A. D. 1 65 1. 447 



this fociety began to make Hamburgh their principal, and foon after 

 their fole, refidence and ftaple for the woollen manufadure. 



1652. — ^We now come to the commencement of the firfl: very bloody 

 naval war between the two mofi: potent republics which the world had 

 ever feen fince thofe of Rome and Carthage. We have obfcrved, that 

 the new Englifh ad of navigation of laft year had curtailed the bulk of 

 the commerce between England and Holland, confiding principally in 

 foreign merchandize imported into, and Englifh merchandize exported 

 from^ England in Dutch vefTels. In vain, as we have alio feen, did the 

 Dutch remonftrate againfl; the adl, the Englifh commonwealth being- 

 bent on a war with the Dutch: for befides the five former demands of 

 the EngliPa commonwealth, fatisfadion was now inlified on for the 

 Dutch ambaflador's having held a private correfpondence v/ith King 

 Charles II, and alfo for not giving the honour of the flag to all Englifh 

 fliips of war. The ftates-general therefor prepared for war by fitting 

 out a vaft fleet of 150 warlike fhips, great and fmall, though certainly 

 not equal to fhips of war in our days. De Witt^ in his Intereft of Hoi 

 land, [part iii, c. 6] fpeaks of it as a thing incredible, ' that the fiates 

 ' of Holland, during the chargeable war againfl England, from 1652 

 ' to i6j4, fliould be able, in the fpace of two years, to build 60 new 

 ' capital fliips of war, of iuch dimenfions and force as were never be- 

 ' fore ufedin the fervice of the flate.' AH our hiftories- are full of the 

 particulars of this war, which is therefor fuperfluous for us to enlarge 

 on. On the fide of the Dutch were the great admirals, Van Tromp, 

 De Ruyter, and De Witt ; the firfl of whom, upon his gaining fome 

 advantage by the accidentally great fuperiority in the Channel over 

 Blake, in contempt of England's pretenfions to the fovereignty of the lea, 

 failed down the Channel wiih a broom at his main-top-gallant-mafl; 

 head, to fliew he would fwcep the feas ; for which he paid dearly next 

 year : and on the Englifh fide were the great Blake, with Monk anil 

 Deane. It is fufficlent to obferve, that in this and the following year 

 almofl incredible deftrudion and captures were made of merchant fhips, 

 as well as of lliips of war and Tailors, on both fides ; there having been, 

 in only nine months of the year 1652, four general naval engagements, 

 befides leller ones. Whilft all the great popifh potentates, and particu- 

 larly France, were pleafed to fee the two mod powerful proteftant ones 

 deflroying each other. 



This year Mr Edwards, an Englifli Turkey merchant, brought home 

 with him a Greek fervant who underftood the roafiing and making of 

 coffee, till then unknown in England. This man was the firfl who fold 

 coffee, and kept a houfe for that purpofe in London. Profper Alpinus, 

 a learned phyfician of Venice, who flouriflied about the year 1591, was 

 the firfl who wrote of the nature of the coffee plant and berry : our 

 great Lord Bacon, in his Natural hifiory, was the next ; and the inge- 



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