42 THE SEA. 



several officers, so that Auke Wybes, the skipper, made a most profitable adventure. 

 On his departure he received a present of h've hundred ducats, and each man of 

 the crew, one hundred rix-dollars, as a premium for the first ship that had entered 

 the port of St. Petersburg."'* The second ship to arrive was also Dutch; the third was 

 an English vessel ; both received the same premium. The rapidity with which the swampy 

 banks of the Neva were covered with wharfs and buildings has been almost unexampled 

 in history. Peter had Amsterdam in his eye when he laid out St. Petersburg, and he 

 had secured the services of a number of Dutch ship-builders and masons, architects, and 

 surveyors well versed in making solid foundations on swampy land. 



And now, while England was distracted by the civil war of the first Pretender, and 

 by the rupture with Charles XII. of Sweden, she had much trouble with the Barbary pirates, 

 who, in the West Indies in particular, constantly harassed her shipping interests. So 

 great a nuisance had these "water-rate" become that 100 head-money was offered for 

 every captain, 40 for any rank from a lieutenant to a gunner, and 20 for every pirate 

 seaman. Any private who delivered up his commander was entitled to 200 on the conviction 

 of the latter. But there were also at that period " land-rats " at home, as bad as any 

 pirate, preying on the public purse. This was the epoch when Hamlet's words " they're 

 all mad there/' might almost have been said of England, and with even greater truth of 

 our neighbours across the Channel. Two extraordinary schemes, one of which was to 

 make France the richest of commercial nations, and the second of which was to pay the 

 national debt of England, were propounded, great companies raised, and supported by half 

 the people, from princes to petty tradesmen. As projects depending upon commerce with 

 foreign countries, they, of course, are intimately connected with our subject. Need it be 

 said that the writer refers to the two extraordinary delusions known as the Mississippi 

 Scheme and the South Sea Bubble ? 



The first of these projects was designed to develop the resources of the great country 

 lying round the Mississippi, especially Louisiana; to open up mineral deposits supposed to 

 be wonderfully rich ; and to carry on a general trade with that part of America. The 

 second, which more intimately concerns us, included a monopoly of trade with the South 

 Sea, a somewhat elastic title, but which meant at the time commerce with the countries 

 of Spanish America. The South Sea Company was originated by Harley, Earl of Oxford, 

 in 1711, with the distinct view of "providing for the discharge of the army and navy 

 debentures, and other parts of the floating debt, amounting to nearly ten million sterling/' 

 A company of merchants took this debt upon themselves, the Government agreeing to 

 secure them, for a certain period, six per cent, interest, and grant them the monopoly of 

 the trade to the South Seas. The most exaggerated ideas relating to the mineral wealth 

 of South America were prevalent at the time, and when a report, most industriously spread, 

 was circulated that Philip V. of Spain was ready to concede four ports of Chili and 

 Peru for purposes of trade, South Sea stock rose in value with extraordinary rapidity. That 

 monarch, however, never meant to grant anything like a free trade to the English. After 

 sundry negotiations had been opened the royal assent was given to a contract, conceding 



* Scheltema, a Dutch authority cited by Barrow*. 



