CHAPTER II.
Early English Colonisation
(1603-1688).
(1) ENGLAND'S SUCCESS IN COLONIZING.
1. As far as we have gone in our story we have followed the fortunes of England in the times of the Tudors, and have seen her rise to a high place among the nations as one of the great Sea Powers. So far we have spoken only of the making of England and its expansion into the "United Kingdom." What we have said, as yet, relates only to the laying of the foundation-stones on which the British Empire has been built. Our next task is to show how that empire began and how it afterwards grew and became great. When James I. came to the throne of England the King's Realm was limited to the Home Countries that form the United Kingdom. The rest of the empire has been acquired in the course of the three centuries that separate the death of Queen Elizabeth from that of Queen Victoria.
2. The expansion of the empire has been effected in three ways: (1) by peaceful occupation, (2) by force of arms, and (3) by friendly treaty. When the territory taken possession of was thinly occupied by wandering tribes, as in North America, or by mere savages, as in Australia, we have been able to gain an easy settlement without the sacrifice of many lives. Some countries have come to us as the fruit of conquest, examples of which we have in India, Canada, and Cape Colony. And certain territories we have acquired by purchase or by friendly arrangement with the native chiefs, as in the case of New Zealand and the Straits Settlements.
3. Of these possessions only a certain number are rightly termed colonies. True British colonies are settlements where men from our own shores have been able to make a permanent home, found a family, and rear children in robust health. Men of our stock can only plant such colonies where a temperate climate prevails, where wheat and other cereals thrive, and where flocks and herds can be successfully reared; such colonies we have in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
4. But the term "colony" has a wider application than this. We speak, for instance, of our West Indian colonies, where the climate is too hot for our race to flourish. Here the British resident is usually the owner of some plantation of sugar or tobacco, and for some years he superintends his crops, but always returns "home" as soon as he has made what he considers sufficient to live upon, in comfort, for the rest of his days. In fact, the term "colony" is generally applied to any of the British possessions beyond the seas, with the exception of India. And the whole of such possessions, with the same exception, may be conveniently referred to as our Colonial Empire.
5. It is now admitted on all sides that the British have surpassed all nations in the art of colonizing. Their success is due to a variety of causes, among which we may reckon their adventurous spirit, their love of liberty, their energy and enterprise. This spirit has made the Briton often restless and discontented with what he considers his humdrum life at home. It has driven him forth to seek a more varied and fuller life in the midst of dangers and difficulties, where he hopes to find free scope for his energies, and full liberty to follow his own bent and go his own way. But the mere spirit of adventure would not have insured success. That has come to him because he is gifted with great pluck, where fighting has to be done, with good staying power under stress and storm, with self-reliance when cut off from friends, and above all with a spirit of justice and fair-play.
6. Possessing these qualities he has been able to conquer his foes and afterwards to gain their good-will. When, for instance, the brave Sikhs of India were thoroughly beaten, they readily took service under our flag and helped us to put down the Sepoy Mutiny. To make the men you have conquered follow you gladly; that is the secret of empire. England's success in colonizing and ruling the native races within the borders of her realm is also largely due to the fact that she has avoided that common fault of most other nations in dealing with their colonies—over-governing, treating them as children needing precise rules and many restrictions. England, on the other hand, has seldom kept her colonies in leading-strings longer than it was necessary.
7. Much, however, of Britain's success in the management of her colonies is the result of experience, and the outcome of repeated failure, which is always ready to yield lessons of wisdom to those who are willing to learn. We did not learn all at once to set a true value on colonies. Their worth was measured, at first, by the amount of gold or silver that could be got out of them. It took some time for the truth to be clearly seen that the richest land is that which can feed most people.
8. If we wish now-a-days to ascertain the value of any colony to the motherland, we ask ourselves one or two such questions as these: Is it a country where our surplus population may make new permanent homes and bring up healthy families? Is it a country that offers a good field of commerce for our merchants? We usually find that "trade follows the flag." Where the Union Jack flies, there, as a rule, the people trade mostly with the home-country. In New Zealand, for instance, seven-tenths of the total trade is done with the United Kingdom.
9. We have thus learned to value our colonies chiefly as places for the reception of our surplus products and population. And our success in keeping them attached to the motherland and loyal to the old flag, that has "braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze," arises from the fact, that we leave them as free as possible to manage their own affairs and to spend their own money in their own way. And this is only right, for a colony has a great deal to do for itself which has been done for us in the old country by our forefathers. A young colony, like a young householder, has to furnish and set its house in order. It has, for example, to provide roads and bridges, railways, and telegraphs; it has to bank the rivers, drain the marshes, and clear the forests. It is, therefore, only right that no attempt should be made to tax our colonies or to restrict their trade for the benefit of the mother-country.
1. Sir Walter Raleigh made strenuous efforts, in the reign of Elizabeth, to found a colony in Virginia, but the men who first consented to go as emigrants, were not true colonists, but mere adventurers on the hunt for gold. Failing in their search for gold, they returned to England, taking with them a sample of the strange herb they had learnt from the Indians to smoke. Two further attempts made by Raleigh to colonize Virginia ended in failure and disaster.
2. The first offshoot of the English race destined to take root in America, sailed from England in the third year of James I.'s reign. After a tedious voyage the expedition entered Chesapeake Bay too late in the season for the seed they had brought with them to be sown that year (1607). Ascending a stream which they called the James River, they chose for the site of their settlement a peninsula about forty miles from its mouth, where they built a village of rude huts to which they gave the name of Jamestown, and which proved the first permanent settlement of the English in the New World.
3. It cannot be said that these emigrants deserved to succeed any better than those who preceded them. We can only wonder, after the sad experience already bought at such a heavy cost, that men of the same stamp should still be sent over as colonists. Most of the present company were mere idle adventurers and worthless fellows who had never done an honest day's work at home. The new colony, consequently, was soon in danger of extinction. In six months half of the settlers were swept away by disease, wretched food, and other hardships. The remnant owed its escape to the resource and energy of one of their number, John Smith, who is entitled to the honour of being the first to plant the English race within the borders of what is now the United States.
4. Smith was a true Briton in many things besides the name, a man who would "stand no nonsense," who on being chosen leader soon made it plain that no drones should live in the hive. He soon proved himself the head and heart of the whole colony. Having provided a plenteous store of deer's flesh, wild-fowl, and maize-bread for the winter—"for he was more wakeful to gather provisions than the covetous to find gold"—he left the camp to explore the country round. Whilst thus engaged, Smith had the misfortune to fall into the hands of Indians.
5. "I was brought," he says, "to the village where the great chief Powhatan has his spacious wigwam. There they performed a war-dance around me, every one in the ring brandishing his weapons. One of my captors having been wounded, I cried out that at Jamestown I had some medicine to cure him. They would not let me fetch it; but I was permitted to send a letter, in which I asked my friends to put what I wanted under a great rock outside the town. To the astonishment of the Indian messengers who delivered my letter, the things I had promised were found by them the next day at the appointed place. On their return every one was full of wonder because of the 'talking-leaf.'"
6. "They thought it was all due to magic, and met in council to decide my fate. Some feared to put me to death, others feared to let me live. After a long and solemn talk there was a dead silence, whilst a huge stone was dragged into the centre, and I was forced to kneel down beside it, Indians standing around with their heavy clubs. At this critical moment the chief's daughter, Pocahontas, a young girl of ten or twelve, flew to my side and, spreading her arms over me pleaded for my life. Another council was held, and I was set free."
7. Meanwhile everything had fallen into confusion at Jamestown, and Smith had much ado to keep the men from sailing away in the pinnace. In the following spring another party of emigrants arrived, composed mostly of mere reckless adventurers, whose one object was to find gold. "When you send again," Smith wrote to the Council at home, "I entreat you rather send but thirty carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers up of trees' roots than a thousand of such as we have.... Nothing is to be won here but by honest toil." Under Smith's rule the colony passed safely through another winter, and then an explosion of a bag of gunpowder slung around his neck, rendered him for a time useless, and he returned to England.
8. The colony went to pieces in Smith's absence, and within six months of his departure it was reduced to a miserable remnant of sixty persons, supporting themselves mainly on roots and berries. They were on the point of abandoning their settlement and had just reached the mouth of the river when they were astonished by the sight of a ship coming up to meet them. The ship was the forerunner of a small squadron, under the command of Lord de la Warr, who had been sent to the relief of the colony.
9. The turning-point had come. The new governor had brought provisions for a year and a large band of emigrants. He assembled the old settlers, sternly rebuked them for their "sluggish idleness," and entreated them to amend their ways, and so avoid the sword of justice, which he was determined to wield. It is amusing to read the old chronicler's idea of hard work. "Let not any man," says he, "be discouraged by the relation of their daily labour. It began at six and went on till ten, and again from two to four when they went to church, and after that returned home and received their rations."
10. With the coming of Lord de la Warr, the prospects of the colony began to brighten and progress to be made. The first decided step onward was taken when a few acres of land were assigned to each settler for his orchard and garden and other private uses. Hitherto all had been expected to work for the common good, and the result had been reluctant labour and waste of time, the few willing to work having no heart to do so, when the majority were idly whiling away the time. Hence we see the advantage of giving every man the right to hold private property.
11. The colonists for some little time lost much of their labour in growing grapes, but on turning their chief attention and care to the cultivation of tobacco, they found themselves on the highway to prosperity. Very soon the fields, the gardens, the public squares, even the sides of the streets of Jamestown, were planted with tobacco for the English market. Few women had as yet dared to cross the Atlantic, but the growing prosperity of the colony induced ninety women to throw in their lot with their countrymen in Virginia. They were not long in finding husbands. Thus arose new English homes in the land beyond the seas. England's first colony had taken root, and in time a new English nation sprang therefrom.
THE PILGRIM FATHERS LEAVING ENGLAND.
12. From the many blunders made in trying to found our first colony, we learned how to secure success in similar undertakings in future. Virginia served as our school of wisdom and experience in planting colonies; we had still to learn, by losing her and her sister states, how to keep colonies within the empire after planting them.
1. The second English colony in America was founded, in 1620, by a very different class of persons from those reckless adventurers who, in Elizabeth's reign, threw away their lives in Virginia. The founders of New England, as this second colony was named, were a devoted band of earnest persons, knit together by religious ties, who went out there as pilgrims in search of a land where they could enjoy religious freedom.
2. The "Pilgrim Fathers," as many love to call them, belonged to the religious body known as "Puritans." The Puritans thought that the English Church needed further reform, and many of them refused to attend divine worship in the parish churches as the law directed. For their disobedience, they had been fined and in other ways punished. When James I. came to the throne, they hoped to be left free to worship God as they thought best. In this they were, unhappily, doomed to disappointment.
3. King James was exceedingly bitter against the Puritans, and said, "I will make them conform, or harry them out of the land." And out of the land the more zealous resolved to go. They first sought an asylum in Holland; but they could not feel at home there, for the language and manners of the Dutch seemed to them harsh and uncouth. At last they were moved to make real English homes for themselves across the Atlantic.
4. They knew from the reports that had come to them that they must expect much toil and suffering. "But we are well weaned," wrote their pastor, "from the delicate milk of the mother-country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land; the people are industrious and frugal. We are knit together as a body in a most sacred covenant of the Lord, by virtue whereof we hold ourselves strictly tied to all care of each other's good and of the whole. It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage."
5. Accordingly, a little company of one hundred and twenty, including men, women, and children, set sail from Plymouth in the Mayflower, bound for the country round the river Hudson. But the captain of the Mayflower, either mistaking his course, or driven out of it, brought his ship to anchor in the harbour of Cape Cod, on a barren and bleak coast in Massachusetts. The country was then buried in snow, and the whole winter was before them. There were none to show them kindness or bid them welcome, but they were not disheartened.
6. The first thing was to choose a good spot for the settlement. An exploring party landed, but after several days discovered nothing of value but a heap of maize in a deserted Indian village. Many graves were scattered about the country, but no Indians were seen. They afterwards learnt that a pestilence had swept off the Indians in that part, so that no difficulty arose from the hostility of the natives.
7. Meanwhile the carpenter had been busy repairing their large boat or shallop. As soon as it was ready a party set off to explore the coast. The cold was so severe that the spray of the waves froze as it fell on them, making their clothes like coats of steel. On the third day, the pilot of the shallop, who had been in those regions before, assures them that they can reach a good harbour before nightfall. After some hours' sailing, a storm of snow and rain breaks upon them: the sea swells, the rudder breaks, the boat must now be steered with oars; the storm increases and night is at hand. To reach the harbour before dark, as much sail as possible is borne; the mast breaks into three pieces and the sail falls overboard. But the tide is favourable, and as darkness sets in, they enter a fair harbour, and step ashore wet, and cold, and weak.
8. Morning, as it dawned, showed the place to be a small island in a well-sheltered bay. Here they remained for a day to recruit, and as the next day was the "Christian Sabbath," they felt bound to rest and "keep it holy." On Monday the exploring party made their way to the mainland. The granite boulder on which they stepped on landing has ever since been treasured by their descendants. Here the "Pilgrim Fathers" resolved to settle. They called the town, which in time grew up on this spot, New Plymouth, in memory of the port from which they had last set sail.
9. No holiday-task lay before the settlers. Huts had to be built in the intervals of rain and snow. Meanwhile the Mayflower was their home, but so ill provided were they for enduring the rigours of winter that by cold or famine half the company were cut off before the spring. In April, the vessel which had sheltered them so long sailed away for England, leaving the survivors ready to bear their hard lot with a stout heart. Thrifty and industrious as they were, their progress was very slow; and at the end of ten years they numbered only three hundred souls. They had, however, struck deep root and remained steadfast. "Let it not be grievous unto you," some of their brethren in England had written to them in the midst of their sufferings, "that yours has been the task to break the ice for others. The honour shall be yours to the world's end."
10. At last the time came for a large increase of their numbers from home. In 1630 seven hundred emigrants set sail for the land of freedom in the West; for Charles I. was now on the throne and had begun his arbitrary rule. Before the assembling of the Long Parliament (1640), which carried on the struggle that ended with the execution of the king, no less than two hundred emigrant ships, carrying twenty thousand Englishmen, had crossed the Atlantic. Nor were these men the waifs and strays, the mere wreckage of society, but men of means and character, ready to risk all for the privilege of serving God according to their conscience. As the ships bore them away out of sight of their native land, they remembered it, not with feelings of bitterness for the ill treatment they had received on account of their religion, but as the home of their fathers. As its shores faded from their sight there arose from every heart the tender cry, "Farewell, dear England!"
1. We have now sketched out the circumstances attending the planting of our first two colonies—Virginia and New England. Between these two colonies was planted another, called Maryland, in honour of Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I.
2. Maryland was in most respects a highly-favoured colony. It was founded, in 1633, by Lord Baltimore, who seems to have risen above most men of his age in his readiness to tolerate men of a different faith from his own. Baltimore declared himself a Catholic, and was desirous of providing a home in America for men of his creed, since they were debarred from the free exercise of their religion in England. Neither Virginia nor New England would have suited his purpose; none but members of the Church of England were welcomed in the former, and none but Puritans of the strictest order were tolerated in the latter.
3. It was otherwise ordered in Maryland. "No person within this province," ran the earliest law of the colony, "professing to be a Christian, shall be in any way troubled or molested for his or her religion, or in the free exercise thereof." Due consideration also was shown to the rights of the natives. The first act of the governor was to purchase land from the Indians, and with their consent he took possession of a village, which he named St. Mary's. The settlers then went resolutely to work, learning all they could from the natives, whose goodwill it was easy to gain by presents of cloth and axes, of hoes and knives.
The Indian women taught the wives of the new comers to make bread of maize; the warriors of the tribe gave many valuable hints in hunting and fishing. Thus the foundation of Maryland was peacefully and happily laid. In six months it advanced more than Virginia had done in as many years.
4. In the course of the next hundred years such progress was made in building up a new English nation on the other side of the Atlantic, that no less than thirteen flourishing colonies, including the three already mentioned, were established in what is now the United States. But as these colonies have long ceased to form part of our empire we do not propose to give here any further details respecting them. We cannot, however, but feel proud of the fact that the great American nation has sprung mainly from our race, that it speaks our language, that its laws are based on ours, and that it inherits our love of justice and freedom.
5. Whilst the colonies that have since grown into the United States were taking root, our countrymen settled in some of the American islands, which have since become valuable possessions. An English vessel bound for Virginia, when it was an infant colony, happened to be wrecked on one of the Bermuda islands. The Bermudas form a cluster of a hundred small islands, and in one of the recesses of the inland sea, which they enclose, is a splendid harbour with an entrance so narrow as to render it beyond the reach of attack. Seeing the value of these islands as a secure refuge for our shipping in the North Atlantic, the shipwrecked mariner took possession in the name of King James, and ever since they have remained in our hands as a military post and naval station of no mean importance.
6. In the West India Islands also the English, in spite of the Spaniards, gained a footing, Barbados being their earliest settlement in that quarter. The first recorded visit of Englishmen was in the year 1605, when the crew of the "Olive Blossom" landed, and erected a cross as a memorial of the event, cutting at the same time upon the bark of a tree, "James, King of England and of this island." Barbados was the first English colony in which the sugar-cane was planted, and sugar soon became a great source of wealth to the planters. The civil war in the reign of Charles I. induced many Englishmen to cast in their lot with the settlers of this little island in the summer seas. Many of the West India Islands have changed hands more than once, but Barbados from its first settlement, in 1624, has remained in our possession.
7. Jamaica, the largest of our West India colonies, fell as easily as a ripe fruit into English hands in the days of Cromwell's rule. Cromwell took great pride in his new colony, and aided the colonists very materially by sending some thousands of Scottish prisoners of war after his victory at Worcester, to work in the sugar plantations. These men after a few years became free labourers, and many worked their way, as Scotsmen know how, to high place and fortune.
8. Newfoundland claims to be the oldest British colony. True, it was taken possession of by Gilbert in the name of Queen Elizabeth, but no regular settlement was made there until long afterwards. The island was inhabited mainly by a floating population that came and went. Some thousands of fishermen came in spring, and on the approach of winter re-embarked with the cod they had caught and cured. The English government wanted no regular settlers here. They wished to preserve the island simply as a fishing-station, and the fisheries as nurseries for the navy. In spite of all discouragement settlers constantly increased, but more than a hundred years passed, after Gilbert took possession, before the first governor was appointed.
9. The country around Hudson Bay was claimed by the English by right of discovery. Hudson Strait and Bay recall the name of Henry Hudson, who, in the service of King James, first entered and explored these seas. His fate is, perhaps, the saddest that any of the brave men, engaged in discoveries in these icy regions, have suffered. The crew mutinied, and Hudson, with his son and seven others, was turned adrift in a small boat and never afterwards heard of.
10. The Hudson Bay Company was authorised by Charles II. in 1670, to take possession of the lands around Hudson Bay. It was soon found that the country was too cold for colonists to settle in it, but that a valuable fur trade could be carried on. "Forts," or trading-stations, were accordingly set up on the shores of the Bay, and trade was opened with the Indian trappers who came once a year with their annual catch of furs.
11. Each summer a ship arrived from London, bringing all that the Indian most needed or most fancied, such as guns, knives, axes, spirits, looking-glasses, blankets, beads, and trinkets of all sorts. When these had been properly arranged in the great room of the fort, the traffic began. The Indians were first admitted to the outer room with their bundles of furs. Each skin was examined and the price decided on was paid in the form of little coloured sticks. With these counters each red man passed into the inner room and exchanged them for such articles as he wished to purchase.
12. Before concluding this short sketch of the progress made in English colonization during the reigns of the Stuarts, justice compels us to say that the "Merry Monarch"—who is supposed never to have said a foolish thing, and never to have done a wise one—acted wisely on behalf of his colonies. He established a Colonial Council to take the oversight of all the colonies and see to their welfare. They were to arrange for a common system of government and trade, to assist the right sort of people to emigrate, and to bind the mother-country and the colonies together by schemes for mutual help.
(5) STRUGGLE FOR THE MASTERY AT SEA.
1. Britain has long been acknowledged mistress of the seas, and our very existence as a nation, still more as an empire, depends on our being able to keep that position; for it is only by command of the sea that we can defend the scattered parts of our empire, and make sure of being fed at home, seeing that a large part of our food comes from abroad. England began to be a great Sea Power when the Spanish Armada was destroyed (1588), but more than a hundred years had yet to pass before she could lay undisputed claim to the foremost place upon the seas. Meanwhile, a great struggle took place between the Dutch and English for the leading place.
2. No braver or more skilful seamen ever sailed the seas than our Dutch rivals. Holland was at last obliged to yield the palm, because she had to defend her borders from attack by France on land whilst carrying on war with England at sea. We owe much to the fact that our land is encircled by the sea. Hence Shakespeare speaks of it as
"This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands."
3. Had James I. been like the great queen whom he succeeded, Holland would probably not have got the start of England, as she did, when he was king. Under his timid government our nation sank to a low place among the Powers of Europe, whilst Holland stepped forward and took our place as the rival of Spain, and in the course of a few years made herself the first maritime state in the world. The Dutch became great ship-builders, and in their ships carried on the trade of a large part of Europe. They became in fact the great ocean carriers of the day, holding the position which is now held by ourselves; or to quote the writer of Fights for the Flag—"They swept the Spanish flag from the seas. The carrying trade of the world was in their hands. They fished in all waters, traded in all ports, gathered the wealth of the world under all skies, and, as far as marine qualities were concerned, might almost have been web-footed."
4. During our Civil War, in the reign of Charles I., the Dutch profited much by our home troubles. Much of the English trade fell into their hands, their ships being largely employed in carrying goods to and from our English ports. But no sooner was King Charles executed than steps were taken to revive English shipping. In the early days of the Commonwealth a Navigation Act was passed, which struck a serious blow at the Dutch carrying trade. By this Act it was ordered that no goods should be imported into England except in English vessels, or in those belonging to the country in which the goods were produced.
5. The Dutch regarded this Act as a dagger aimed at their heart. There was another thing which rankled within them. English ships of war had for centuries claimed the right to require all foreign ships to salute them by lowering their topsails, or striking their flag, whenever they met in the narrow waters of the English Channel; and now, under the rule of Cromwell, the captains of our warships were ordered to enforce this claim. Before long "the greatest naval power of the day and the greatest naval power of the future" launched their forces against each other—the Dutch under their celebrated admiral, Van Tromp, and the English under Robert Blake, who became equally famous.
6. The English were first afloat. Blake sailed north to sweep the Dutch fishermen off the coasts of England and Scotland; for the poaching of the Hollanders had been one of the grievances which brought on the war. This was an easy task. The enemy's guard-ships were taken or sunk, the cargoes of poached herrings were thrown into the sea; but the fishermen's boats were spared by the English Admiral, since they belonged, as he said, to poor families and formed their only means of a livelihood. Dutch merchantmen returning from the Indies were snapped up in the Channel and sent as prizes up the Thames in scores. Very soon Van Tromp was on the heels of our admiral with a magnificent fleet, but a storm so battered his ships that he had to return and refit.
7. On the approach of winter the English fleet broke up for their winter quarters; for at that time the thought of a winter campaign never entered men's minds. Van Tromp, however, was daring enough to face the winter storms and take the risk. He suddenly appeared off the Downs with ninety sail. Blake could only muster half that number, but he thought it more honourable to risk a battle than seek safety in flight. The unequal contest went on doggedly till dusk, when Blake withdrew his shattered fleet into the Thames after three of his ships had been sunk and two taken.
8. Van Tromp now sailed the Channel, it is said, with a broom at the mast-head of his ship as a sign that he had "swept the English from the Channel." The English did not regard the result of the battle with dismay. On the contrary, the reports of the battle were read with pride; and the Council of State thanked Blake for his services. The real battle which should decide the question of superiority at sea had yet to be fought.
9. Van Tromp's triumph with the broom at his masthead did not last long. In less than three months the English were again on the sea with a powerful fleet, and took up their station off Portland. They had no need to go in search of Tromp, for he could not help bringing the merchant-ships that he was escorting home right past them. At length he was seen coming up the Channel with a huge convoy of at least 150 sail under his wing. His warships were between them and the English. The moment had come, and every sailor in the two ships felt it, to test their prowess. It was the first time the two great admirals had met on equal terms.
10. The close and desperate fighting that ensued told sorely on both sides. A hundred men fell on board the English admiral's flag-ship; and at the end of the day the ship itself, which had gone foremost into battle, had its masts down, its rigging gone, and its hull riddled. Some of its shattered sisters were glad enough to crawl into Portsmouth. Of the Dutch ships one was burnt, one blown up, and six taken or sunk.
11. During the night the two fleets continued working slowly along the Channel eastwards. Van Tromp had his men-of-war in the form of a crescent with the convoy between its horns. With daylight came a renewal of the fighting which lasted until sunset. Never was sterner fighting done. One Dutch captain, for instance, when grappled on each side by an English ship, set fire to his own vessel that the three might burn together. The English, however, drew off, leaving the Dutchman to its fate.
12. The dawn of the third day saw the brave old Tromp still keeping guard like a hen over her brood of chickens. His line, however, was on that day broken through, and then an exciting chase followed, which ended in the capture of some fifty merchant-ships. Two other desperate battles took place the same year, and both ended favourably for England. On the last day of the last battle, the grand old Dutch admiral was pierced to the heart with a musket-ball.
13. This war dealt a severe blow to the Dutch carrying-trade, and brought Holland to the brink of ruin. "The Zuyder Zee," it is said, "became a forest of masts; the country was full of beggars; grass grew in the streets, and in Amsterdam fifteen hundred houses were empty." Peace with England (1654) alone saved the Dutch from utter ruin. And this peace left England, for the time at least, mistress of the seas.
(6) OUR GREAT "GENERAL-AT-SEA."
1. Robert Blake, whose victories at sea are second only to those of Nelson, was not learned in the arts of seamanship. In his day it was quite usual for generals to take command at sea, leaving the navigation of the ships in the hands of the "Masters." Blake, however, did not fight the less well because he went to sea in full military uniform, including his top-boots. In the excitement of battle some of these "Admirals-in-spurs" forgot the language of the sea. It is said that General Monk, in the middle of a sea-fight, sent a shout of laughter round his own decks by giving the order, as to cavalry, "wheel to the left."
2. Blake, our great "General-at-Sea" had all the qualities of a great commander, except perhaps his outward look and mien. He was a little man, of rather a melancholy turn, and chary of his words. He had however, that magnetic influence over his men that bespeaks the true leader—the influence that made them ready to follow wherever he led the way, regardless of chances and risks. He was also beloved by them for his constant care and thought for their welfare. He set himself, with all his heart and strength, to remove all abuses from the navy and to introduce numberless reforms. None knew better that success in the day of battle depends greatly upon previous attention to what seems "little things."
3. Blake had no ends of his own to serve. In the face of any question that presented itself, his one thought was, "What do the interest and honour of England require?" The watchword of his life was that grand word DUTY, which Nelson set before the eyes of his sailors on the morning of Trafalgar. These two great admirals are well linked together by the poet Campbell in his famous sea-song:—
"The spirit of your fathers
Shall start from every wave—
For the deck it was their field of fame,
And Ocean was their grave:
Where Blake and mighty Nelson fell
Your manly hearts shall glow,
As you sweep through the deep,
While the stormy winds do blow;
While the battle rages loud and long
And the stormy winds do blow."
4. No sooner had our great admiral ended the war with the Dutch, in the way already described, than he was despatched by Cromwell with a powerful fleet to the Mediterranean, which had long been infested by pirates in league with the Governors, or Deys, of the Barbary States. These pirates not only seized the cargoes of the merchant ships, but sold their crews and passengers into slavery.
5. When Blake, in the course of his cruise, appeared before Tunis and demanded the release of all Christian prisoners and slaves, the Dey pointed defiantly to his castles at the entrance of the harbour and his nine cruisers anchored beneath their guns. Blake replied by leading in his ships and cannonading the Dey's batteries at close range. When this terrible hail of shot had dismounted the enemy's guns, the admiral lowered his long-boats, and having manned each with a picked crew sent them through the smoke straight at the pirate ships. Cutlasses, pikes, and pistols first did their deadly work and then firebrands did the rest. When the English fleet put out to sea that night every one of the Dey's ships was wrapped in flames.
6. This exploit marks a turning-point in our commercial history. Hitherto merchant vessels were expected to protect themselves and take the risks of capture. Blake's round of the Mediterranean, with his ships of war, let princes and pirates know that henceforth any wrong done to an English vessel would be avenged as a national insult, that to attack a ship flying the flag of England would be regarded as an attack upon England itself. As soon as it was seen that England's arm was long enough, and ready enough, to strike at all offenders on the seas, the English began to take the foremost place as "carriers of the sea," for foreign merchants soon came to the belief that their goods would be safest where the flag of England insured protection.
7. Blake's next great object was to sap the power of Spain with whom Cromwell had gone to war to enforce England's claim to trade with the Spanish colonies of America. Annually there came to Spain from the Western World a great fleet, known as the "plate fleet," freighted with gold and silver, quicksilver and pearls, sugar, hides, and dye-wood. To cut off these supplies was to sever the sinews of war at a stroke. For nearly two years Blake kept watch outside Cadiz for the expected plate-ships, but they had run into harbour at Santa Cruz, under the great peak of Teneriffe, and were waiting there until the way home was clear. Here, at length, Blake resolved to come and burn the ships he saw no hope of capturing.
8. Santa Cruz was then one of the strongest naval stations in the world. The harbour, shaped like a horseshoe, was defended at the entrance and sides by forts, armed with heavy guns, and well garrisoned. Armed vessels were moored in a semi-circle at the bottom of the harbour and in front of them were stationed the royal galleons that had escorted the plate-fleet across the Atlantic. Blake must have seen at once that these ships would act as a screen between his own squadron and the great Spanish batteries on the shore, that one-half of the Spanish force would get in the way of the other in resisting an attack.
9. Our great sea-general knew well the kind of place he was about to assail, but judged that his ships were equal to the task. At any rate he resolved to make the daring attempt, a solemn prayer being first of all offered on board each ship to the great Disposer of events. Wind and tide favouring, anchors were weighed, and in a brief space of time the castles at the entrance were passed, and the ships stationed for the attack.
10. For four hours the old peak of Teneriffe looked down upon a scene which might seem like an imitation of his own volcanic outbursts. The Spaniards fought with great courage, but Blake's fire, by its speed and deadly aim, was overwhelming. By two o'clock the battle was clearly won. Two of the Spanish galleons had gone down, and every other Spanish ship in the harbour was in flames. The most extraordinary thing now happened to complete the English triumph. Just at the right moment the wind veered round and enabled the whale squadron to leave the harbour without the loss of a single ship, though many of course were too much battered for further service.
11. Blake, like Nelson, was not permitted to return home alive to receive the thanks and homage of his admiring countrymen. The fleet, headed by his battered flagship, the George, had passed the Eddystone and was seen approaching Plymouth harbour. The Hoe was crowded with thousands waiting to welcome their hero home. But at that moment, all unknown to them, Blake lay dying in his cabin. Just as the George dropped her anchor, the hero drew his last breath (1657). His corpse was carried in state to Westminster Abbey and there buried. Never has England had a more devoted and unselfish servant, nor the English sailor a kinder and nobler captain.
12. The warships of England now rode triumphant on the seas. But their triumph did not long remain unchallenged. Throughout a large part of Charles II.'s reign, the English and the Dutch strove constantly for the mastery. Having to defend their homes against the French, the Dutch, at last, felt compelled to retire from the struggle with England for the sovereignty of the seas. In 1674 they finally made peace with England ceding the island of St. Helena—of some value as a place of call to ships sailing to and from the East Indies—and admitting England's claim to a salute from all foreign ships passing through the "narrow seas" around her coasts.