But the English were not content to undergo all this offence and ill-usage without showing that they could fight, and were prepared to maintain their position on the high seas. The measures taken in this sense are described in the following despatch, dated 14th August 1635, from Admiral Lord Lindsey to Secretary Coke:—"On Saturday last, speaking with the post of Dover that plys to Dunkirk, the writer found him unwilling to undergo the service any longer, unless he were better provided to resist the violences offered him. The earl encouraged him, and lent him fifteen men, well fitted with muskets and half-pikes and swords, and sent them aboard his ketch. On Sunday morning they went off from Dover, and in the afternoon were chased awhile by a shallop, and then by a Holland man-of-war that made six great shots at them. The Sampson, which the writer had the day before employed to sea, was in their sight, but they durst not bear up to him, for then they had been overtaken; but keeping upon a tack, they were too swift for the man-of-war, who, after five hours' chase, left them in open sea. The next morning, between Gravelines and Calais, the same shallop that used to rob the post came to the ketch, as near as a man might throw a biscuit into her. The master of the ketch had stowed all the men within, there to remain until he should give the watchword, when they were to appear and give fire. The shallop shot four or five times at the ketch, and hailed the master and the rest in such English as one of them could speak, crying out, 'English dogs! strike, you English rogues! we will be with you presently,' the chief of them, in a red coat, flourishing his falchion over his head. Hereupon the master gave the word; and the men came out, pouring shot so fast into the shallop that the French had not power to return one shot, but rowed away with a matter of four using oars that were left of about sixteen men. It was a dead calm, and the ketch had neither oars nor boat to help her, otherwise she had brought away the shallop and the remainder of the men. The post has desired the same supply again for his defence on Sunday next; the writer has taken order accordingly, and furnished him also with letters of safe-conduct."
In the following month, September, another outrage upon the mail boat was committed. Waad, the deputy postmaster of Dover, gives an account of the transaction, and a capture made thereafter, in a letter to his chief, Witherings, on the 26th September. He writes: "The manner of taking the boats by those that were laid in Dover Castle was: that the Zealanders shot at them divers times, when one of the packet boatmen struck sail and showed the Lord General's warrant, which they slighted, and were like to stab the old man whom Waad trusts with the mail, with base words to His Majesty. The place was off the Splinter, betwixt Gravelines and Dunkirk. The day was the 2nd instant; and on the 3rd, setting out another boat with the mail, one of the ketch told Waad that he saw the captain that took them and some of his men; whereupon, about twelve in the night, he called the watch and carried the captain and other two to the town jail, having paid Sir William Monson's gentlemen's dinners and horse-hires to acquaint the Lord General in the forenoon before that the vessel was in Dover road. Whereupon Sir William Monson came into the road and took the ship out, and sent his boat after ashore. The prisoners being claimed by Sir William Monson, and also by Mr. Moore, Secretary to the Lord Warden, the Mayor adjudged to Sir William, who carried them to the Lord General. After examination, he returned them to Dover Castle; but their ship was cleared in the Downs, and on the Sunday morning took a bylander of Bruges; also that night the prisoners made escape out of the castle by a mat twisted very laboriously." The meaning of this last sentence probably is, that these sailors untwisted the strands of a mat, then spun the material into a kind of rope, and let themselves down from their cell in the castle.
Again, in February 1636, another outrage was perpetrated on the packet boat. The particulars are furnished by the examination of William Dadds, master; Harry Hendy, passenger; and Richard Swan, servant to William Dadds. They swore as follows:—"The Earl of Lindsey authorised His Majesty's passage boat at Dover to wear a flag of His Majesty's colours upon the rudder-head. It hath secured the said boat from the Dutch, the French, and Spaniards ever since till Tuesday last; at which time the said boat, riding at anchor by Dunkirk harbour, near the Splinter fort, with the said flag, there came down from the said fort three musketeers, and shot three or four volleys of shot at the said packet boat, and in the hull of the said boat some of the shot are still to be seen. They retired to the said fort, and shot one piece of great ordnance at the said boat. The three musketeers began to beat the said R. Swan with a crabtree cudgel of two inches about; they came aboard, searched the packet boat, and fetched W. Dadds ashore, and made him pay 20s. in money, which H. Hendy laid down to prevent imprisonment. The master and his company, in the dark of the night, set sail and came away. The serjeant-major and the soldiers gave no other reason, than because they came not on shore to fetch the searcher on board; and if they did not the next time come to fetch the searcher aboard, they would hang the master upon the gallows. And this is the first time that ever the searcher did question His Majesty's packet boat."
Several other violations of the packet boat occurred about this time, and a good deal of friction arose between the peoples on the two sides of the channel; but probably the robberies were partly the result of conditions arising from the unsettled relations existing between England and the countries on the Continent at the period. The English took extreme measures with these pirates, as will be seen by the two following despatches from the Earl of Suffolk to Secretary Coke:—
"July 30, 1636, Dover Castle.—Since the writing of his last letter, and the condemnation of the French prisoners, two of them, who were quitted and returned to Calais, reported there that, after the condemnation of the prisoners, three of them were presently hanged; whereupon the people of Calais were much influenced, and have committed many insolencies, as will appear by the enclosed examination.
"Declaration of John Adams of Gillingham, Kent, master of the John of that place:—Arriving with the packet ordinary from Thomas Witherings, His Majesty's Postmaster for Foreign Parts, he received from the master of a ship of Lynn this intelligence: That the people of Calais came aboard, to the number of 300 or 400, presently after the arrival of the two sailors cleared at Dover, in the Court of Admiralty, and assaulted the master and company of the said ship, beating all the company, wounding the master, and doing many outrageous acts—which are stated here with a good deal of confusion, and probably exaggeration. The informant concludes, that carrying the mail to the postmaster of Calais, and having His Majesty's colours at the stern of his ketch, the people came down upon them, throwing stones to the endangering of their lives, and rending the said 'unite' colours.
"August 3, 1636.—By all men that come from Calais, he perceives that there is in that town a froward inclination against His Majesty's subjects, and therefore sends him (Sir John Coke) this present information from the master of His Majesty's packet boat, that the Secretary may thereupon use means to the French ambassador, or otherwise, to prevent greater mischiefs that may happen.
"Enclosure.—Information of John Keres of Leith, mariner, that about the 4th July, carrying over to Calais Mr. Witherings, His Majesty's Postmaster, as soon as he came on shore they threw stones at informant that he could not walk in the streets without great danger; and being forced by stress of weather out of that road for Dunkirk, a little off Gravelines he met with three French shallops of Calais, who commanded him to strike, and then boarded him, spoiled his bark, beat him with their swords, and would have taken the clothes off his back. Having nothing in his bark worth pillaging, they went their way."
Shortly after this period, it was thought fit to provide an armed vessel for the channel service. It was named the Speedy Post; and we find that in February and March 1637 there was some correspondence between the Council and the officers of ordnance as to the supply of six brass guns for the Postmaster's frigate, the Speedy Post of London. It is probably to this vessel that Evelyn refers in his diary, under date of the 10th October 1642:—"From hence (Dunkirk), the next day, I marched three English miles towards the packet boat, being a pretty fregat of six guns, which embarked us for England about three in the afternoone. At our going off, the fort against which our pinnace ankered saluted my Lord Marshall with twelve greate guns, which we answered with three. Not having the wind favorable, we ankered that night before Calais. About midnight we weighed; and at four in the morning, though not far from Dover, we could not make the peere till four in the afternoon, the wind proving contrary and driving us westward; but at last we got on ashore, Oct. the 12th."
Leaving these squabbles of the channel for a time, it will perhaps be convenient to consider for a moment who Witherings was.