THE DUTCH WAR 87 



Islands, since it was feared that the Dutch might make an 

 attempt to secure a permanent footing in some of the islands 

 which they had so long used as fishing stations. ^ The Earl 

 of Seaforth, moreover, had declared for the king, and 

 Charles' supporters were intriguing with the Dutch, offering 

 them ports and fishing facilities in return for help against 

 the troops of Cromwell, Thus, in 1653, the Earl of Glencaim 

 in a letter to Middleton, whom the king had already commis- 

 sioned as his Lieutenant-Gen eral in Scotland, but who was 

 still engaged in Holland in an attempt to procure aid for the 

 rising of Scottish royalists, ^ urges him to represent to the 

 Estates of the United Provinces " what great advantages 

 will redound to them by assisting us, and how able we are 

 to promote there interest, by making a diversive warr, and 

 how willing we are that the King our Soveraigne should 

 posses them with any places or sea-ports which they shall 

 desire, to be possessed by them for ever, for the securing of 

 their fishing and commerce." ^ Middleton acted on these 

 instructions by including the offer of fortified posts in the 

 Orkneys, Shetland, and the Western Isles, in his " Second 

 Memorial " to the Estates of the United Provinces.'* Cromwell 

 and his officers in Scotland, however, were alive to the 

 situation ; Colonel Lilbume, the commander-in-chief in Scot- 

 land, was ordered to secure against possible attack aU the 

 ports threatened : he estabhshed garrisons in the Lewis at 



^ Cal. S.P. Dom. Commonwealth, 1651-52, p. 255. 



- Scotland and the Commonwealth, Firth, pp 46, 60. 



'^Ibid. p. 158. 



■* " D'avantage sa Majeste accordera a leur Seigneuries de faire bastir 

 telles forteresses qu'elles voudront, dans les Isles Orcades, Hetland, et 

 Isles Occidentales d'Escosse, ce qui servira grandement pour a^sseurer leur 

 trafficq des Indes et vers le Septentrion ; La pescherie aussi s'y pourra 

 continuer tant en hiver qu'en este, et avec beaucoup moins des fraiz, et 

 des gens qu'ils n'ont accoustume d'embarquer pour la pesche, les havres 

 dans ces lies leur estants tousjours ouverts, ou estants aidez par ceux de 

 ce pais la a saler et dresser leur poissons, ils pourront plus faire avec cent, 

 qu'a (jeste heure avec trois cents." — Ibid. p. 236. 



