him in the harbour; but received the fame anfwer which had been returned before by the Portuguese, That they had a right to protect all fhips that came into their dominions; that if the Adiniral were forced in thither, he fhould find the same security; and that he required him not to violate the peace of a neutral port. Blake withdrew upon this anfwer into the Mediterranean; and Rupert then leaving Carthagena, entered the port of Malaga, where he burnt and funk feveral English merchantThips. Blake judging this to be an infringement of the neutrality profeffed by the Spaniards, now made no fcruple to fall upon Rupert's fleet in the harbour of Malaga; and having destroyed three of his fhips, he obliged him to quit the fea, and take fanctuary at the Spanish court. been more renowned, had they been opposed by any other enemies. The ftates of Holland having carried on their trade without oppofition, and almost without competition, not only during the inactive reign of James I. but during the commotions of England, had arrived to that height of naval power, and that affluence of wealth, that, with the arrogance which a long-continued profperity naturally produces, they began to invent new claims, and to treat other nations with infolence, which nothing can defend but fuperiority of force. They had, for fome tine, made uncommon preparations at a vast expence, and had equipped a large fleet, without any apparent danger threatening them, or any avowed defign of attacking their neighbours. This unusual armament was not beheld by the English without fome jealoufy, and care was taken to fit out fuch a fleet as might fecure the trade from interruption, and the coafts from infults. Of this Blake was conftituted admiral for nine months. In this fituation the two nations remained, keeping a watchful eye upon each other, without actual hoftilities on either fide, till the 18th of May 1652, when Van Trump appeared in the Downs with a fleet of forty-five men of war. Blake, who had then but twenty fhips, upon the approach of the Dutch admiral, faluted him with three fingle fhots, to require that he should, by striking his flag, fhew that refpect to the English which is due to every nation in their own dominions. To which the Dutchman answered with a broadfide; In 1652 broke out the memorable and Blake, perceiving that he intended. war between the two commonwealths to difpute the point of honour, advanced of England and Holland; a war in with his own fhip before the rest of his which the greatest admirals that per- fleet, that, if it were poffible, a genehaps any age has produced, were enga- ral battle might be prevented. But the ged on each fide; in which nothing lefs Dutch, inftead of admitting him to was contefted than the dominion of the treat, fired upon him from their whole fea; and which was carried on with vi- fleet, without any regard to the cuftoms gour, animofity, and refolution, propor- of war, or the law of nations. Blake tioned to the importance of the difpute. for fome time ftood alone against their The chief commanders of the Dutch whole force; till the rest of his fquafleets were Van Trump, de Ruyter, and dron coming up, the fight was continued de Wit, the most celebrated names of from between four and five in the aftertheir own nation, and who had perhaps noon till nine at night; when the In February 1650-51, Blake, ftill continuing to cruise in the Mediterranean, met with a French fhip of confiderable force, and commanded the captain to come on board, there being no war declared between the two nations. The captain, when he came, was afked by him, whether he was willing to lay down his fword, and yield; which he gallantly refused, though in his enemy's power. Blake, fcorning to take advantage of an artifice, and detesting the ap pearance of treachery, told him that he was at liberty to go back to his fhip, and defend it as long as he could. The captain willingly accepted his offer; and, after a fight of two hours, confeffed himself conquered, kiffed his fword, and furrendered it. 3 L 2 Dutch Dutch retired with the lofs of two fhips, having not destroyed a fingle veffel, nor more than fifteen men, most of which were on board the Admiral; who, as he wrote to the parliament, was himfelf engaged for four hours with the main body of the Dutch fleet, being the mark at which they aimed; and, as Whitlock relates, received above a thousand fhot. Blake in his letter acknowledges the particular bleffing and prefervation of God, and afcribes his fuccefs to the juftice of his caufe, the Dutch having first attacked him upon the English coaft. It is indeed little lefs than miraculous, that a thousand great fhot fhould not do more execution; and those who will not admit the interpofition of Providence, may draw at least this inference from it, that the braveft man is not always in the mofl danger. In July he met the Dutch fishery fleet with a convoy of twelve men of war; all which he took, with 100 of their herring-buffes. And in September, being ftationed in the Downs with about fixty fail, he difcovered the Dutch Admirals de Wit and de Ruyter with near the fame number, and advanced towards them. But the Dutch being obliged, by the nature of their coaft, and fhallowness of their rivers, to build their fhips in fuch a manner that they require lefs depth of water than the English veffels, took advantage of the form of their fhipping, and fheltered themfelves behind a flat called Kentish knock; fo that the English finding foine of their fhips aground, were obliged to alter their courfe: but perceiving early the next morning, that the Hollanders had forfaken their station, they pursued them with all the speed that the wind, which was weak and uncertain, allowed; but found themselves unable to reach them with the bulk of their fleet, and therefore detached fome of the lightest frigates to chase them. Thefe came fo near as to fire upon them about three in the afternoon; but the Dutch, inftead of tacking about, hoifted their fails, fteered toward their own coaft, and finding themfelves the next day follow but ed by the whole English fleet, retired That in this engagement the victory belonged to the English, is beyond difpute; fince, without the lofs of one fhip, and with no more than forty men killed, they drove the enemy into his own ports, took the rear-admiral and another veffel, and fo difcouraged the Dutch admirals, who had not agreed in their measures, that de Ruyter, who had declared against hazarding a battle, defired to refign his commission; and de Wit, who had infifted upon fighting, fell fick, as it was fuppofed, with vexation. But how great the lofs of the Dutch was, is not certainly known. That two were taken, they are too wife to deny; but affirm that those two were all that were deftroyed. The English, on the other fide, affirm, that three of their veffels were disabled at the first encounter; that their numbers on the fecond day were vifibly diminished; and that on the last day they saw three or four fhips fink in their flight... De Wit being now difcharged by the Hollanders as unfortunate, and the chief command restored to Van Trump, great preparations were made for retrieving their reputation, and repairing their loffes. Their endeavours were affifted by the English themselves, now made factious by fuccefs; the men who were intrufted with the civil administration being jealous of thofe whole military commands had procured fo much honour, left they who raised them should be eclipsed by them. Such is generally the revolution of affairs in every state. Danger and diftrefs produce unanimity and bravery, virtues which are feldom unattended with fuccess: but success is the parent of pride, and pride of jea loufy and faction; faction makes way for calamity, and happy is that nation whofe calamities renew their unanimity. Such is the rotation of interefts, that equally equally tend to hinder the total deftrustion of a people, and to obftruct an exorbitant increase of power. Blake had weakened his fleet by many detachments, and lay with no more than forty fail in the Downs, very ill provided with both men and ammunition, and expecting new fupplies from thofe whofe animofity hindered them from providing them, and who chose rather to fee the trade of their country diftreffed than the fea-officers exalted by a new acquifition of honour and influence. Van Trump, defirous of diftinguishing himself at the refumption of his come mand by fome remarkable action, had affembled eighty fhips of war and ten fire ships, and fteered towards the Downs, where Blake, with whofe condition and ftrength he was probably acquainted, was then ftationed. Blake, not able to restrain his natural ardour, or per haps not fully informed of the fuperiority of his enemies, put out to encounter them, though his fleet was fo weakly manned, that half his fhips were obliged to lie idle without engaging for want of failors. The force of the whole Dutch fleet was therefore fuftained by about twenty-two fhips. Two of the English frigates, the Vanguard and the Victory, after having for a long time ftood engaged amidst the whole Dutch fleet, broke through without much injury: nor did the English lose any ships till the evening; when the Garland, carrying 40 guns, was boarded at once by two great fhips; which were oppofed by the English till they had fcarcely any men left to defend the decks; then retiring into the lower part of the veffel, they blew up their decks, which were now poffeffed by the enemy, and at length were overpowered and taken. The Bonaventure, a ftout well-built merchant-ship, going to relieve the Garland, was attacked by a man of war, and after a ftout resistance, in which the cap 'tain, who defended her with the utmost bravery, was killed, was likewife carried off by the Dutch. Blake in the Triumph, feeing the Garland in diftrefs, preffed forward to relieve her; but in his way had his foremast shattered, and was himself boarded; but beating off the enemies, he difengaged himself, and retired into the Thames with the lofs only of two fhips of force, and four fmall frigates, but with his whole fleet much fhattered. Nor was the victory gained at a cheap rate, notwithstanding the unufual difproportion of strength; for of the Dutch flag-fhips one was blown up, and the other two difabled: A proof of the English bravery, which fhould have induced Van Trump to have fpared the infolence of carrying a broom at his topmaft in his triumphant paffage through the channel, which he intended as a declaration that he would sweep the feas of the English shipping. This, which he had little reafon to think of accomplishing, he foon after perished in attempting. There are fometimes observations and inquiries, which all hiftorians feem to decline by agreement, of which this action may afford us an example. Nothing appears at the first view more to demand our curiofity, or afford matter for examination, than this wild encounter of twenty-two fhips, with a force, acording to their accounts who favour the Dutch, three times fuperior. Nothing can justify a commander in fighting under fuch difadvantages, but the impoffibility of retreating. But what hindered Blake from retiring as well before the fight as after it? To lay he. was ignorant of the ftrength of the Dutch fleet, is to impute to him a very criminal degree of negligence; and, at leaft, it must be confeffed, that, from the time he faw them, he could not but know that they were too powerful to be oppofed by him, and even then there was time for retreat. To urge the ardour of his failors, is to diveft him of the authority of a commander, and to charge him with the most reproachful weakness that can enter into the cha racter of a general. To mention the impetuofity of his own courage, is to make the blame of his temerity equal to the praise of his valour; which feems indeed to be the moft gentle cenfure that the truth of history will allow. We We must then admit, amidst our elogies and applauses, that the great, the wife, and the valiant Blake, was once be trayed to an inconfiderate and desperate enterprise, by the refiftless ardour of his own fpirit, and a noble jealousy of the honour of his country. It was not long before he had an opportunity of revenging his lofs, and re ftraining the infolence of the Dutch. On the 18th of February 1652-3, Blake being at the head of eighty fail, and affifted, at his own request, by Cols Monk and Dean, efpied Van Trump with a fleet of above a hundred men of war, as Clarendon relates, of seventy by their own public accounts, and 300 merchant-fhips under his convoy. The English, with their usual intrepidity, advanced towards them; and Blake in the Triumph, in which he always led his fleet, with twelve fhips more, came to an engagement with the main body of the Dutch fleet, and by the difparity of their force was reduced to the last extremity, having received in his hull no fewer than 700 fhots, when Lawfon in the Fairfax came to his affiftance. The reft of the English fleet now came in, and the fight was continued with the utmost degree of vigour and refolution, till the night gave the Dutch an opportunity of retiring, with the lofs of one flag-fhip, and fix other men of war. The English had many veffels damaged, but none loft. On board Lawfon's fhip were killed 100 men, and as many on board Blake's, who loft his captain and fecretary, and himself received a wound in the thigh. Blake having fet afhore his wounded men, failed in purfuit of Van Trump; who fent his convoy before, and himself retired fighting towards Boulogne. Blake ordering his light frigates to follow the merchants, ftill continued to has rafs Van Trump; and on the third day, the 20th of February, the two fleets came to another battle; in which Van Trump once more retired before the English, and making ufe of the peculiar form of his fhipping, fecured himself on the fhoals. The accounts of this fight, as of all the others, are various; but the Dutch writers themselves confess, that they loft eight men of war, and more than twenty merchant-ships : and it is probable that they fuffered much more than they are willing to al low; for these repeated defeats provo ked the common people to riots and infurrections, and obliged the states to afk, though ineffectually, for peace. In April following the form of go. vernment in England was changed, and the fupreme authority affumed by Crom. well; upon which occafion Blake, with his affociates, declared, that, notwith standing the change in the adminiftration, they fhould still be ready to dif charge their truft, and to defend the nation from infults, injuries, and incroachments." It is not," said Blake, "the business of a seaman to mind stateaffairs, but to hinder foreigners from fooling us." This was the principle from which he never deviated, and which he always endeavoured to incul. cate in the fleet, as the fureft founda. tion of unanimity and steadiness. "Difturb not one another with domestic dis putes, but remember that we are Englifh, and our enemies are foreigners. Enemies! which, let what party foever prevail, it is equally the interest of our country to humble and restrain.". 4 After the 30th of April 1653, Blake, Monk, and Dean, failed out of the Englifh harbours with a hundred men of war; and finding the Dutch with feventy fail on their own coasts, drove them to the Texel, and took fifty doggers. Then they failed northward in purfuit of Van Trump, who having a feet of merchants under his convoy, durft not enter the channel, but fteered towards the Sound, and by great dexte rity and addrefs efcaped three English admirals, and brought all his ships into their harbour; then knowing that Blake was ftill in the north, came before Dover, and fired upon the town, but was driven off by the caftle. Monk and Dean ftationed themselves again at the mouth of the Texel, and blocked up the Dutch in their own ports with eighty fail; but hearing that Van Trump was at Goree with a hundred and and twenty men of war, they ordered all fhips of force in the river and ports to repair to them. EPITAPH for a monument in Scotland. Sir PETER HALKETT of Pitfirrane, Baronet, And colonel of one of his Majesty's regiments of foot; On June 3. the two fleets came to an engagement; in the beginning of which Dean was carried off by a cannon-ball; Who was flain in that unfortunate conflict in yet the fight continued from about America, In the year 1755: twelve to fix in the afternoon, when Unfortunate indeed to England; and the more fo, the Dutch gave way, and retreated As by this gallant commander's death it tore fighting. On the 4th in the afternoon, Blake came up with eighteen fresh fhips, and procured the English a complete victory; nor could the Dutch any otherwise preferve their fhips, than by retiring once more into the flats and fhallows, where the largest of the English veffels could not approach. In this battle Van Trump boarded Vice-Adm. Pen; but was beaten off, and himself boarded, and reduced to blow up his decks, of which the English had gotten poffeffion. He was then entered at once by Pen and another, nor could poffibly have escaped, had nôt de Ruyter and de Wit arrived at that inftant, and rescued him. However the Dutch may endeavour to extenuate their lofs in this battle, by admitting no more than eight ships to have been taken or destroyed, it is evi dent that they must have received much greater damages, not only by the accounts of more impartial hiftorians, but by the remonstrances and exclamations of their admirals themselves; Van Trump declaring before the states, that "without a numerous reinforcement of large men of war, he could ferve them no more;" and de Wit crying out before them, with the natural warmth of his character, "Why fhould I be filent before my lords and mafters? The Eng lish are our masters, and by consequence mafters of the fea." [To be concluded in our next.] QUESTION. Let pp 99 pp-aa: aa-qq, Cambridge, May 4. 1757. [Lond. Mag.] from her One fo capable of wiping off her difgrace. Thus, it is most likely, HE would have fallen; After repeated efforts to rally his men, execute The greatest action which the head could plan. It was from a bed of sickness, against all the prayers And intreaties of his friends and family, That he led his regiment to the field, where he now lies In the bed of honour. This is erected by the Right Honourable of The best of husbands and of men, How fleep the brave, who fink to rest, Than Fancy's feet have ever trod. Lond. Mag. When Flavia was no more admir'd; When Flavia's knocker now lay quiet; And Flavia liv'd on frugal diet; In place of chicks, eat beaf and carrot, And drank small-beer instead of claret; She bought a monkey; fuch a one, So mischievous, fo full of fun, As yet no monkey has outdone. } He'd |