Antwerp, Belgium, December 7th, 1872.
Editor Deseret News:
We arrived at Haarlem en route to Amsterdam, on Wednesday, the fourth of December. It is a town of considerable importance, containing thirty thousand inhabitants—in former periods the residence of the Counts of Holland. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, during the Spanish war, the citizens of Haarlem, after suffering seven months' siege, in which they endured the severest hardships, were forced to capitulate. Ten thousand people on that occasion perished by famine or lost their lives in the terrible encounters of those bloody struggles. The commandant and the Protestant clergy, together with two thousand townspeople, were barbarously executed, after having surrendered. Frederick of Toledo, son of the Duke of Alva, commanded the besiegers, and had given solemn assurances of life and honorable treatment. We saw traces of a striking character still remaining as sad mementoes of the atrocious deeds.
St. Bavon, erected about three hundred and seventy years ago, is the principal church in Haarlem. This is a magnificent structure, four hundred and twenty-five feet in length; its nave is supported by twenty-eight massive columns, eighteen feet in circumference. This church is renowned for its famous organ, which, for a long time, has been considered the largest and most powerful in the world. It has four key boards, sixty-four stops, five thousand metal and two thousand wooden pipes; the largest of these pipes is thirty-two feet long, and fifteen inches in diameter. It is very beautiful—adorned with marble statuary, life size, and in attractive attitudes, representing personages playing on instruments of various descriptions. We employed the organist and three or four blowers to exhibit its merits. Imitations of different tones of the pianoforte, the trumpet, whistle, battle call, sacred music, closing with a tremendous thunder storm, all were executed with admirable accuracy, fully satisfying us as to its wonderful capabilities.
We saw a cannon ball, which was nearly buried in the wall, having been thrown through an opposite window from a Spanish gun during the siege above mentioned.
While exploring this church for objects of curiosity, we were interrupted by the approach of a wedding party, which afforded some diversion, especially to our young tourists, who had never witnessed a Dutch wedding. The bride and groom were accompanied by a grave clerical gentleman, to whom we bowed with becoming reverence, and with smiles of our hearty approval to the happy groom and blushing bride. As we discovered nothing in the ceremonies surprisingly characteristic, I omit description.
In front of this church is a bronze statue of Koster, formerly a citizen of Haarlem, representing him as the inventor of the art of printing.
Having spent two hours in that interesting town, we took cars for Amsterdam, where we arrived about half-past 3 p.m. Amsterdam is the great commercial city of Holland, numbering two hundred and seventy-five thousand inhabitants, of whom fifty-seven thousand are Roman Catholics, and twenty-eight thousand Jews. It is built over a salt marsh, upon piles driven from forty to fifty feet into the ground. We were informed that one house only, in this city, stands on any other foundation. These people apparently feel as secure upon these wooden posts as if founded on solid ground, although at one period this faith in their safety was fearfully shaken. While busied in making canals and windmills—smoking their pipes, unsuspicious of danger, the enemy in vast numbers had succeeded in securing a lodgment beneath the city and commenced mining and sapping the entire substructure—penetrating and cutting into the very heart of these underpinnings. These fearful invaders were wood worms! They were honeycombing the wooden piles with alarming rapidity, threatening to tumble all Amsterdam into the great salt marsh. The whole city was in consternation. Every Dutchman's ingenuity and military tactics were called into requisition to devise measures to rout the enemy. Some of the crusaders were captured while working the trenches, and submitted to the inspection of zoologists, in hopes of discovering some vulnerable point susceptible of attack, but all to no purpose—still they were mining and sapping, boring and eating, and, by millions, doubling and quadrupling. At last, however, these belligerents ended their hostilities after the same fashion as Bonaparte's army in Russia—the Holland winter finished them, It appears that these insects had been imported by some vessel from a warm climate—the colder regions of the north compelling them to succumb and leave the honest Dutchman to smoke his meerschaum in peace and security. Living specimens of these insects are preserved in the Cabinet of Zoologists in Amsterdam, where they may be seen by the tourist.
The expense of these foundations for building frequently exceeds that of their superstructures. The neglect of proper attention to this matter is liable to result in disaster. An extensive warehouse, containing three thousand five hundred tons of grain, was precipitated into the marsh, in consequence of the inefficiency of the foundation.
The city is about nine miles in circumference—intersected by numerous canals, dividing it into nearly one hundred islands, which circumstance, in connection with other resemblances, has given it the title of the "Venice of the North." Many of these canals are very broad—flanked with avenues of tall elms, presenting a handsome and picturesque appearance, comparing favorably with the finest streets in any city we have visited. Two hundred and eighty bridges form the crossings of these canals. A reservoir about thirteen miles distant supplies the inhabitants with drinking water, which is conveyed in pipes.