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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

of his native country at the expence of truth. This opinion is confirmed bya knowlege, that about the middle of the thirteenth century, Denmark becameinvolved in various disputes with the inhabitants of Lubeck, and that thelatter having acquired considerable commercial consequence, contrived, byvarious intrigues, to gain such an ascendancy over the Danes, that they them-selves rather imposed, than acceded to the terms of accommodation. It were,nevertheless, ridiculous in the extreme to expect that a people so powerful as theDanes, without exaggeration certainly were, could ever continue, for a long spaceof time, in quietude and tranquillity. Their wealth and consequence naturallyexcited the envy of surrounding nations, and drew upon them wars, even thoughtheir own forbearance, and want of arrogance in prosperity, caused no disturb-ance on their part against the peace of their neighbours. The disputes werenevertheless of immaterial consequence, that between Christopher the First andthe princes of Holstein, which took place soon after the middle of the thirteenthcentury, with the attacks of the Lubec and Vandal pirates about the same time,being the only consequential contests which took place for more than one hun-dred years, when the Hanse Towns declared war against Valdemar the Third,who then reigned ; but after two or three sharp combats between squadrons,more worthy of notice on account of the size of the vessels composing them,than their numbers, the dispute terminated.

That part of Germany which has since made so conspicuous a figure in themaritime history of the world, under the denomination of the republic ofHolland, had but recently, as it were, emerged from the ocean with which ithad been covered. “ Formerly (say historians, treating of its state at the endof the ninth century) its frontiers were more confined than they are at pre-sent.” It contained, on the testimony of John of Leyden, only four citieseven at the end of the eleventh century : these were Dordrecht, Harlaem,Leyden, and Delft. But though this modern emporium of commerce duringthe early part of the eighteenth century, was in such a state of insignifi-cance during the eleventh, and several succeeding periods of the same dura-tion, the northern parts of Europe were not destitute of mercantile con-cerns. The Hanse Towns fully supplied the place of their successor, whichrose as they diminished in consequence ; and their connection with the mari-time history of the world, will well warrant a brief account of them. Theappellation of Hans, or Anse, is supposed to be derived from the Germanword Ansee, signifying; near the sea. The confederacy or alliance entered

into