C *ap.XXXVIIL from the I. of James I, to the Revolution

1664.

ftP® King

which lay under the Protection of thechief of the Dutch Forts called St.George del Mina.

I x was after this that he retook Cape-Corso- Castle, and the other Places men-tioned below.

From the Coast of Guinea, Sir Robertfailed for New-Netherland ; which hereduced, in the Month of August, andgave it the Name of New Tork.(d) Thisthe Englijh have ever since kept, notonly by Claim of Conquest, but by Vir-tue of a Claim of Right, as having beenfirst discovered, and Possession of it tak-en, by Sebastian Cabot, in the Reign ofKing Henry VII.

Upon the News of these Proceedingsof the Englijh, in Africa and America,the immediately dispatched Ordersto their.Admiral De Ruyter, to leavethe Englijh Admiral Lawson, and failwith his Squadron, of twelve Men ofWar, to retake these Places on the Coastof Guinea.

Having done the Dutch this Justice,I must, nevertheless, observe, that theDutch were the Aggressors, by detain-ing Cape-Gorso Castle, and the , Iflandof Poleroon, from the Englijh, contraryto Treaty, and by sending secret Ordersto their Governour, General Valcken-burg, to seize, in a treacherous Manner,the Englijh Fort Cormantin.

These Actions, on both Sides, serv-ed to exasperate the two Nations, andto hasten the Preparations for War; (e)And the King, having Advice of theseTransactions in Guinea, and elsewhere,with all Expedition fitted out a Fleet,which he put under the Command ofthe Duke of Tork, PrinCe Rupert, andthe Earl of Sandwich-, This Fleet, fail-ing over to the Coasts of Holland, threw. the Dutch into terrible Apprehensions;For tho’ they had likewise assembled a

great Fleet, under the Command of 1664..Baron Opdam, yet they durst not ven-ture out with it to Sea. While their The EnglishShips were thus block’d up, their Hour- %^ tc f a ^ erdeaux Fleet, being homeward-bound, chant-Jhips.in the Month of November, fell most ofthem into the Way of the Englijh ; Andthey took a Hundred and thirteen ofthem; Besides otherVessels.( f')

T h e Parliament meeting, on the fourand twentieth of November, after two TbeParlta-Prorogations, voted the King a Supply gj m aof two Millions, five Hundred Thou - large Supply.sand Pounds, towards the Maintenanceof a War so necessary to the State. Onthe sixteenth of December, the King pub-lished a Declaration, by which he em-powered his Subjects to make Reprizals, a Declata-upon all Ships belonging to th q Dutch tionpublijh-Companies, and others, the'Subjects cst^forRe-the States General , And declaring -all^Dutch.'those which were already taken, lawful More DutchPrize. Upon this, the Englijh took all shi P staken -the Dutch Ships which came in theirWay. And the four and twentieth ofJanuary, the Dutch published a De-claration, muck of the fame Nature. Cf*?

In the Beginning of March, War was p/ ar _pfproclaimed against the StatesGeneral, in claimed a-due and usual Form. gainst the

About this Time, likewise, Vice- DutciuAdmiral Allen, cruising with a Squa-^ Allen routsdron of eight or nine Men of War and>^ DutchFrigats off the Streights Mouth, fell in Smyrna-with the Dutch Smirna-YleQt, and o- Fleet ’ther Streights Ships, to. the Number offorty, underConvoy of four Men of'War.

He attack’d and routed them, notwith-standing the stoutest of the MerchantShips engag’d, funk some of sthem, kil-led Brachel, the Commander in Chief,and possess’d himself of four of the rich-est Ships, one of which having sufferedgreatly, in the Engagement, founderedat Sea, in her Way to England, (g)

7 G The

(d) Sir Rohert Cart was sent with a Squadronof Men. of War, and some Land-Forces, to re-duce this Country ; And arriving there the latterEnd of this Year, he landed three Thousand Menupon Manahattan Island, and took New Amster-dam , since called New lock, and several otherPlaces: From which two Expeditions^ we maydate our first Settlement at New York.

(e) The Dutch , among other Preparations,gave Orders, . towards the latter End of thisEear, for Building eight and. forty New Men ofWar. And for the Encouragement of their Offi-cers and Seamen, renewed their Ordinance of Re-wards, and augmented them to five Times ther espectiye Sums promised in their former Ordi-nance. The Recompences for Loss of Limbs werelikewise augmented, tho’ not in so great a Pro-

hapj n Portion.

' (/) Rapin, who thinks the Dutch were hardly

u used by this Action, say.s: Every unprejudiced" Person must allow,-'that the Law of Nations was" never more unjustly or manifestly violated :

And indeed, one Observation he makes is prettypertinent: " De Ruyter (fays he) is accused of“ having driven the Englijh from their Settle-" ments at Cape Verd , and on the Coasts of Gui-“ nea : But first, they take no Notice, that these" Settlements were pure Usurpations of the En-gtifh, who had this very Year dispossessed theDutch of them : Secondly, De Ruyter did not“ recover those Places 'till the following Year" 1 665." But all this while he himself overlooksthe first Actions of the Dutch , by which they be-came the Aggressors, as I have said above.

fgJ Dutch Writers allow of our having ta- La Vie deken but two of their Smyrna Fleet, and funk one, Michel deof which Brandt , in his Life of De Ruyter , gives Ruyter,us the following remarkable Account, which he

fays