HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

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a fleet, consisting of nearly one hundred vessels, several of which were ships ofwar, that had been sent to the coast of Flanders, were there attacked by theI lollanders with so much success, that sixty, or more, were taken, and fourteeneither burnt, or sunk *. A transient gleam of success took place during theensuing year on the coast of Brazil, where the Spanish admiral, Don AnthonioOquendo, once more gained a slight advantage over the Dutch. But this merelyresembled the last expiring ray of the western sun, which serves only to inspiremelancholy at his approaching departure, not to bring back the pleasing recol-lection of his meridian splendour. In 1642, the revolution which took place inPortugal, and the consequent emancipation of that country from the Spanishyoke, served to complete that ruin which had so long been approaching : it was aretributive act of providential justice, that the country, which by its incorporationwith Spain, had contributed so materially to raise the consequence of the latter,should tend, in no less degree, to render its downfall perfect..

Even the distance of the Spanish possessions in the South Seas were notsufficient to secure them from the petty depredations of private adventurers;the Buccaneers, as they were called, began to infest those seas ; and, expe-riencing the facility with which they were able to acquire wealth, sweptthose coasts with impunity from the equator to the tropics. I11 1643, theDutch sent an armament -f- thither, which attacked, and without the smallestdifficulty, made itself master of Baldivia, one of the principal ports belongingto the Spaniards in those seas. Such was the strange infatuation with which

* Van Trcmp, the Dutch admiral, who was chosen to oppose, and who overthrew this mightyarmament, is stated to have proceeded from the Texcl with a squadron not one fifth part equalling thatof the enemy. He was afterwards, indeed, considerably re-inforced ; but that circumstance by no meansdiminishes the lustre of his conduct, or takes from that implicit confidence which he appears to haveplaced in his own very superior abilities and skill. Among the Spanish ships which were destroyed,or fell into the hands of their enemies, are reckoned those of the vice-admiral of Spain, the admiral ofGallicia, and the great galleon of Portugal, which last is reported to have been upwards of 150 feet inlength, from the extremity of her stern to the foremost part of her prow, or head: to have been ofmore than 1400 tons measurement, and to have carried 80 guns, together with a crew consisting of800 men. That part of the armament which escaped, consisting only of a very inconsiderable squa-dron, afterwards reduced till its numbers ultimately reaching Dunkirk, as a port of safety, amounted toonly eight sail, were happy in finding a temporary asylum from the fury of their enemies under the pro-tection of the British cannon.

f 7'o counteract the reiterated attempts made by the Dutch to establish settlements in South America,Spain is reported to have equipped, at different times, not fewer than S00 vessels, 543 of which arereported to have either fallen into the hands of the Hollanders,, or to have been destroyed by them.

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