57<5 A. D. 1672. 



gaiTifon at a place where only two perfons abreafl could climb up the 

 rock. Three rich Dutch India fliips were taken with the ifland. The 

 narrow pafs was afterwards flrongly fortified ; and as the reft of the 

 ifland is entirely a fleep rock, the Englifli colony, faid to confifl; of 

 about 200 families, live in perfeft fecurity. 



1673. — The whole bufinefs of the colony of St. Helena is to fupply 

 frefh provifions and water for our homeward-bound Eaft-lndia fliips, 

 in return for which the planters are fupplied out of the company's 

 warehoufes there with brandy, wine, arrack, beer, malt, fugar, tea, &c. 

 alfo with clothing from England and India ; fo that this otherwife bar- 

 ren and rocky fpot is, by its happy fituation, of fingular benefit to our 

 {hipping, and to thofe alfo of other nations in amity with us. The Por- 

 tuguefe difcovered it in the year 1501, when it was quite uninhabited. 

 They flocked it with hogs, poultry, &c. and alfo with lemons, oranges, 

 figs, &c. which throve very much, and rendered it an ufeful refrefhing 

 place, where thev often left their fick men till their next return : but 

 that nation pofTefling fo many ports afterwards along the fouth-eafl coaft 

 of Africa, fuch as Sofala, Membaza, Melinda, Magadoxa, Mofambique, 

 &c. for refrefliing their fliips on their Eaft-lndia voyages, they aban- 

 doned St. Helena, which lay long after defolate, until the Dutch fettled 

 on it for the like conveniency : but finding the Cape of Good Hope 

 ftill more convenient, they alfo abandoned St. Helena about the year 

 1651; whereupon our Eafl:-India company fettled on it; and it now 

 abounds with cattle, poultry, greens, fruits, &c. there being fome good 

 fpots here and there between the rocks, afl:ording herbage, pafi:ure, &c. 

 By King Charles's charter, in the year 1661, the ifland was confirmed to 

 the Eaft-lndia company; but the Dutch having feized on it in 1665, it 

 was retaken in 1672, as we have juft feen. The Dutch maftered it 

 again : and the king's fliips having now finally recovered it (1673), it 

 became vefted in the crown ; wherefor, in the fame year, the king by 

 his charter regranted it to the Eaft-lndia company forever, as abfolute 

 lords-proprietors of it, with all royal mines, &c. ; in wliofe pofl"eflion it 

 remains to this day. 



In the fummer of the year 1673 there were in two months fpace 

 three feveral and terrible fea-fights between the fleets of England and 

 Holland, though not fo bloody as that in the preceding year. In the 

 laft of them, under Prince Rupert, the French fquadron are fiid to have 

 flood neuter all the later part of the day. The Englifli and French joint 

 fleet confifted of 1 1 o fliips ; the Dutch of 1 00, under De Ruyter and 

 Van Tromp. Both fides claimed the vidory in all the three engage- 

 ments, and both Englifli and Dutch by their gallant condud merited it. 

 In February [N. S.] this year, the earl of Shaftefbury, chancellor, in a 

 fpeech in the houfe of peers, inveighed with much acrimony againfl the 

 Dutch, whom he called ' England's conftant foes, both by intereft and 



