A. D. 1640. 41 J 



have direcllly waged war with the parliament, or acquiefce in their mca- 

 fures ; but this ftate of things did not hold long. In the mean time; 

 we muft fulpend this fubjed, until we fhall have completed the othei? 

 more immediate affairs of the year 1640. 



In tlie fame year, the Dutch from St. Euftatia fettled on Saba, one of 

 the Caribbee iflands, thirteen miles north-weft from the former, being, 

 about four leagues in compafs. It is but an inconfiderable place, hav- 

 ing no harbour for Hupping, and an extremely (hallow fliore. The Dutch 

 here are faid to be but a few fimilies, who, however, raife a imall quan- 

 tity of fugar, belide fome cotton and indigo. Some write that the 

 Danes once difpoirelTcd them of it. Many of thofe fmall iflands among 

 the Caribbees were very little regarded, until our ifland of Barbados 

 became rich by the fugar trade, when the mother-countries of thofe, 

 till then, infignifxant iflands found it their intereft to lay public claim 

 to them, to fortify them, and to appoint governors over them. 



The haven and town of Malacca, polTefled by the Portuguefe, at the 

 extremity of the famous peninfula of that name, in. the farther Indies, 

 was fo happily lituated for the conveniency of the Dutch Eafl:-India 

 company's commerce, that it is no wonder they greedily caft their eyes 

 on lb delicious a morfel fo early as in the year 1 6o6y Portugal being 

 then fubject to Spain, with v/hom the Dutch were then at war : yet they 

 were at that time unable to reduce it, though they had adually defeat- 

 ed and burnt a Portuguefe fleet there, wherein were 3000 men. But 

 in this year the Dutch, after a fix months flege, became mafters of that 

 very important place, which they have held to this day. They found 

 upvvard of 20,000 inhabitants in the towm and its territory, with many 

 churches and convents, and a good booty. Since then, the Dutch have 

 much improved its fortifications : and as all ihips trading from Siam, 

 Cambodia, Tonquin, Cochin-China, China, Japan, and the Philippines, 

 to Bengal, and the coaft of Coromandel, mufl: pals through the ftraits 

 of Malacca, the Dutch are iliid to have obliged all but Englifli fliips to 

 pay an anchorage duty there. Hereby alfo they overawe the fmaller 

 princes in its neighbourhood, and gain great advantages in their com- 

 merce, though not like what it formerly was before Batavia. became the 

 grand ftaple of all their Indian commerce. Thus the Dutch company 

 made a very rapid progrefs, while our Englifli Eafl.-India company be- 

 came extremely languid, partly by the encroachments of the Dutch 

 company, and partly alfo from King Charles's temporary grants to others, 

 to interfere with them in the Eafl:-India trade : fo far, as that fome of 

 the writers on commerce at this time infinuate, that hitherto the com- 

 pany had been lofers by this trade, which, however, we fcarcely think 

 was the real fact. 



The French now began to plant at a place on the continent of South- 

 America, called Surinam, in nine degrees of north latitude, from the; 



