$88

1667.

Introd. toColl. of Voy.k- 57 -

A TreatyPeace onFoot.

A Design agains theEnglish con-certed.

Charles II. Naval Expeditions, &c. of the English, Book III'

Gillam’i Voyage to the North.

This Year, one Zacharias GiJJam, in' the Nonfuch-Kstch., passed thro' Hud-son's Streight, and then into Baffin’s Bay,to seventy-five Degrees of N. Latitude,and thence Southerly, into one and fiftyDegrees, where, in a River calledPrinceRuperfs River, he had a friendlyCorrespondence with the Natives, builta Fort, which he called Charles-Fort,and returned with Success, having laidthe Foundation of an advantageous Tradein those Parts.

Treachery (J) of the Dutch, in Attack-ing our Ships in the Medway, Hope,GL - .

In the beginning of this Year, aTrea-ty of Peace between England and Hol-land was openly set on Foot,by the Me-diation of Sweden, Breda was the Placeappointed for the Congress, and thePlenipotentaries,on allSides, being arriv-ed there, a Conference was held, aboutthe End of May. In Confidence of theSuccess of this Treaty, the King for-bore to set out a Fleet. But whilst hisMinisters were negotiating at Breda, theDutch resolved to make an Advantageof this his Remistnefs, which they didin the following Manner, as agreed up-on between the Pensioner De Wit, andthe French Ambassadour at the Hague,the Count d’EJlrades. {m)

The Scots had, during the War,set out many Privateers; And these hadbrought in a goodNumber of richPrizes.The Dutch being (or, at least, pretend-ing to be) provoked at this, sent VanGhendt with a good Fleet, into the Frith ,

to burn the Coast, and to recover such 1667*Ships as were in that Part. He cameinto the Frith , on the first of May. Ifhe had, at first, hung out English Co-lours, and attacked Leith- Harbour im-mediately, which was then full of Ships,he might have done what Mischief hepleased: For all were secure, and werein Expectation of Sir Jeremy Smith, withsome Frigats, for the Defence of theCoast. Van Ghendt did nothing in theFrith for some Hours: He shot againstBrunt IJland, without doing any Mischief:

For this was all a Feint to amuse theKing, that he might not dive into thereal Design of the Dutch. All beingready, Van Ghendt , with his Squadron,returned, and joined De Ruyter, who,with seventy Sail of Ships, appeared inthe ThamesMouth, the seventh of June ,and, on the tenth, sending in aSquadron,possessed themselves of the Fort at The Dutch .Sheernefs , and burnt or plunder’d the do MisersMagazine of Stores; Tho’ as bravely de-fended by Sir Edward Spragge, as a 6Place, then unfinished, and of no De-fence, could possibly be. The Duke ofAlbermarl, who was Lord General, withall Expedition hastened down thither,with some Land Forces, and, to opposethe Enemy’s Progress, funk some Ves-sels in the Entrance of the Medway ,and laid a strong Chain across it: Butthe Dutch, with a high Tide, and astrong easterly Wind, on the twelfth,broke their Way thro’ and burntthree Ships, the Matthias , the Unity ,and the Charles V. (all taken fromthem this War) which lay to defend theChain. («) The Advantage of Windand Tide continuing, they advanced,the thirteenth, with six Men of War, andfive Fire-sliips, as far as Upnore-CEkle;

But were so warmly received by MajorScot, from the Castle, and Sir Edward

{I) The Dutch, in Defence of these Actions,fay: That, in Time of War, the Taking of eve-ry Advantage, and every Stratagem, is allowable;That, tho' a Treaty was begun, at Breda, it wasno 1 concluded, nor could they tell when or whe-ther it would be? That tho' some of theseHosti-iities were committed between the Time of theConclusion and the Ratification of the Treaty ;Yet, by that very T reaty, Hostilities were notstipulated to cease, in the Channel and the Ger-man Ocean, till the seven and twentieth of Au-gust : And in more distant Places later.

(m) To prepare the Way for theExecuting ofthis Project, a Letter was written,thro’ the Insti-gation of the French Ministers, by the Queen-Mother of England , who was then in France, toinform the King her Son, that both the French

and Dutch had their Eyes wholly turned uponPeace, and that they had no Design of sending anyFleets to Sea that Year. A greatWeaknefs it wasin theKing, and his Council, to give Credit to thiswith so implicit a Faith, as to consent to a Treatywithout requiring a Cessation of Arms, (if he wasresolved not to fit out a Fleet) and to believethe Commencing of a Treaty would of itself im-ply that Cessation.

(*) Dutch Writers allow, that they wouldnot have had the Courage to have attemptedbreaking the Chain, had not one Captain Brac-ket, who was in Disgrace, and under Confinementfor some Misdemeanour, sollicited for, and ob-tained his Liberty, on Condition of making thisAttempt ; And his Success fully answered theBoldness of his Enterprise.