From Rotterdam I went thro’ Maeslandsluys to the Brille, a well fortified Town upon the Maese, near the Mouth of that River. This Town is famous in the History of the Netherlands, because in the Year 1572, William de Lumai, Count de la Marck, and some of his Confederates, who went out to Sea, to avoid falling into the Hands of the Duke of Alva, took it by Surprize, and there laid the first Foundations of the Liberty of the United Provinces.
When I left the Brille, I came to Helvoetsluys, the saddest Place in all Holland. The Winds, which have been boisterous for some Days, hinder the Packet-Boat and me from setting out
for England. In the mean time, I am very ill here. I am cramm’d twice a Day with boil’d Ducks, roasted Ducks, and others tossed up with a high Ragoû, and yet I am ask’d if I will not please to have more Seasoning. Perhaps it was this Town only that a certain Frenchman had seen, when he said that he had taken Notice of but three Things in Holland, and they began all three with the Syllable Ca, viz. Canals, Canards (Ducks), and Canaille, i. e. Mob; for certainly there are other Things to be seen in the rest of Holland, where there are as many genteel People as in any Country in the World. Nay, I dare affirm, that a certain Candour prevails here, which is perhaps not so general elsewhere. ’Tis rare for a Dutchman to know the Arts of Tricking and Cheating, and he is of a friendly Disposition, if his Purse be out of the Question. If they were not so much in Love with their Money, there would be as few Faults to find with this Nation as any. I could like to live with ’em very well. When one treats them with Civility, one may do any thing with ’em. And it was a Saying of the Emperor Charles V. You must give the Dutch good Words, leave ’em the Shadow of Liberty, but make them pay well for it.
Be these People as much as they will for their own Interest, they are charitable, and would have every one live. They have not perhaps that gay Wit, which is of all Things so taking; but then they have good Sense. I have often taken a Place in the Boats, on purpose to hear what was said there; and have been surprised to find the common People talk of Trade, of the Interests of the State, and of other Countries, of the Manners of different People, of the History of their own Country, and in short, of a thousand other Things, with more Justness, perhaps, than a great many
Epigrammatists, Stanza-makers, and Rhymesters could do elsewhere.
For the rest, this Country is as charming in some Things, as it is disagreeable in others. ’Tis certain, that the People are now and then too insolent; yet a Dutchman does not care to be the first to give an Affront; and unless a Foreigner provokes him by his Pride, or his Pertness, he will indulge himself in his Phlegm.
I can’t imagine why Foreigners take a Pleasure to run down Holland, as a Country where they have been skinn’d. This might have been the Case with ’em in such a Hole as Helvoetsluys, or else at Rotterdam, when one Carpentier, a French Refugee, kept the Sign there of the Marshal de Turenne; but ’tis not so in a good Town, where every Foreigner, I mean such as are willing to be sociable, and to eat at the Landlord’s Table, know what they have for their Money. The Ordinary is settled, Wine, Lodging, and every Thing at a certain Price. Suppers are the only Meals that plunge deep in a Man’s Purse, of which a Foreigner must be cautious. As to Carriages, either by Land or Water, the Fare is fixed; and ’tis impossible for a Man to be cheated, unless it be in frosty Weather, when ’tis certain one is at the Mercy both of the Watermen and Coachmen.
’Tis wrong also for some Foreigners to cry out, as they do, against Justice, which I find more impartial here than elsewhere. But it does not always act with the Vivacity which a Foreigner would wish for, who often has neither the Time, nor the Means, nor the Inclination to wait for it. He then finds fault with Justice, when he ought rather to blame the Situation of his Affairs.
I fear that you will be angry with me for having abused your Attention by this long Letter,
which I now conclude, by assuring you, that nobody can be more intirely than I am, &c.