270 A. D. 1612. 



" mercia, diflertatio *.' He begins with an addrefs to the princes and 

 free people of Chriftendom ; and in 1 3 chapters learnedly illuftrates 

 the freedom of navigation on the open feas to all mankind. He main- 

 tains, that neither the Portuguefe nor Spaniards had any kind of ex- 

 clufive right of dominion in the Eaft-Indies ; either by the title of prior 

 difcovery, or by virtue of the pope's donation, or by right of war or 

 conqueft, or by virtue of any claim of prefcription or cuftom. That 

 by the law of nations, commerce is free to all mankind : and there- 

 for by no equitable rule ought they to reftrain the freedom of the In- 

 dian commerce, which the Hollanders are determined to maintain, whe- 

 ther in peace or war. He clearly proves that the Portuguefe were far 

 from being the original difcoverers of the Eaft-India feas, ift, From 

 Alexander's difcoveries thereof, and of the Perfian and Arabian gulfs. 

 2dly, From Caius Caefar's having found marks in the Red fea of the 

 wrecks of fliips, belonging to the Gaditani ; who could come no other 

 way thither but by the Cape of Good Hope. He cites Coelius Antipa- 

 ter's ocular teftimony of a maritime commerce in antient times be- 

 tween Spain and Ethiopia ; and what Cornelius Nepos writes, viz. that 

 in his time, Eudoxus, flying from Lathyrus, king of Alexandria, took 

 fhipping in the Red fea, and failed round Africa to Gades in Spain. 

 That while Carthage flouriflied, it is moll: clear that thofe people, deep- 

 ly fkilled in maritime affairs, were not ignorant of thofe feas : particu- 

 larly, that Hanno failed from Gades to the fartheft parts of Arabia, 

 round by that now called the Cape of Good Hope ; and would have 

 gone farther, had not his ftores and provifions failed him. Next, the 

 regular annual voyages of the Romans from Egypt to India, by the 

 Red fea, after Auguflus had conquered Egypt. And that Strabo aflerts, 

 that in his own time a company of merchants of Alexandria traded with 

 fhips from the Red fea to the fartheft Ethiopia, as well as to India, 

 f Grotius fubjoins, that when the Portuguefe firft failed to India, the fe- 

 veral feas between Europe and India were known, and could not poffi- 

 bly be unpraftifed by the Moors, Ethiopians, Arabians, Perfians, and 

 Indians, people bordering upon them ; and that a difcovery gives no 

 right to any thing but what belonged to nobody before fuch difcovery. 

 Neither is it certain, that unlefs the Portuguefe had made the difcovery 

 (as they term it) of India, none elfe would have done it. For the time 

 was then come when almoft all arts, and particularly the fituation of 

 the earth and feas, were much better underftood, and dayly improving. 

 The Venetians, who had learned much of India, were then upon far- 

 ther inquiries ; the indefatigable induftry of the people of Bretagne, 

 and the bold attempts of the Englifh, all plainly fhow what in time 



* The free fea, or a diiTettation on the right of of Uie antient intercourfe of the Europeans with 

 Uie Dutch to the commerce of India. the Eall, will iinJ that Grotius has'atted lather as 



f The reader, who lias attended to the hiftory aii advocate than as a critical hilloriaa. M, 



