed his Vanguard The Fight was sharp and lasted above three whole hours till at last the weaker was forced to give way to the stronger Captain Venhuysen and all the Herring Busses excepting four fled away Ten of them were taken whereof two sunk after they had made all the resistance imaginable and another was at last quitted by the Enemy Blake joyned five of them to his Fleet and sent three of them to Inverness with his wounded Men but those of the Dutch were conducted to the Texel The States to Varnish over their Arms with all the Colour of Justice they could publisht a Manifesto setting forth the Reasons why they had declared War against the English and they did the same on their side against the Hollanders We shall repeat neither of them here because they are to be found in several places and that 't is easie to guess by what has been said what were the contents of them And because our design is to insist only upon relating the Bloody Battels that were fought between these two potent Republicks and in which the Hero's of this History the two Tromps Father and Son had the most share The English had already seized upon the Isle of Inseith where the Hollanders used to water and these latter advancing towards the Coasts of Scotland arrived near Fulo and Fairhill where they espied Blake who was watching for our Ships coming back from the Indies The two Fleets were disposing themselves for a Fight when in the night between the 5th and 6th of August the Skie grew dark by little and little and soon after there appeared certain presages of a violent Tempest Tromp distressed by a dreadful Tempest For the wind having long been shifting about turned at last to the N. N. West and blew with so much impetuosity that our Sails were all rent and torn in pieces and the Waves rowl'd through them and so went and spent themselves against the Rocks of Hitland throwing their Fome up to the very Heaven Thus the Fleet being as 't were buried by the violence of the Sea in most horrible Abysses rose out of
fear much greater injustices from her afterwards whenever she should become Absolute Mistress of her then discontented people what instances soever the States General could make to obtain satisfaction for so many damages the Kings Council and the Commissioners of the Admiralty took a Resolution to Restore nothing so that what great justice soever the Ambassador Boreel had on his side to solicit the release of them in the name of the States and in spite of all the diligence he could use for that end he never was able to obtain any thing the indulgence shewn by the Court to those Privateers its Subjects was so great that it encouraged them so extremely that there was no possibility of obtaining the release of any one Prize Whereupon the States General being at length wearied out with making so many fruitless Complaints and apprehending lest their over great Patience might ruin their Commerce and their Subjects they resolv'd at last to free themselves from all those Robberies by force of Arms and to make use of reprisals And accordingly they Ordered de Ruâ—ter to attack the French Men of War that came out of the Ports of Provence to make excursions in the Mediterranean and to do all he could to take or sink them De Ruiter then had been informed as we have said by a Hamburger that 2 French Privateers that had Plundred him were still roving about those Seas And on the 28th of February at break of day he discovered 2 ships near the Isle of Corsica at about 3 miles distance from him which seemed to look sharp after him but when they came nearer within about a Mile of him they begun to find they had to deal with men of War and not with Merchant ships which made them betake themselves to flight However about noon the ships of both Parties met between Gorgona and the Island of Corsica without firing so much as a Gun on either side Then de Ruiter Commanded the Captain of the biggest Caper to enter into his Boat and come on board him but the Captain contented himself to send his Lieutenant whom de Ruitâ—â— detained sending word to the Captain again that if he refused to obey his summons he would immediately board him and would make him suffer the punishment due to his obstinacy At this second Command he entred into the Boat and came on board the Admiral Whilst de Ruiter and de Wilde kept close to the great Caper the Captain Ooms and Vander Zaan gave chace to the other and likewise Commanded the Captain to come on board the Admiral which he having done Vander Zaan detained him likewise So that the 2 Privateers seeing there was no hopes to escape drew in their Guns out of their port-holes and throwing down their Arms submitted themselves to the Clemency of the Victor They were 2 Swedish Ships which some time before had been presented to the French King but were afterwards Armed out by some Private Persons and employed in the Pyrating Trade The biggest of them called the Queen had on board her 230 men and 32 guns whereof 30 were brass the lesser which was called the Hunter carried 182 men and 28 guns whereof 18 were brass The French Seamen that were on board them were Conducted in 3 Barks to Marseilles but the Captains and Lieutenants were kept by the Hollanders and their ships carried to Cadiz The news of the taking of these 2 Privateers made a great noise in France the Court there looking upon it as the most hanious attempt that de Ruiter could have committed in time of profound Peace And Cardinal Mazarine who then had the chief management of all the Affairs of the Kingdom pretended to make it pass for an outrage that deeply wounded the Glory of his Master and was a cruel stroke at his Grandure and at that deference the United Provinces ought to have for it They gave out that those ships were the Kings and that it was an intollerable piece of Boldness to offer to attackt and seize them And therefore in revenge Express orders were sent to all the Harbours in the Kingdom immediately to seize all Ships Merchandizes and effects belonging to the Hollanders which was executed accordingly The Haughty and Imperious manner with which the Court of France treated the United Provinces on such an occasion as that surprised them so much the more because the King having at first imputed that pretended Hostile attempt wholly to De Ruiter believed he had done it without the knowledge or consent of his Masters who expected nothing less than to see their Subjects to be ill treated by the confiscation of the ships and goods they had in that Kingdom And that way of proceeding seemed so much the harder upon them in that the French Court had passâ—d to the Execution of it without any warning given to the States or desiring to know of them whether they approved or disapproved of that Action of de Ruiter and without so much as suffering their High and Mightinesses after having so often reiterated by their Ambassadors so many great and just Complaints of the damages they suffered by the French Privateers to do themselves Justice The States of Holland though they had the greatest interest of any of the Provinces in a Commerce with France were for intirely forbidding all Trade with that Kingdom after they had seized and stopt all French ships and effects in Holland and all the other Provinces But the States General not being so much concerned at what past in France as the Province of Holland That Resolution was let fall and came to nothing All that they could do was only to prevail with the States General to Summon Deputies to the Hague from all the Colleges of the Admiralty to Consult about Arming out a Fleet of 48 men of War which they resolved to put out to Sea with Orders to give private notice to all Pilots and Masters of Merchant ships to avoid the Ports of France The States writ also to Mr. Boreel their Ambassador in France to represent to His Majesty the injustice that was done them in order to obtain a discharge of the ships and Merchandizes that were seized as likewise all the Insupportable Robberies Committed upon their Subjects for several years together by the French Privateers without forgetting the 2 Capers taken by de Ruiter But Mr. Boreel had prevented these Orders of the States before he received them For immediately after the abovemention'd Resolution of the Court he demanded Audience of the King in Order to Represent to him his Reasons Which being granted him He Remonstrated very fully and at large That it had been but fit before his Majesty had proceeded any further to notifie to the States General of the Vnited Provinces his Mrs. the reasons that induced the Court to take Resolutions so prejudicial to them that the said States on their side might enter into Consideration how to give his Majesty all agreeable satisfaction on that Subject After which he
the Governours refusal to surrender it the English had by their Cannon forced him to yield it and had at the same time taken another Yacht called the Crocodile that the Evening before they had taken two other small Ships That Holms had at first promised the Subjects of the Dutch Company which were about 140 men to restore them the Ship called the Moon to serve to transport them back into their own Country but that having seen a great quantity of Merchandizes put on board it for Holland he changed his mind and told them he had occasion for that Ship himself to transport his own Goods to Sieâ—ra Lions But that however at last he had granted them a Portuguese Ship for their transportation That in the Month of July the States had other fresher news concerning the Hostilities Committed on the Coast of Guinea where Captain Holms with a Squadron of 14 English men of War had seiz'd all the places and Forts belonging to the Hollanders except the Castle del Mina exercising all manner of Cruelties towards the Men as they pretended to make appear by the following Letter written from the Castle del Mina by General Valkenburg Ever since the English have endeavoured to establish the Royal Company upon this Coast they have not only troubled themselves no further to contribute to the preservation of the Peace before Concluded but they have proceeded to cruel Hostilities by Sea and Land against all of our Nation and to drive at the utter ruin of our Commerce Those Fatal attempts begun by the arrival of two of the King of England's men of War and some others belonging to the Royal Company under the Command of John Stoats who being overcome with the great honour and beneficial civilities done him by the Hollanders could not find in his heart to execute any thing against them But they stopt not there for on the last day of April there appeared a Squadron of 2 men of War and 6 Frigats under Captain Holms 's Flag and that of one Joseph Cubits who being afterwards Reinforced to the Number of 14 men of War have commited in the midst of Peace all the Acts of Hostility they could have committed in the middle of a Declared War attacking both by Sea and Land our places and taking from us by Force the Fortresses Tacorari Cabo-Cors Adia and Ameabo They have also besieged Chama and keep us here blockt up so close that very hardly can we find means to send you a Letter The losses caused to the Company thereby amount to several Tuns of Gold And as to the Persons of the Hollanders especially those of Adia after they had given them quarter they have treated them with all the rigour and barbarity Imaginable cutting off their Noses and Ears to leave them afterwards to linger out a miserable and languishing life and others throats they have cut as if they had been so many beasts The dead Bodies that were buried in the Earth which God and Nature had allotted them to enjoy repose and silence in have been pull'd out of their Graves and their heads cut off and fixt on Pikes tops as 't were in Triumph And those who were dying or already dead had their Privy Members Heads Arms and Legs cut off and by an Excess of cruelty some had their Hearts pullâ—d out The Prisoners were most unmercifully treated with design to make them Perjure themselves The English have continued all these cruelties to this very day and say they still expect another Reinforcement of 6 great men of War to drive the Hollanders from this Coast Our men are still more severely handled by the Natives of the Country who usually follow the Victorious Party The English assure us we shall receive no succour and scatter abroad writings by which they promise a recompense to al that shall embrace their Party We will endea-l vour in so fatal a conjuncture honourably to defend the place in hopes to receive a considerable succour from the Vnited Provinces by the means of which all things may be re-established This Letter was printed by the States Order and Copies of it sent to all Ships of War and to all Frontier places that had Garrisons in them However supposing all that dreadful Relation true to a Letter the English could cite for their excuse the precedent set them before by the Dutch at Amboyna But the truth was many had been the wrongs the English pretended to have suffered both in persons and effects from the Hollanders in several parts of the World for which having often demanded and received no satisfaction they proceedâ—d to reprisals which occasioned some Foreign Emissaries and Incendiaries common Enemies to bâ—th Nations greedily laying hold of used all the little Arts and Tricks imaginable to represent all that was done on either side tho' never so trivial in the most dreadfull Colours on purpose to exasperate the two Nations to worrie one another like Wild Beasts till they were able to stand no longer that so a third might come in and devour them both For that the English set on by the same pernicious instruments were not a whit behind hand with the Dutch by rendering them as Odious on the other side by writings and manifesto's stuffed with no less specious Complaints appears by the following Remonstrances presented against the Hollanders to the English Parliament and by the Parliament presented to the King Which we have likewise inserted that the Reader might see what each party had to say and did actually alledge for themselves The Complaints of the English East-India Company against the Dutch set forth I. THAT the English East-India Company strongly insist to have an Indemnification for all the Damages they have suffered ever since the Year 1656. valued at 14008000 l. for the Ships and Effects taken from them by the Dutch and 87000 l. for the Losses they have suffered according to a modest and just Supputation that had been made of them with respect to their Factories that have been burnt or destroyed by the same Hollanders most of which had happened since the glorious Restoration of his Majesty That they complained likewise That the Isle of Poleron had been possessed by the Dutch for the space of 42 Years against all sort of Justice since the States had no lawful Right to it and had consented in the Treaties that had been made with them to restore it and yet persisted to keep it by Force They demand also to be Reimbursed the Charges for the two Ships that were sent the Year before to take Possession of the said Isle which amounted to 23000 l. II. The said Company complains also of the indirect means the Dutch use in the Indies to interrupt their Commerce by affecting to declare War against all those Places where the English settle any Factors for carrying on their Traffick and that under Pretence of that Declaration they send Ships to anchor before those Places only with pure Design to destroy the Commerce
Fifth Rates the Convertine the Pearl the Dortmuyen the Hector and the Dolphin The most of these last have their Sails already spread and their Guns ready whilst they are working with all Diligence in fitting out the rest Affairs being in that State and the Vnited Provinces apprehending that all those Squablings would quickly break out into an open War with England began to put all things in order And it was resolved in the Assembly of the States That Notice should be given to the Ships bound Westward to go round about Scotland The Zealanders likewise sent 2 nimble sailing Ships to Hitland to give warning to the Ships belonging to the State to avoid the Harbours of England to prevent the falling of the Ships coming back from the East-Indies into the Hands of the English and Rear-Admiral Tromp was sent out to Sea with a Fleet of 23 Men of War to cruise for them and to secure their Retreat home In the mean while Mr. de Goch set out the 17th of June in Quality of Ambassadour from the States towards the Court of England to endeavour amicably to appease and compose the Differences that threatned the two Nations with a Rupture He arrived on the 22d at London and was received by the Master of the Ceremonies with great Marks of Friendship and the very same Evening had Audience of his Majesty at Whitehall and after the usual Compliments their Discourse fell upon the Affairs that concerned the East and West-India Companies upon which the King among other Reasons told him That it was not to be suffered That the DutchWest-India Company only by the means of a few Forts and 3 or 4 Ships without possessing elsewhere any Country within Land should pretend to render the Coasts of Africk inaccessible to all others by blocking up the Havens and the Mouths of the Rivers against their Commerce and keeping them off and driving them away from every Place The Ambassadour replied ' That all the Difficulties about that Affair were terminated by the last Treaty and that it ought to be examined whether the Dutch had done any thing in contravention to it After that he made his Complaints of the Hostile Attempts of Captain Holms in Guiney To which the King made him the same Answer he had done before upon the like Subject That he had not the least Knowledge of that but that as soon as he should be informed of it he would act as he found convenient After which he begun to speak of the great Naval Preparations that were making in Holland The States Ambassadour justified himself by answering That those Preparations were chiefly for the great Convoys they were forced to allow their Merchant Ships for the Security of their Commerce praying his Majesty withal That he would please to give order as the States would likewise do on their side that nothing might pass between the two Fleets that might disturb the Peace or alienate the good Correspondence settled between the two Nations The next day Mr. de Goch had Audience of the Duke of York and in the Evening of the Chancellour in which they discoursed of nothing else but of the great Preparations for War and of the Affairs of the East and West-India Companies Some Time after the States Ambassadour presented a Memorial concerning the extraordinary Naval Preparations in England and about the Hostilities committed by Captain Holms and the forbidding of the Importation of Dutch Commodities into the Kingdom under the Pretence of the contagious Disease that then reigned in Holland The King answered very largely to all those Points in Writing of which the Substance was That he had no Design his Fleet should commit any Act of Hostility That he had given no Order to Captain Holms to seise upon Cape-Verde or any other Forts belonging to the Hollanders nor to attempt any thing against the Subjects of the United Provinces That they ought to have more confidence in his Royal word than in the Reports of Pilots and Mariners who were very often ill informed That as what concerned his forbidding the importation of Dutch Commodities upon the account of the Contagion he was obliged so to do for the preservation of his Kingdom and of the health of his Subjects In the mean while the French King by his Ambassadors at London and the Hague presented his Mediation in order to appease the differences that were ready to kindle a War between those two Powers which the United Provinces agreeably received but â—ngland refused Which was the cause that a little time after the Ambassadors of that Crown returned home very ill satisfied The States laying nothing more to Heart than the maintenance of Peace and being very sensible how dear the last War had cost them were glad before they engaged themselves in such another to try all means possible to avert it For that effect they writ a Letter to the King of England to signifie â—o him that they had no other Passion greater than that to preserve Peace hoping his Majesty would be of the same mind The King made answer to the States by another Letter which was delivered them by the English Ambassador at his return to the Hague for he had made a step to London to endeavour to terminate the differences between the two Companies of the East and West Indies That Letter was full of protestations signifying the great desire the King had on his side to maintain the Peace But then returning to the accustomed complaints it was added that he saw with great regret that they went not about to give any satisfaction to the English for their losses and in fine concluded with a protestation before God and Man that they would be guilty of all the Inconveniencies and fatal Consequences that would follow if a speedy Reparation were not made The States after the reading of that Letter found well enough that they were no longer to flatter themselves the Intention of the Court of England being there clearly enough laid open to them and without mincing of the matter the King foretold them a part of those disasters that were ready to happen In the mean while the English Navy was assembling with all diligence in the Downs and about the Isle of Wight And some Dutch Advice-Yachts that were sent out from time to time to view and observe them were seized Which confirmed the States in the Resolution to have Recourse to nothing else but the force of Arms. Rear-Admiral Tromp being at Sea as we have said to Cruise upon the Watch for the Ships that were expected from the East Indies had met them in the month of August at Fairhills near Hitland and had conducted them into their respective Ports without seeing any English by the way And four Merchant Ships belonging to the West-India Company bound for the Coast of Guiney were ready to set sail but it was not thought fit to let them go without a good Convoy because of the advice they had had that Prince Robert
appearance towards the Coasts of Guiney tho' he had given out that he was going to Sally And indeed the suspicions of the English in that point were not without some foundation for de Ruiter had received Express Orders from the States to sail towards Cape Verd and the Coast of Guiney to reduce the English to reason and make them restore by force what they had unjustly usurpt Upon that news all the Dutch Ships were stopt in England and Letters of reprisal were granted but all those Commissions granted in haste were recalled as well to shew all Europe that they would not be Aggressors as to gain time to Compleat the manning of their Navy It was thought more proper to let loose the men of War and Capers upon the Hollanders as well to encourage their press'd Seamen and to get men enough to furnish their Grand Fleet as the more effectually to interrupt the Commerce of the United Provinces by taking their Merchant Ships that went to and fro in the Channel And because they knew they in Holland expected about that time the return of their Ships from France and the Streights they thought it their best way to go and meet them and to endeavour to take them before they let the Privateers go out who in all likelihood would but have awakened the Hollanders and made them think the more of securing themselves And this project succeeded well with them For the Merchant Fleet consisting of 113 sail having quitted the Coast of France to pursue their way home along the Channel was taken and carried into the Ports of England But amongst so great a Number of Merchant Ships there being some Ships belonging to other Nations they were redemanded yet all the rest remained in their hands At the same time the King of England in Justification of that proceeding publish'd the following Declaration The King of Egland's Declaration about the taking of the Dutch Ships HIs Majesty having considered the Injuries Affronts and Damages suffered in the Persons of his Subjects by the loss of their Goods and Ships by the West-India Company and other Subjects of the United Provinces and those losses amounting to very considerable Sums for which no Reparation could yet be obtained notwithstanding the Complaints so often reiterated by his Majesty to the States General for that purpose which have had no effect His Majesty has thought fit by the Advice of his Privy Council to grant Letters of Reprisal against the Ships or Merchandizes belonging to the States of the United Provinces or their Subjects so that not only his Majesties Fleet and Ships of War but all sorts of Privateers shall have right by Letters of Reprisal or permission to be given him from his Royal Highness the Duke of York Lord High Admiral of England to arrest and seize all Ships and Effects belonging to the States of the United Provinces in Order to put them under the Jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty which shall be Authorized to Act thereupon according to the Customs and Laws of Nations And whereas several Ships and Effects belonging to the United Provinces or their Subjects have been already taken according to his Majesties Orders and are kept in his Harbours His Majesty with the Advice of his Privy Council declares that the abovesaid Ships and Effects are Comprized in the aforesaid Letters of Reprisal and that they shall be proceeded against before the Admiralty according to the Customs and Laws of Nations till a final Judgment And the Present Declaration shall serve for warrant for all that the said Court of Admiralty shall do in that matter Dated at Whitehall December the 16th 1664. The United Provinces seeing themselves thus engaged in a War with England and the Proper season for putting out their Fleet to Sea being past they thought however that at least they ought to put a stop as much as 't was possible to all those Hostilities and to provide for the security of their Subjects Accordingly the States prohibited all their Merchant Ships to go out of their Ports and their Seamen to take service under any Foreign Prince They likewise rigorously prohibited the going out of any vessels and exportation of any Ammunitions and generally of all materials serving to the building of Men of War or furnishing their Equipages Then Mr. Van Beuningen was sent to the Court of France Mr. de Amerongen into Denmark and Mr. Ysbrands into Swedeland in Quality of Ambassadors Extraordinary to inform the Princes that were Allies of the State of all that had lately passed because the English by a fetch of their dissembling Policy endeavoured in all those Courts to make the Dutch pass for the Aggressors and to attribute all the wrong to them They resolved likewise to raise a fund of 14 Millions of Livers as well for the building of 48 men of War as for Levying of some Troops to Re-inforce their Companies and their Garrisons for the raising of a Marine Regiment and a new Regiment in reserve and lastly for defraying the expences of the fortifications of the Brill of Helvoet of Maesland of the Texel and of the other necessities of the State The East-India Company engaged to Equip 20 Men of War for the service of the United Provinces The Zealand Privateers received Letters of Reprisal so that the Capers in little time after took 30 prizes from the English They also appointed a day of Prayer which was celebrated the 21st of January 1665 to implore the Protection of Heaven against the Contagion then Reigning and to beg a Continuaâ—ion of Peace and of the Prosperity of the Prov ncâ— In the mean while the Sâ—â—ur de Goch used all imaginable instances with 〈◊〉 â—â—ng of England to endeavour to obtain the râ—â—ng of the Ships which had been taken But all in vain For the King made him Answer That he had caused to be arrested in his Ports or to be taken at Sea the Dutch Ships upon the certain Advice he had that de Ruiter was sent to Guiney to interrupt the Commerce of his Subjects and to seize on their Ships and Merchandizes so that he intended to indemnifie him for all those losses by the Confiscation of the goods that had been taken that for the same end he would stop all Dutch Ships that should come in his way till he heard further news of de Ruiter c. The Duke of York also declared in Quality of Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom that he would go next spring to Sea to maintain the Honour and Glory of the Crown And the Court of England was just ready to put out a Declaration of War against the Hollanders But that Turner and Walker two Famous Advocates of the Court of Admiralty Represented to the King that if he declared War at that time the Ships taken before the Declaration could not according to the Law of Nations be confiscated upon which 't was thought fit to defer it for some time However the Dutch Ships were declared Good
were expected back from Norway in order to convoy them safe home and at the same time to have an Eye upon the English Merchant-Ships coming out of the Sound or from Hamborough towards the Thames or that should come out of the Thames to go towards the North commanding him to give them Chace and to do all he could to burn them sink them c. The same Day viz. the 1st of November afternoon the Fleet set sail and tackt about and stood to the Eastward Lieutenant Admiral Cornelius Evertsz led the Right Wing Lieutenant Admiral de Vries the left and the Squadrons of de Ruiter and Tromp composed the Main Battle The next Day de Ruiter put up a White Flag upon his Mizzen Mast and fired 3 Guns for a Signal to the Squadrons to separate The Lieutenant Admirals Tromp Evertsz and de Vries answered the Admiral according to the Order settled for that effect each of them with 7 Guns Each Vice-Admiral with 5 and each Rear-Admiral with 3. And then Admiral de Ruiter replied to all those Admirals again at once with 9 Guns and so the several Squadrons of the Fleet quitted one another about Mid-way towards home Tromp made towards Goree and the Meuse the Zealand Squadron towards Wâ—elingen and de Ruiter sailed towards the Texel and the Vlie whither also went Lieutenant Admiral Hiddes de Vries with the Friesland Ships The Lords Deputies of the States having quitted de Ruiter landed on the 4th of November in a Galliot at the Helder and thence went to the Hague where they made their Report to the States General of what had passed in that Expedition for which they received the Thanks of their High and Mightinesses as appears by the following Writing Mr. Huigens Mr. Pensionary de Wit and Mr. John Boreel Deputies Plenipotentiaries of their High and Mightinesses in the States Fleet have made a Summary Report of the things that passed in the last Expedition upon which the States having deliberated and taken into Consideration the Care and Pains the said Plenipotentiaries have therein taken as well as the Vigilance and good Conduct they have shewn by the tender Affection they have exprest for their Country by acting Night an Day as far as God and the State of Affairs would permit them with an indefatigable Zeal for the Good of the State their High and Mightinesses have consequently thankt them for it and hereby declare themselves perfectly well satisfied with their Adminâ—stratâ—on The Dutch Fleet then did nothing that Expedition but cause some Alarms upon the Coast of England and all the Honour they gained by it was only that of having offered Battle to the English Fleet whilst they kept themselves within their Harbours as being debarred by a raging and pestilent Distemper from accepting it and having interrupted the Commerce of the English Merchants by keeping the Mouth of the Thames blockt up for about 16 Days together In the mean while the Negotiation for a Peace was broke off for the French King who had offered his Mediation finding that the English had more Inclination to continue the War than to treat with the Dutch and having some By-ends of his own upon the Hollanders taking a Pretence of Dissatisfaction against the English because their Ships daily appeared near S. Malo's and the Coasts of Normandy firing upon his Subjects and committing several Attempts against them contrary to the Treaties of Alliance and Confederacy he had with the King of England recalled the Duke of Vernueil the Count de Conings and Mr. Courtin his Ambassadors from that Court after having commanded them publickly to declare to the King of England which they accordingly did on the 15th of October at Oxford That the King of France their Master seeing all the Propositions that had been made to procure an Accommodation between the 2 contending Nations of England and Holland were rejected by the English his Majesty was resolved to assist the Hollanders according to the Treaty of Alliance he was engaged in with them To which the King of England answered coldly enough That the French King knew his own Interest and so did the King of England know his too So that the French Ambassadours having demanded their Audience of Leave on the 10th of December embarkt on the 23d of the same Month at Dover and arrived the next Day at S. Valery Hollis likewise the English Ambassadour in France was also recalled and having had his Audience of Leave he made shew as if he would depart but yet took the Liberty to stay 6 Months after in the Kingdom out of Paris under Pretence of his Lady's being sick The French King having notified to the States the recalling of his Ambassadours out of England they sent Order to the Sieur de Goch their Ambassadour at the Court of England to retire likewise immediately For tho' Sir George Downing Ambassadour to them from the King of England were gone from Holland ever since the Month of August yet the States of the Vnited Provinces in hopes to be able to pacifie in an amicable manner the Troubles that had newly kindled a War between the 2 Nations had thitherto deferred the Departure of the Sieur de Goch but at last he took his Audience of Leave at Oxford and delivered at the same time to the King the following Declaration of the States by which they represented to his Majesty the ardent Passion they had for Peace and the means that had been proposed to procure it The Sieur de Goch then departed on the 26th of December towards Dover where he embark'd upon one of the King's Ships and on the 29th of the same Month he arrived at Flushing from whence he speeded away to the Hague to make his Report to their High and Mightinesses of all that had past in his Negotiation The Letter or Declaration from the States left by him with the King of England was in these Terms SIR The States Remonstrance to the King of England concerning the rupture of the Peace THat we might give evident Proofs of our Desire and Inclination for Peace we were willing after the Rupture to defer even till this Day to recal our Ambassadour from the Court of England And tho' we had already by just and reasonable Offers satisfied all the Complaints put up to us by Sir George Downing in a Time when we could hardly believe that Matters would ever have come to an Extremity yet we have done still more by leaving our Ambassadour in England after the taking from us not only several Places but some whole Provinces belonging to the States in both Worlds and the stopping the Ships of their Subjects in the Face of all Christendom and that without any previous Declaration of War By an effect also of an over-great Confidence neither did we recal our Ambassadour presently after your Majesty had recalled yours in hopes you would at last be pleased to make some Reflection upon the Mischiefs a War would bring upon the two
to the Governours and Lieutenant Generals of his Majesty as well those of his Provinces as of his Armies to Camp Marshals Brigadeers Colonels Captains and other Commanders of his Troops as well Infantry as Cavalry French or Strangers and to all other Officers to whom it appertains to lend a hand to the Execution of these presents every one in his place and his Jurisdiction For such is the pleasure of his Majesty Who likewise wills that these presents be published and fixed up in all his Towns upon Sea and elsewhere in all the Ports and other places of his Kingdom where it is necessary that none may plead cause of Ignorance and that to the Copy of them duly compared the same credit be given as to the Original In the month of February following the United Provinces concluded another strict Alliance with Denmark in Consequence of which orders were sent to Funen into Holstein Jutland and Norway to lay an Embargo upon all Danish Ships and to forbid them to stir out of their Ports that so by that means the Danish Fleet might be the more expeditiously equipt and Armed out The Articles of that Treaty were I. THat each party should absolutely desist from all pretensions they might have one upon the other The Articles of the Dutch League with Denmark II. That all manner of mis-understanding in Norway should be laid asleep and forgot III. That the States General should engage to pay to his Danish Majesty 1500000 Livers per annum as long as the War against England should continue of which the French should be obliged to pay 300000 Livers yearly for their part For which sum the King of Denmark should engage on his side to maintain a Fleet at Sea of 30 Ships of War of which some should be furnished with a sufficient number of Regular Troops to be employed in the Service of the States when they should need them That Treaty was a stroke of Thunder to the English who were the more sensibly concerned at it because they had not heard the least inkling of it till they heard of its conclusion For Dreyer the Secretary of the King of Denmark's Embassy in Holland was sent incognito by the Ministers of that Prince that were at the Hague Mr. Catisius and Mr. Klingenberg immediately after the Conclusion of the Treaty to the King their Master to present it to him and get his Ratification after which the Secretary came back again with all expedition to the Hague This politick silence was the cause that the English Resident at the Court of Denmark had not time to advertise the Merchants of his Nation of it so that all their effects were seized and confiscated throughout the whole extent of the Kingdom It 's true the Danes proceedings on that occasion had some appearance of Justice and Equity because the English from the very time they made that Hostile attempt of which we have spoken upon the Port of Bergen in Norway had not only seized on the Danes Ships and Merchandizes but had likewise taken their men Prisoners so that the Crown of Denmark in that Rencounter seemed to do no more than to use Reprisals had it not afterwards appeared that they had dealt perfidiously in that matter with the King of England and secretly invited him to that Enterprize for which they afterwards declared War against him In the mean time the United Provinces in order to facilitate the Arming and manning out the Fleet publish'd on the 1st of February an Ordinance forbidding all Merchant Ships and Fishing vessels to stir out of their Harbours upon pain of Confiscation of their said Ships and Goods They likewise forbad the great and small Fishery under the same penalties and the Ordinance for forbidding the Greenland Fishery was also renewed But the States however declared that their intention in all those prohibitions was to find them subsistance all the year without any alteration even after the Fleet should be gone out c. About that time Tromp signified to the States that he should be glad if they would please to change his Quality of Lieutenant Admiral of Holland and West-Friesland or of the College of the Admiralty of the Meuse into that of Lieutenant Admiral of the College of the Admiralty of Amsterdam which request the States granted upon Condition he got the consent of both those Admiralties thereunto so that having obtained it on the 6th of February he was created Lieutenant Admiral of the College of the Admiralty of Amsterdam and on the 24th of the same month Vice Admiral Aart Van Nes succeeded him in quality of Lieutenant Admiral of the Meuse and Captain John Van Nes was made Rear Admiral In the mean while the English being sensible of the great Force of so powerfull a League made very great preparations for War on their side and exerted as we may say the utmost of their efforts to make a vigorous resistance But because money was wanting they were forced to borrow 1250000 l. Sterling more at great Interest and besides to help towards the defraying of the extraordinary charges of the War the two East India Ships viz. the Phoenix and the Fort of Huningen taken from the Hollanders were sold which yielded the sum of 1600000 l. And because the French King had first declared War against England the King of Great Britain who was no less Jealous of his honour than the Monsieur published likewise a Declaration against that Crown in the following Terms The King of England's Declaration of War against France WHereas the French under pretence of a defensive League concluded with the States General of the United Provinces accuses us of having violated the Peace though all Europe be well enough informed of the contrary And upon that Ground has declared War against us on the 26th of January last making himself thereby the Aggressor and Infractour of the Peace which we have always desired to preserve with the said States on whose behalf the Ambassadors of the most Christian King never offered any indemnification for the losses suffered by our Subjects nor given any Guarrantees for the security of their Commerce for the future We therefore trusting in the Almighty power of God and in the justice of our cause and being likewise assured of the Bravery and Fidelity of our Subjects have thought fit for their Common security to declare that we are resolved to carry on the War vigorously by employing all our Forces as well by Sea as by Land against France which has newly begun it with us against all the Laws of Justice And to that end we Command our Royal Brother Lord High Admiral of England and our Trusty and well beloved Cousin and Councellor George Duke of Albemarle General of our Armies by Land our Lords Lieutenants of Counties Governours of Provinces and all other inferiour Officers and Soldiers under their Commands as well by Sea as by Land to oppose all the Enterprizes of the French King and his Subjects And for
De Gent being informed of the Honours the States were doing him would fain have excused accepting them and among other Reasons he represented That having frequented the Sea but a little while he thought himself not capable to Command a Squadron but the States pressing him again to accept the place that was presented him and Tromp with whom we had contracted an intimate Friendship joyning his perswasions with the instances of the States he was at last prevailed with to consent to it and accordingly took the Oath in Quality of Lieutenant Admiral of Amsterdam about the end of the month Thus Tromp after he had given so many signal proofs of his Courage was at length constrained to quit the Sea service Hectora qui solus qui ferrum ignemque Jovemque Sustinuit toties unam non sustinet iram Invictumque virum vincit dolor Tromp solicited by the Count d' Estrades to take service under the French King but in vain The Count d' Estrades Ambassador from the Court of France to the States observing what had hapned to Tromp thought it would be for the interest of the King his Master to wheedle him to pass into his Service being perswaded that Admiral whilst his resentments were yet boiling hot would easily be induced to accept the great advantages that he should offer him from the King his Master and accordingly he made him an overture to that effect offering him an annual Pension of 50000 Livers but Tromp to his great surprize bluntly answered him That he had rather live all the rest of his days as a simple Burgher and continue faithful to his Country than to betray it at the expence of his own honour by taking service under a Foreign Prince what mighty offers soever were made him on that account In the mean while they were busy at work in Zealand in Arming out the Fleet with an indefatigable care and diligence whilst the English lured on by the hopes of Booty appeared before the Vlie with a Fleet of 60 sail of men of War And that they might with the less incumbrance carry on so desir'd an enterprize they had sent all their sick and wounded men back into England And 9 or 10 Dutch Merchant ships outwards bound either to the North or France were newly fallen into their hands The English Fleet then approaching near the Dutch Coast seemed at first to despair of being able to do all the mischief there they had before flattered themselves with the conceit of by reason of the difficulties that presented themselves in their way But being instructed contrary to their expectation how to surmount them by one Heemskerk formerly a Captain in the service of the United Provinces but who was discarded from it for his Cowardice they were encouraged to such an attempt as might make the Zealanders feel the fatal effects of the loss of the Battle by a malicious and mischievous enterprize that Traitour proposed to them The English Fleet being arrived on the 17th The spoils done by the English at the Vlie of August near the Vlie got advice by a fisher-man that fell into their hands that the Isles of Vlie and Schelling were the most exposed of all those Maritimâ— Countries that there were some Magazines belonging to the States or the East-India Chamber unprovided of any Garrison to defend them and that there were in the Port a great Number of Merchant-ships richly laden 'T is true those Merchant-ships as well as those in the Texel had been advertis'd before hand by the Deputies to retire in time into Harbours of security but not being sensible at first of the importance of those Advices they unfortunately had ventured to stay behind The English therefore together with Heemskerk held a Council and after they had projected their enterprize resolved to put it in execution the next day at 8 in the morning By favour of the Tide and of a North-wind 10 men of War 5 fire-ships and 7 Yachts sailed in as far as below the Brandaris of the Isle of Schelling whilst another Yacht slid into the Vlie where she told 160 Merchant-ships and 2 men of War their Convoys Sir Robert Holms of whom we have already spoken several times was the Head of that enterprize He considered that if he attackt the Isles first the Merchant ships would thereby gain time to provide for their security and therefore detacht away 2 Frigats which entred into the Tonnâ—n and followed them with the rest of his ships but being stopt by a contrary wind he was forced to fall back again towards the Brandaris Then after he had held a Council of War he ordered the Pembroke Frigat followed by 5 fire-ships to advance to go and attack the Merchant fleet And accordingly Captain Brown having fastned upon the ship of Captain Adelaar one of the chief of the Convoys reduced her to ashes The Captain after he had made all the resistance possible leaping at last into a Boat with sixteen 16 of his men to save himself both he and they were unhappily swallowed up by the Waves The second Convoy ship was likewise burnt but Tol the Captain of her was more lucky than his Companions for he escaped in his Boat The Merchant ships cut their Anchor Cables at so horrible a spectacle to flie as well as they could from the fury of the flames In the mean while the men in the three English Fire-ships that still remained advanc'd Crying out I am Heemskerk the Author of the enterprize and set fire to some Merchant ships richly laden and bound for Muscovy which after their men had signaliz'd themselves to the utmost in their defence were likewise burnt to ashes After that the English with 22 Boats went out of the Brandaris and by favour of their Oars and the Tide together gave chace to the Merchant ships that were flying and all of them they could reach they set on fire with flaming trusses of straw which they threw into them However because the English Seamen were Commanded under pain of death not to pillage the Pilots and Masters of the Dutch ships found opportunity by that means to save their men and their Money in their Boats Some of those unhappy wretches that dwelt in the Vlie fearing the English would come and plunder the Isle had with-drawn their best effects from thence and transported them on board the Merchant-ships so that they had the cruel displeasure to see them destroyed by the flames Three Privateers and one Merchant ship bound for Guiney well Arm'd and Provided with able Seamen made a very vigorous resistance for they repulsed the English and sunk some of their Boats so that under their shelter several rich Merchants designed for Muscovy were preserved from the Enemies fire who durst follow them no further for fear of running aground Holms being informed by some Prisoners that the Vlie likewise was in no condition to defend it self detacht away two Frigats and some small Vessels with orders to Land their
to no purpose because we are resolved to remain inseparably linkt to our Allies and to hearken to no proposition that may tend to break our Union directly or indirectly and that with so much the more confidence because we are fully perswaded our Allies will remain always unshaken in the same mind We therefore make ardent prayers to God to be pleased to incline your Majesty to a thing that is a Preliminary without which 't is impossible to come to a Peace and we hope when affairs shall once be placed upon a good foot we shall have new reasons to redouble our Zeal and to put up prayers for the prosperity of your Majesty's reign However all hopes of being able to effect a Peace that year vanisht to nothing and the United Provinces began to labour vigorously in refiting and remanning out their Fleet. And for that end they resolved to keep their Seamen in pay all winter that they might have their full Complements of men ready early in the Spring For they thought it good Policy to make that last effort to oblige England to accept a Peace which they called just by endeavouring to obtain by the force of Arms or by subtilty of intrigue what they could not effect by fair means The Ministers of the Crown of Sweden coming to the Court of England about the latter end of the Year 1666. used all the Diligence imaginable in quality of Mediatours to compose the Differences among the Princes that were in War The first Step they made in that Affair was to prevail with the King of England to consent to the naming of a Neuter Place where the Plenipotentiaries of each Party might securely meet in order to treat of a Peace After much Pains taken in it they obliged the States to write the following Letter about that Subject to the King of England The Respect due to that Prince obliged the States to make that first Advance whilst the Ministers of Swedeland on the other side endeavoured their utmost to perswade his Majesty to grant their Demand The States Letter to the King of England concerning the Nomination of a Neuter Place SIR WE exprest to your Majesty in ours of the 26th of November the Reasons that hindred us from sending our Ministers to London to treat there of a Peace joyntly with the other Plenipotentiaries And we doubt not but your Majesty upon a serious Reflection thereon will be of the same Mind with us But that your Majesty may not think we neglect any thing on our side that may contribute to any thing that may be capable to advance so important a Work and to give you the clearest Evidences imaginable of the Sincerity of our Intentions upon this Subject we were willing to assure your Majesty by these Presents That the Instances we have made hitherto to perswade you to name a Neuter Place does not at all concern our particular Interests Nay and we protest That if that Affair concerned us in particular we would take Pride in passing by all Formalities by heartily consenting that our Differences might be terminated any where wheresoever it should please your Majesty not excepting England it self But because by virtue of the Alliance in which we are engaged with the Crowns of France and Denmark it is impossible for us to act otherwise we hope your Majesty will think good that the Negotiation of the Treaty may be begun and perfected elsewhere than in the Dominions of your Majesty We have therefore thought fit for the facilitating so Holy a Work to pray your Majesty by this Letter to consider this Affair as it is really at the Bottom and at length to be pleased to let the Treaty be carried on in a Neuter-place where the Plenipotentiaries of each Party may meet And since we have sufficiently explained our selves thereupon if your Majesty will but be perswaded of the sincerity of our Sentiments there is all Appearance we shall soon see the End of a Work that is the Subject of the greatest Hopes of our People and of the Glory of the Princes interested therein To which we pray God be pleased to incline your Majesty In confidence of which we shall make Wishes for the Prosperity of your Majesty's Reign and the Preservation of your Majesty's Sacred Person This Letter being put into the Hands of Mr. Appelboom Resident from the King of Swedeland at the Hague that Minister sent it away presently to London to the Ambassadours of that Crown there who delivered it to the King of England who made the following Answer to the States The King of England's Answer to the States last Letter High and Mighty Lords HAving received yours of the 13th of this Month by the Hands of the Ambassadour Extraordinary of the King of Sweden by which you repeat your pressing Instances to induce us to name a Place where the Plenipotentiaries of the Princes engaged in the present War may meet and since you protest besides that if it were not upon their Consideration you would make no Scruple to consent that the Congress might be in England and on the other Side the said Ambassadours Mediatours having confirmed to us the sincerity of the violent Inclination that moves you to seek for a Peace by praying us most earnestly to be pleased to consent to your Demand as to the only means by which to be able to effect the Conclusion of so Christian a Work therefore to give you real Marks of the Passion we have to enter into new Engagements of Peace and Vnion with you for the Good and Repose of all Christendom and principally of the Reformation we not only consent that the Treaty shall be mannaged in a Place whither the Ministers of your Allies may come with all Security but further to lay the Foundations of a new and solid Confidence and in order to prevent the Delaies and Obstacles which will undoubtedly arise by naming any other Place we have resolved to send our Ambassadours to the Hague where the Plenipotentiaries of your Allies either actually are or may be in a little time to treat there all together about the so much desired Peace And if you be speedy in sending us a Passport for the Security of our Ambassadours they shall go to the Hague before the end of February assuring you That it shall be none of our Fault if Christendom do not soon enjoy a Peace as well as our own Subjects To which we pray God to incline you and to take you High and mighty Lords into his Holy Protection The Hague being thus chosen by the King of England for the Negotiation of a Peace the States for particular Reasons approved not that Choice but writ again about that Subject to pray him to be pleased to name another Place representing to him That since his Majesty upon the Instances made to him to persuade him to consent to a Neuter Place had had the Goodness to do them the Honour to will that the Peace should be treated on