A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



that the islands were useless while the Parliament commanded the sea. 1 Tresco was taken on the 

 1 8th, after some fighting, and batteries were thrown up to command Broad Sbund ; then followed 

 some weeks of desultory fighting and negotiation until Grenville surrendered, 23 May, on condition 

 that his soldiers should be sent back to Ireland and that the inhabitants should suffer no punishment. 2 

 Taught by experience, the Council of State was now careful in the selection of a governor for 

 St. Mary's, as it ' has been several times very costly both in reducing it and the mischief done 

 by it.' 



The Dutch war of 1652 was sufficiently popular among the seamen, but after the volunteers 

 had joined, and the press system came into operation, there were the usual difficulties. Each 

 maritime district had its press master appointed who claimed the aid of the local officials, but often 

 the constables, instead of pressing men, aided them to escape. Moreover many of the local 

 authorities were engaged in maritime trade, and it was not to their interest to have their particular 

 towns swept bare of men ; also the spirit of freedom was in the air and the legality of the press 

 disputed, ' the power by which we act is questioned, and whether there be any such power.' 

 Richard Mills, press master for the western counties, was ordered not to take more than one or two 

 men from the crew of each fishing boat, and at Fowey he had ' to fetch them out of the cliffs and 

 rocks ' with soldiers. 3 The government was compelled to be tender with commercial interests, and 

 dared not act with the high hand of an old-established monarchy. Thus while Mills was hunting 

 in the caves, 1,500 seamen sailed in west-country ships for Newfoundland in March, and instead of 

 them there came two months later from the western counties, to man the men-of-war, labourers and 

 artisans who had never seen salt water. 4 A few years earlier an embargo would have prevented all 

 employment until the royal fleets were manned, but, except in a tentative and limited form, the 

 expedient was too heroic for a government on its probation. In 1652 sixpence a day was allowed 

 for the maintenance of Dutch prisoners at Falmouth, following Ayscue's action of 16 August ; but 

 the presence of strong English fleets in the Channel did not prevent Dutch privateers plying their 

 trade, and in January, 1653, one took the packet that ran between Penzance and Scilly. Although 

 several battles were fought not far from the Cornish coast the county was not expressly affected, 

 except for a short time in 1667, by any of the three Dutch wars, other than by the drain of men 

 and the check to commerce ; although the enemy's privateers were more numerous in the eastern 

 channel and on the east coast than in the west. But if other industries were checked that of 

 wrecking still flourished, and in 1652 the Council declared, on the details of a Cornish wreck being 

 brought before it, the horror with which was viewed ' the cruelty and inhumanity of the people 

 inhabiting the maritime coasts.' 8 Rounded regrets are not a remedy, and a few years later the 

 circumstances attending the wreck of the Aleppo Merchant at Padstow drew angry comments on ' the 

 dishonest and savage practices of the common people.' 6 In 1667 a Spanish vessel was lost on the 

 Scillies, and a passenger of rank complained of the cruelty of the Scillonians in leaving him for a day 

 or two on a rock before taking him off, ' valuing the saving of the goods more than his life,' 7 but in 

 this case it is well to remember that it is not always possible, in the angry seas round the Scillies, to 

 approach a rock upon which a lucky, but naturally impatient, survivor has scrambled or been 

 washed up. 



Whatever the former maritime importance of Cornwall it seems to have been long falling back 

 in comparison with other counties. In 1664 a list of men available for the navy assesses it at 200, 

 as against 150 for Somerset and 700 for Devon. 8 Under the press system, as ridiculous as iniquitous, 

 the expense of catching the hunted men was enormous. Every one who helped to trap them had a 

 claim to reward, and in one instance the cost to the crown of laying hold of twenty-seven men at 

 Falmouth and getting them to Plymouth was 6j io*. 9 Towards the end of 1666 Charles, 

 desirous of using, towards the formation of a standing army, the money voted by Parliament for the 

 navy, and trusting to the peace negotiations opened at Breda, decided to put most of the men-of-war 

 out of commission and to rely on the coast fortifications and militia to repel attack. The Dutch 

 were eager for peace, but thought that the best way to procure it was to stimulate the plenipotentiaries 

 by acts of war, and when news came to London that the Dutch fleet was going to sea a circular 

 letter of warning was sent round the counties. In June came the attacks in the Thames and 

 Medway. Early in July the Dutch fleet was divided, one division remained to blockade the 

 Thames, the other, of some thirty ships under Ruyter, was ordered to sail down Channel and 

 terrorize the south coast. Being informed that the merchant fleet from the Mediterranean was 



1 Egerton MSS. 2534, ff. 82, 86. S. P. Dom. Interreg. xv, 80. 



' Ibid. 19 May, 3 June, 1653. 4 Ibid. 14 March, I June, 1653. 



Ibid. 13 Feb. 1652. 6 Ibid. I Jan. 1658-9. 



7 Ibid. Chas. II, ccxxv, 131. 



8 Add. MS. 9,316, f. 79. The numbers cannot represent the totals of each county, but only the quotas 

 to be raised at the time ; no doubt the proportions remain the same. 



8 Navy Board Letters, xlvi. 



502 



