THE DUTCH WAR 



the 5th of April, 1654, when Cromwell was able to impose his own 

 terms on the Dutch, always excepting the unfortunate demand for the 

 union of the two countries which had caused so much trouble. 

 British V. Dutch Ships. 



In the hard hammer-and-tongs fighting of the Dutch Wars one can- 

 not help noticing how many ships — especially Dutch — foundered as a 

 result of gunfire, which was a rare thing before. This is partly explained 

 by the fact that the Dutch ships were built for speed and seldom had 

 the least difficulty in getting away from our lumbering wagons which 

 one authority describes as being so clogged with timber that there was 

 no room for stores. It was said that the British built their ships to last 

 seventy years and the Dutch seven. On the other hand this proved to 

 be an advantage in action, for many a time we contrived to sink a Dutch 

 ship long before we had knocked the fighting spirit out of her men. 

 Quibbling with France and Spain. 



After peace had been concluded with the Dutch there was a good 

 deal of irregular fighting with both France and Spain. With the latter 

 we had a number of perfectly legitimate quarrels, while with the former 

 there was always the matter of the corsairs that had preyed on British 

 commerce no matter what the relations between the two countries 

 happened to be. Cromwell contrived to get France and Spain bidding 

 against one another for our friendship, but finally decided that Spain 

 was the better worth attacking and fitted out an expedition to tackle 

 her in the West Indies. Penn was in charge of the fleet and Venables 

 of the land forces, but although they had their office by favour of the 

 Commonwealth and had fought right lustily in the Protector's cause, it 

 would appear that they were now both of them communicating secretly 

 with Prince Charles in Holland. When his fleet was ready Cromwell 

 dispatched it against the West Indies with a long list of grievances that 

 we had against Spain. The armament was a big one but it was 

 wretchedly equipped in every way and this lack was felt particularly 

 when a mixed brigade of soldiers and sailors was landed at San 

 Domingo. This brigade appears to have fought tolerably well, but it 

 had no chance from the first and its rout was intensified by its utter lack 

 of discipline. Penn wanted to attack Hispaniola (Hayti), which was 

 supposed to be the primary object of the expedition, but the army was 

 not keen and the capture of Jamaica on the way home, a very 

 important landmark in British history, was something of an after- 

 thought. In spite of their success both Penn and Venables were clapped 

 into the Tower as soon as they ^ot home, presumably because their 

 treasonable correspondence with Charles had been discovered, but they 

 were soon released. 

 Blake's Expedition. 



In the meantime Blake was sent to the Mediterranean in the 

 autumn of 1654 with a considerable fleet. Our interests had been very 

 much neglected there for some years past and our prestige was still 

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