After five or six small towns, or villages, more, the Rhine reaches
the well known fortified town and state prison of Wesel; a place,
not always unfavourable to freedom, for here RAPIN, driven from the
district now called La Vendée in France, by Louis the Fourteenth's
persecution of Protestants, retired to write his History; recollecting,
perhaps, that it had before sheltered refugees from the tyranny of the
Duke of Alva, and our sanguinary Mary.
The towers and citadel of Wesel give it the appearance of a military
place, and it is frequently so mentioned; but the truth is, that the
late King of Prussia, with the same fear of his subjects, which was
felt by Joseph the Second in Flanders, demolished all the effectual
works, except those of the citadel; a policy not very injurious to
the Monarch in this instance, but which, in Flanders, has submitted
the country to be twice over-run in three years, and has in fact been
the most decisive of passed events in their influence upon present
circumstances.
The reformed worship is exercised in the two principal churches, but
the Catholics have two or three monasteries, and there is a Chapter
of Noble Ladies, of whom two thirds are Protestants, and one third
Catholic; an arrangement which probably accounts for their having no
settled and common residence.
Opposite to Wesel is Burick, the fortifications of which remain, and
are probably intended to serve instead of the demolished works of
the former place, being connected with it by a flying-bridge over
the Rhine. A little lower are the remains of the old chateau of
Furstemberg, on a hill where the ladies of the noble Cistercian nunnery
of Furstemberg had once a delightful seat, now deserted for the society
of Xanten.
Xanten, the first place at which we had stopped in Germany, and the
last, for a long tract, which we had seen with pleasure, Xanten, now
distinguishable, at a small distance from the river, by its spires,
reminded us of the gay hopes we had formed on leaving it; with a new
world spread out before us, for curiosity, and, as we thought, for
admiration; yet did not render the remembrance of disappointment, as
to the last respect, painful, for even the little information we had
gained seemed to be worth the labour of acquiring it.
The exchange of indefinite for exact ideas is for ever desirable.
Without this journey of eleven or twelve hundred miles we should have
considered Germany, as its position in maps and description in books
represent it, to be important, powerful and prosperous; or, even if
it had been called wretched, the idea would have been indistinct, and
the assertion, perhaps, not wholly credited. The greatest and, as it
is reasonable to believe, the best part of Germany we have now seen,
and, in whatever train of reasoning it is noticed, have an opinion how
it should be valued. Those, who cannot guess at causes, may be sure of
effects; and having seen, that there is little individual prosperity
in Germany, little diffusion of intelligence, manners, or even of the
means for comfort, few sources of independence, or honourable wealth,
and no examples of the poverty, in which there may be pride, it was
not less perceptible, that there can be no general importance, no
weight in the balance of useful, that is, peaceful power, and no place,
but that of an instrument, even in the desperate exercises of politics.
A respect for the persons of learning, or thought, who live, as the
impertinence of high and the ignorance of low society forces them to
live, in a strict and fastidious retirement, cannot alter the general
estimation of the country, in any respect here considered; their
conversation with each other has no influence upon the community;
their works cannot have a present, though they will have a general and
a permanent effect. The humbler classes, from whom prosperity should
result in peace, and strength in war, give little of either to Germany;
and man is very seldom negatively stationed; when not useful to his
fellow-creatures, he is generally somewhat injurious. The substantial
debasement of the German peasantry, that is, their want of ordinary
intelligence, re-acts upon the means that produced it, and, continuing
their inferiority, continues many injurious effects upon the rest of
Europe.
That Germany should be thus essentially humble, perhaps, none would
have ventured to foresee. The materialist could not have found it
in the climate. The politician might hastily expect it from the
arbitrary character of the governments, but must hesitate, when he
recollects how France advanced in science and manufactures, under
the dominion of Louis the Fourteenth, greatly more despotic than the
usual administrations in Germany. Perhaps, the only solution for this
difference of effects from apparently similar causes is, that the
greater extent of his territory, as well as the better opportunities
of his subjects for commerce, enabled Louis to gratify his taste
for splendour, at the same time that they shewed his ambition a
means of indulgence, by increasing the means of his people. Germany,
frittered into several score of sovereignties, has no opulent power;
no considerable income, remaining after the payment of its armies;
few wealthy individuals. The Emperor, with fifty-six titles, does
not gain a florin by his chief dignity; or Granvelle, the Minister
of Charles the Fifth, would have been contradicted when he said so
in the Chamber of Princes. The Elector Palatine is almost the only
Prince, whose revenue is not absorbed by political, military and
household establishments; and though, in an advanced state of society,
or in opulent nations, what is called patronage is seldom necessary,
and must, perhaps, be as injurious to the happiness as it is to
the dignity of those who receive it, nothing is more certain than
that there have been periods in the history of all countries, when
the liberality of the Prince, or the more independent protection of
beneficed institutions, was necessary to the existence of curiosity and
knowledge. At such times, a large expenditure, if directed by taste,
or even by vanity, afforded a slow recompense for the aggressions,
that might support it, by spreading a desire of distinction for some
intellectual accomplishment, as the claim to notice from the court; and
the improvement of mind circulated, by more general encouragement, till
every town and village had its men of science. Thus it was that the
despotism of Louis the Fourteenth had a different effect from that of
his contemporary German Princes, who, by no oppressions, could raise a
sufficient income, to make their own expenditure the involuntary means
of improving the intellectual condition of their people.
From the neighbourhood of Xanten, in which we were induced thus to
estimate what had been gained, since we saw it last, and from a shore
that gradually rises into the many woody heights around Calcar and
Cleves, the Rhine speedily reaches Rees, a town on the right bank,
built advantageously at an angle, made by a flexure of the river to the
left.
We landed to view this place, and were soon persuaded, by the
Dutch-like cleanliness and civility of the people at the inn, to remain
there for the night, rather than to attempt reaching Emmerick.
Rees is near enough to Holland to have some of its advantages;
and, whatever contempt it may be natural for English travellers,
at the commencement of their tour, to feel for Dutch dullness and
covetousness, nothing but some experience of Germany is necessary
to make them rejoice in a return to the neatness, the civility, the
comforts, quietness, and even the good humour and intelligence to be
easily found in Holland. Such, at least, was the change, produced in
our minds by a journey from Nimeguen to Friburg. The lower classes of
the Dutch, and it is the conduct of such classes, that every where has
the chief influence upon the comforts of others, are not only without
the malignant sullenness of the Germans, and, therefore, ready to
return you services for money, but are also much superior to them in
intelligence and docility. Frequent opportunities of gain, and the
habit of comparing them, sharpen intellects, which might otherwise
never be exercised. In a commercial country, the humblest persons
have opportunities of profiting by their qualifications; they are,
therefore, in some degree, prepared for better conditions, and do not
feel that angry envy of others, which arises from the consciousness of
some irremediable distinction.
The inhabitants of Rees speak both Dutch and German; and it was
pleasing to hear at the inn the sulky _yaw_ of the latter exchanged for
the civil _Yaw well, Mynheer_, of the Dutch. The town is built chiefly
of brick, like those in Holland; the streets light; the market-place
spacious, and the houses well preserved. It is of no great extent,
but the space within the walls is filled, though this must have been
sometimes partly cleared by the sieges, to which Rees was subject in
the war of Philip the Second upon the Dutch. A few emigrants from
Brussels and Maestricht were now sheltered in it; but there was no
garrison and no other symptom of its neighbourhood to the scenes of
hostilities, than the arrival of a Prussian commissary to collect
hay and corn. We were cheered by the re-appearance of prosperity in a
country, where it is so seldom to be seen, and passed a better evening
in this little town, than in any other between Friburg and Holland.
In the morning, having no disgust to impel us, we were somewhat tardy
in embarking; and the boatmen, who had found out the way of reviving
our impatience, talked of the great distance of Holland, till they had
us on board. Five or six well-looking villages presently appear after
leaving Rees, the next port to which is Emmerick, once an Hanseatic
town, and still a place of some dignity, from spires and towers, but
certainly not of much commerce, for we could not see more than two
vessels on the beach.
This is the town, at which a Governor and General, appointed by
Philip the Second, with probably half a dozen titles, asserting his
excellence, serenity and honour, gave an instance of baseness, scarcely
ever exceeded even by Philip himself. Approaching the place, which
was then neutral, the inhabitants went out to him with an entreaty,
that he would not send troops into it, and, probably by something more
than entreaty, obtained his promise, that they should be spared. In
spite of this promise, of the remonstrances of the inhabitants, and
of the representations of a clergyman, that the Spanish assurances of
having engaged in the war chiefly for the interests of the Catholic
religion could not be credited, if acts, contrary to the precepts of
all religion, were daily perpetrated; in spite of these, Mendoza,
the Spanish commander, sent in four hundred troops, but with another
promise, that their number should not be increased, and with this
consolation for the burgesses, that the Spanish Colonel of the
detachment was directed to swear in their presence, to admit no more,
even if they should be offered to him.
Mendoza had estimated this man's heart by his own, and considered his
oath only as a convenient delusion for preventing the resistance of the
inhabitants. He accordingly sent other troops to him, under the command
of a foreign hireling, and with a peremptory order for their admission;
but the honest Spaniard gave him this reply, "Though the General has
set the example, I will not violate my faith."
Passing Emmerick with much pleasure, we speedily came to the point
at which the Rhine, dividing itself into two streams, loses its name
immediately in the one, and presently after in the other. Some writer
has compared this merging to the voluntary surrender of exertions
and views, by which affectionate parents lose themselves in their
children. The stream, which bends to the west, takes the name of the
Waal; that, which flows in the general direction of the river, retains
its name, for a few miles, when another stream issues to the northward,
and takes that of the Yssel. The old river is still recognized, after
this separation, and the town of Rhenen takes its name from it; but,
about a mile lower, it yields to the denomination of the Leck, which,
like that of the Waal, does not long enjoy its usurped distinction. The
Waal, or Wahl, being joined by the Maas, as the Dutch, or the Meuse,
as the French call it, near Bommel, takes the name of that river, and,
soon after, the Leck merges in their united stream, which carries the
title of the Maas by Rotterdam, Schiedam and Flaarding, into the German
ocean.
We did not yield to this artificial distinction, so far as to think
ourselves taking leave of the Rhine, or losing the stream, that had
presented to us, at first, features of the boldest grandeur, mingled
with others of the sweetest beauty, and then borne us safely past a
shore, pressed by the hasty steps of distress, as well as threatened by
those of ravage from a flying and a pursuing army. Nor does the river
change the character it has lately assumed; but still passes with an
even, wide and forceful current between cultivated or pastoral levels,
bounded, at some distance, by gradual, woody ascents.
Among these heights and woods, Cleves is visible to the left, and
those, who see it only at this distance, may repeat the dictionary
descriptions of its grandeur and consequence as a capital. Soon
after, Schenckenkanze, a small fort, built on the point of the long
island, round which the Rhine and the Waal flow, occurs; and then the
southern extremity of the province of Utrecht. We were glad to see this
commencement of the dominions of the United States, though the shore
opposite to them was still Prussian; and, telling the boatmen, if they
had occasion to stop at any town, to touch only upon the free bank,
they humoured us so far as to row out of the current for the sake of
approaching it; in short, we stepped no more upon German land; and,
within a few miles, were enveloped, on both sides, by the prospering,
abounding plains of the Dutch provinces. _Italiam! Italiam!_
* * * * *
Early in the afternoon, the lofty tower of the Belvidere, or
prospect-house at Nimeguen, came in sight; then the bright pinnacles
of the public buildings, and the high, turf-coloured angles of the
fortifications. The town was thronged with fugitives from Flanders,
but we found sufficient accommodation, as before, at the inn in the
market-place, and were not in a tone of spirits to be fastidious about
any thing, heightened as the appearance of prosperity was to us by
contrast, and happy as even the refugees appeared to be at finding
peace and safety. The mall before the Prince of Orange's house was
filled with parties of them, as gay as if they had left their homes in
Flanders but for an holiday excursion.
We were at the Belvidere till evening, lingering over the rich prospect
of probably forty miles diameter, from Arnheim and Duisbourg in the
north to Cleves and Guelders in the south, with an eastern view over
half the forests of Guelderland to those of Westphalia. Such an extent
of green landscape, richly varied with towns, villages and woods,
spreading and gradually ascending to the horizon, was now almost as
novel to us, as it was placidly beautiful. On the east, the blue
mountainous lines of Germany broke in upon the reposing character of
the scene.
In the Waal below, two or three vessels bore the Emperor's flag, and
were laden, as it was said, with some of his _regalia_ from Flanders.
Near them, several bilanders, the decks of which were covered with
awnings, had attracted spectators to the opposite bank, for to that
side only they were open; and the company in all were objects of
curiosity to the Dutch, being no less than the sisterhood of several
Flemish convents, in their proper dresses, and under the care of their
respective abbesses. These ladies had been thus situated, for several
days and nights, which they had passed on board their vessels. They
were attended by their usual servants, and remained together, without
going on shore, being in expectation, as we were told, of invitations
to suitable residences in Germany; but it was then reported at
Nimeguen, that Prince Cobourg was re-advancing to Brussels, and these
societies had probably their misfortunes increased by the artifices
of a political rumour. We could not learn, as we wished, that they
had brought away many effects. Their plate it was needless to enquire
about; the contributions of the preceding spring had no doubt swallowed
up that. Having dismissed our Cologne watermen, we embarked upon the
Waal, the next day, in a public boat for Rotterdam; a neat schuyt,
well equipped and navigated, in which, for a few florins, you have the
use of the cabin. Our voyage, from the want of wind, was slow enough
to shew as much as could be seen of the Waal; which, at Nimeguen,
runs almost constantly downward, but is soon met by the tide, and
overcome, or, at least, resisted by it. The breadth, which varies but
little above Bommel, is, to our recollection, not less than that of the
Thames, at Fulham; the depth, during the beginning of the same space,
is probably considerable, in the stream, for, even upon the shore, our
dextrous old steersman found water enough to sweep the rushy bank at
almost every tack, with a boat, drawing about five feet. The signs of
activity in commerce are astonishing. A small hamlet, one cannot call
any place in Holland contemptible, or miserable, a hamlet of a dozen
houses has two or three vessels, of twenty tons each; a village has a
herring boat for almost every house, and a trading vessel for Rotterdam
two or three times a week. Heavy, high rigged vessels, scarcely
breasting the stream, and fit only for river voyages, we frequently
met; many of them carrying coals for the nearer part of Germany, such
as we saw on the banks between Rees and Nimeguen, and, with much
pleasure, recognized for symptoms of neighbourhood to England.
The first town from Nimeguen, on the right bank of the Waal, is Thiel,
which we had only time to see was enclosed by modern fortifications,
and was not inferior in neatness to other Dutch towns, at least not so
in one good street, which we were able to traverse. A sand bank before
the port has much lessened the trade of the place, which, in the tenth
century, was considerable enough to be acknowledged by the Emperor
Otto, in the grant of several privileges.
About a league lower, on the opposite side of the Waal, or rather on
the small island of Voorn, stood formerly a fort, called Nassau, which
the French, in 1672, utterly destroyed. Near its site, at the northern
extremity of the island of Bommel, which lies between the Maas and the
Waal, a fort, built by Cardinal Andrew of Austria, still subsists,
under the name of _Fort St. André_. The founder, who built it upon the
model of the citadel of Antwerp, had no other view than to command by
it the town of Bommel; but, in the year 1600, Prince Maurice of Nassau
reduced the garrison, after a siege of five weeks, and it has since
contributed to protect what it was raised to destroy, the independence
of the Dutch commonwealth.
In the evening, we came opposite to the town of Bommel, where we were
put on shore to pass the night and the next day, being Sunday; the boat
proceeded on the voyage for Rotterdam, but could not reach it before
the next morning.
Bommel is a small town on the edge of the river, surrounded by wood
enough to make it remarkable in Holland; light, neat and pretty.
The two principal streets cross each other at right angles, and are
without canals. Being at some distance from the general roads, it is
ill provided with inns; but one of them has a delightful prospect,
and there is no dirt, or other symptom of negligence within. The
inhabitants are advanced enough in prosperity and intelligent curiosity
to have two _Sociétés_, where they meet to read new publications; a
luxury, which may be found in almost every Dutch town. At the ends of
the two principal streets are gates; that towards the water between
very old walls; those on the land side modern and stronger with
drawbridges over a wide fosse, that nearly surrounds the town.
On the other side of this ditch are high and broad embankments, well
planted with trees, and so suitable to be used as public walks, that
we supposed them to have been raised partly for that purpose, and
partly as defences to the country against water. They are, however,
greater curiosities, having been thrown up by Prince Maurice in
1599, chiefly because his garrison of four thousand foot and two
thousand horse were too numerous for the old works; and between these
intrenchments was made what is thought to have been the first attempt
at a covered way, since improved into a regular part of fortifications.
This was during the ineffectual siege of three weeks, in which Mendoza
lost two thousand men, Maurice having then a constant communication
with the opposite bank of the Waal by means of two bridges of boats,
one above, the other below the town.
Bommel was otherwise extremely important in the struggle of the
Dutch against Philip. It was once planned to have been delivered by
treachery, but, that being discovered, the Earl of Mansfeldt, Philip's
commander, raised the siege. It adhered to the assembly at Dort, though
the Earl of March, the commander of the first armed force of the
Flemings, had committed such violences in the town, that the Prince of
Orange found it necessary to send him to prison. In the campaign of
1606, when Prince Maurice adopted defensive operations, this was one of
the extreme points of his line, which extended from hence to Schenck.
The natural honesty of mankind is on the side of the defensive party,
and it is, therefore, that in reading accounts of sieges one is always
on the side of the besieged. The Dutch, except when subject to some
extraordinary influence, have been always defensive in their wars; from
their first astonishing resistance to Philip, to that against the
petty attack, which Charles the Second incited the Bishop of Munster
to make, who had the coolness to tell Sir WILLIAM TEMPLE, that he had
thought over the probabilities of his enterprise, and, if it failed,
he should not care, for he could go into Italy and buy a Cardinal's
cap; but that he had first a mind to make some figure in the world. The
territory of the United Provinces is so small, that, in these wars, the
whole Dutch Nation has been in little better condition, than that of a
people, besieged in one great town; and Louis the Fourteenth, in the
attempt, which Charles the Second's wicked sister concerted between the
two Monarchs, sent, for the first time, to a whole people, a threat,
similar to those sometimes used against a single town. His declaration
of the 24th of June, 1672, after boasting how his "just designs" and
undertakings had prospered, since his arrival in the army, and how he
would treat the Dutch, if, by submission, they would "deserve his great
goodness," thus proceeds:
"On the contrary, all of whatever quality and condition,
who shall refuse to comply with these offers, and shall
resist his Majesty's forces, either by the inundation of
their dyke, or otherwise, shall be punished with the utmost
rigour. At present, all hostilities shall be used against
those, who oppose his Majesty's designs; and, when the ice
shall open a passage on all sides, his Majesty will not
give any quarter to the inhabitants of such cities, but
give order, that their goods be plundered and their houses
burnt."
It is pleasant, in every country, to cherish the recollections, which
make it a spectacle for the mind as well as the eye, and no country
is enriched by so many as Holland, not even the West of England, where
patriotism and gratitude hover in remembrance over the places, endeared
by the steps of our glorious WILLIAM.
Bommel is built on a broad projection of the island of the same name
into the Waal, which thus flows nearly on two sides of its walls, and
must be effectually commanded by them. But, though it is therefore
important in a military view, and that the French were now so near to
Breda, as to induce families to fly from thence, whom we saw at Bommel,
yet the latter place was in no readiness for defence. There was not a
cannon upon the walls, or upon the antient outworks, which we mistook
for terraces, and not ten soldiers in the place; a negligence, which
was, however, immediately after remedied.
The Dutch tardiness of exertion has been often blamed, and, in such
instances, deservedly; but, as to the influence of this sparingness in
their general system of politics and in former periods, a great deal
more wit than truth has been circulated by politicians. The chief value
of power is in the known possession of it. Those who are believed to
have exerted it much, will be attacked, because the exertion may be
supposed to have exhausted the power. The nation, or the individual,
that attempts to rectify every error and punish every trivial offence
of others, may soon lose, in worthless contests, the strength, that
should be preserved for resisting the most positive and unequivocal
attacks.
Ministers have appeared in Holland, who could plan unnecessary
contests, and meditate the baseness, falsely called ambition, of
putting the whole valour and wealth of a nation into exercise, for
the purpose of enforcing whatever they may have once designed, or
said; and, as there is, perhaps, no country in Europe, which cannot
justly allege some injury against another, they have exaggerated the
importance of such injuries, for the purpose of impelling their own
country, by aggravated anger, or fear, into precipitate hostilities.
But the Dutch, accustoming themselves to as much vigilance, as
confidence, have with-held encouragement from such artifices, and hence
that general tardiness in beginning wars, which every politician,
capable of an inflammatory declamation, thinks it wisdom to ridicule.
We left Bommel at seven in the morning, in a stout, decked sea-boat,
well rigged, and, as appeared, very dextrously navigated. The wind was
directly contrary, and there are sometimes islands, sometimes shoals
in the Waal, which narrowed the channel to four or five times the
length of the vessel; yet there was not any failure in tacking, and
the boom was frequently assisted to traverse by the reeds of the bank,
which it swept. The company in the cabin were not very numerous, but
there was amongst them at least one lamentable group; the minister of
a Protestant church at Maestricht, an aged and decrepid gentleman,
flying with his wife and two daughters from the approaching siege of
that place; himself laid on pillows upon the floor of the cabin; his
daughters attending him; all neglected, all victims to the glories of
war.
The boat soon passed Louvenstein, on the left bank of the Maese,
a brick castellated building apparently about two centuries old,
surrounded by some modern works, which render it one of the defences
of the river. Count Byland, the late commander of Breda, was then
imprisoned in this fortress, which has been long used for state
purposes. Here those friends of Barneveldt were confined, who derived
from it, and left to their posterity the name of the Louvenstein party;
and hence Grotius, who was of the number, made his escape, concealed
in a trunk, which the sentinels had so often seen filled with Arminian
books, that his wife persuaded them they carried nothing more than
their usual cargo.
From Louvenstein, near which the Waal unites with the Maese, and
assumes the name of that river, we soon reached Gorcum, where the short
stay of the boat permitted us only to observe the neatness of the town,
and that the fortifications had the appearance of being strong, though
small, and seemed to be in most exact repair. This, indeed, is one
of the forts chiefly relied upon by the province of Holland; for, in
1787, their States made Gorcum and Naarden the extreme points of their
line of defence, and ordered a dyke to be thrown across the Linge,
which flows into the Maese at the former place, for the purpose of
overflowing the surrounding country.
The next town in the voyage is Dort, formerly one of the most
considerable in Holland, and still eminent for its wealth, though the
trade is diminished by that of Rotterdam. This is the town, which
Dumourier strove to reach, in the invasion of 1792, and forty thousand
stand of arms were found to have been collected there for him. Our boat
passed before one quarter, in which the houses rise immediately over a
broad bay of the Maese, with an air of uncommon gaiety and lightness;
but the evenness of the town prevented us from seeing more than the
part directly nearest.
In the bay was one of those huge timber floats, the construction of
which has been before described. It was crowded with visitors from
the town; and the wooden huts upon it, being ornamented with flags,
had the appearance of booths at a fair. Large as this was, it had
been considerably diminished, since its arrival at Dort, and several
hundreds of the workmen had departed.
A little further on, and within sight of this joyous company, was
the melancholy reverse of nearly an hundred ladies, driven from some
convent in Flanders, now residing, like those near Nimeguen, in
bilanders moored to the bank. Their vessels being open on the side
towards the water, we caught as full a view of them as could be had
without disrespect; and saw that they still wore their conventual
dresses, and were seated, apparently according to their ages, at
some sort of needle-work. It might have been censured, a few years
since, that mistakes, or deceptions, as to religious duties, should
have driven them from the world; but it was certainly now only to be
lamented, that any thing short of the gradual and peaceful progress of
reason should have expelled them from their retirement.
We reached Rotterdam, in the evening, and stayed there, the next day,
to observe whether the confidence of the Dutch in their dykes and
fortresses was sufficient to preserve their tranquillity in a place
almost within hearing of the war, the French being then besieging
Sluys. There was no perceptible symptom of agitation, or any diminution
of the ordinary means for increasing wealth. The persons, with whom
we conversed, and they were not a few, spoke of the transactions of
the campaign with almost as much calmness and curiosity, as if these
had been passing in India. They could not suppose it possible, that
the French might reach the city; or, if they did, seemed to rely upon
the facility, with which their property could be removed by the canals
through Leyden and Haerlem, to the shore of the Zuyder Zee, then across
it by sailing barges, and then again by the canals as far as Groningen,
whither the French would certainly not penetrate. So valuable was water
thought in Holland, not only as a means of opulence in peace, but of
defence, or preservative flight in war. An excessive selfishness, which
is the vice of the Dutch, appeared sometimes to prevent those, who
could fly, from thinking of their remaining countrymen.
An intention of dispensing with the customary fair was the only
circumstance, which distinguished this season from others at Rotterdam,
and that was imputed to the prudence of preventing any very numerous
meetings of the populace.
About three weeks sooner than was necessary, for it was so long before
a convenient passage occurred, we went from hence to Helvoetsluys, and
there remained, a fortnight, watching an inflexible north-westerly
wind, and listening to accounts but too truly certified of French
frigates and privateers, almost unopposed in those latitudes. Lloyd's
List brought the names of five, or seven, French ships, then known to
be cruising in the north; and one packet was delayed in its voyage by
the sight of several Dutch vessels, set on fire within a few leagues
of _Goree_. The Dutch lamented, that the want of seamen crippled the
operations of their Admiralty Board: an Englishman, who was proud to
deny, that any such want, or want in such a degree, existed, as to his
country, was reduced to silence and shame, when it was enquired: Why,
then, have these seas been, for twelve months, thus exposed to the
dominion of the French?
At length, a convoy arrived for a noble family, and we endeavoured
to take the benefit of it by embarking in a packet, which sailed at
the same time; but the sloop of war was unable to pass over what are
called the Flats, and our captain had resolved to proceed without it,
notwithstanding the contrarieties of the wind; when, with much joy,
we discerned a small boat, and knew it to be English by the skilful
impetuosity of the rowers. Having induced the people of the packet
to make a signal, by paying them for the passage to Harwich, we were
fortunately taken on board this boat, at the distance of about three
leagues from Helvoetsluys, and soon re-landed at that place; the packet
proceeding on her voyage, which, supposing no interruption from the
French vessels, was not likely to be made in less than three days. We
rejoiced at the release from fatigue and from fear, at least, if not
from danger; and, seeing little probability of an immediate passage,
returned, the next day, to Rotterdam, with the hope of finding some
neutral vessel, bound to an English port.
We were immediately gratified by the promise of an American captain
to meet us with his vessel at Helvoetsluys, and, the next day, had a
delightful voyage thither, in a hired yacht, partly by the Maese, and
partly by channels inaccessible to large vessels.