472 A. D. 1657. 



* give them leave to trade for. An hundred men will keep the caftle, 



* and half a dozen frigates there would flop the whole trade in the Straits 



* to fuch as fhall be enemies to us.' [Thurloe, V. vi, p. 505.] So it ap- 

 pears that a fortified poft at the entry of the Mediterranean was then 

 thought a dcfirable objed: for lingland : and this pfopofal of General 

 Monk's very probably occafioned the ftipulation for this port and caftle 

 five years afterwards, to be a part of Queen Catharine's marriage por- 

 tion, as it accordingly was. Yet this fame General Monk afterwards 

 found a confiderable garrifon little enough to defend it againft the con- 

 tinual attacks of the Moors. 



De Witt, in his Tntereft of Holland, juftly remarks, ' that although 



* their fhips trading into the Mediterranean fhould be well guarded by 

 ' convoys againft the Barbary pirates, yet -it woiild by no means be pro- 

 ' per to free that fea of thofe pirates ; becaufe (fays he) we ftiould here- 



* by be put upon the faine footing with the Eaftlanders, Englifti, Spa- 



* niards, and Italians: wherefor it is beft to leave that thorn in the fides 



* of thofe nations, whereby they will be diftrefled in that trade; while 



* we by our convoys ingrofs all the European traffic and navigation to 

 ' Holland.' 



By the experience of the ill effe6i;s of former negligence, and the help 

 of the port of Gibraltar, we have in our own times greatly gained ground 

 upon Holland in this particular refped. Fas eft, et ab hojle doceri*. 



Secretary Thurloe received a letter from Leghorn, acquainting him 

 that the Hollanders were making a plantation between Surinam and 

 Carthagena in the Weft-Indies, aiming chiefly to trade with the Spa- 

 niards ; for which purpofe they were fending thither twenty-five fami- 

 lies of Jews. ' If (fays this letter-writer) our planters at Surinam took 

 ' the fame courfe, it would be much to their advantage ; for the Span- 

 ' iards there are in moft extreme want of all European commodities.' 

 {Thurloe, V. vi, p. 825.] This was probably a projedt for fettling on the 

 Terra firma, from which they were laid to be afterwards driven. Unlefs, 

 perhaps, Curayoa be hereby meant, which is a fmall ifle near that coaft, 

 poflelfed bjt'the Dutch, and very commodioufly fituated for that Imug- 

 gling trade, the Jews there being faid to be both rich and numerous ; 

 and the Dutch colonies extremely populous and well fortified. It was 

 probably fettled before this time, as were alfo, above 25 years before, 

 a fomewhat fmaller ifle near it, named Aruba; and Bonaire, another ifle 

 on that coaft, which produces plenty of cotton ; and the other two pro- 

 duce fome fugar : and though Cura9oa be but about i 3 leagues in cir- 

 cuit, and barren, yet its merchants are faid to be very rich by their 

 trade with the neighbouring Spaniards for European goods and negroes, 

 fo that it is deemed one of their beft colonies in America. 



* It is right to karn even from an enemy. 



