500 
r v y 
mon peduncle round, thick, smooth; flowers scattered alter¬ 
nate, on short pedicels. Petals purple, deciduous. Fruit 
a berry; two-celled and many-seeded.—Native of Mar- 
tinico. 
2. Ruyschia surubea.'—Stem sarmentose, round; with 
long, divaricate, flexile, declining, round, fragile branches. 
Leaves alternate, acuminate at the base, emarginate at the 
top, mucronate in the middle, with a minute toothlet; on 
short round petioles, channelled above. Racemes terminat¬ 
ing, long, many-flowered. Flowers alternate, somewhat 
remote from each other, large; on round fleshy pedicels, an 
inch in length. Petals oblong, deciduous, yellow. Fila¬ 
ments yellow, wider at the base. Anthers brown.'—Native 
of the woods in Guiana. 
RUYSDAAL (Jacob), a landscape painter of great excel¬ 
lence, was born at Haarlem, in 1636. He was brought up 
to physic and surgery, and is said to have advanced so far as 
to perform surgical operations with credit; but his inclination 
led him to painting, with no other master, as far as is known, 
than nature. This he studied with the greatest assiduity and 
success, so that no master has surpassed him in the reality of 
the scenery which he has represented, and in the choice of 
which he has displayed great taste and elegance. He par¬ 
ticularly delighted in landscapes connected with water, such as 
the banks of rivers, mill-pools, cascades, and the like, shaded 
with depth of wood, the trees of which he touched with 
singular delicacy, expressing the different kinds with appro¬ 
priate leafing. His water is remarkably pellucid, and finely 
contrasted by the foam of cataracts. The tone of his colour¬ 
ing is natural and agreeable, his lights and shades are skil¬ 
fully disposed, his distances well preserved, and all parts of 
Iris works are touched with a master-hand, except his figures, 
in which he was conscious of defect, and therefore often 
procured them from another hand. Many of his scenes are 
the manifest product of his native country ; but others, in 
which he paints hilly ground and torrents, must have been 
derived from a different face of nature. It has, therefore, 
been supposed that he, with his friend Nicholas Berghem, 
visited Italy: but of this there is no proof. Ruysdaal resided 
chiefly at Amsterdam, living in the state of celibacy, that 
lie might be the better able to support an aged father. He 
returned to Haarlem before his death, which happened in 
1681. His works are met with in the principal cabinets, 
and are highly valued. Several of his landscapes have been 
engraved; and he himself executed some engravings of views 
near Amsterdam. D'Argenville. Pilki.ngton. 
RUYSSELEDE, an inland town of the Netherlands, in 
the province of West Flanders, with 5400 inhabitants, em¬ 
ployed partly in the manufacture of linen. Here are also 
considerable breweries; 14 miles south-south-east of Bruges, 
and 15 west of Ghent. 
RUYTER (Michael-Adrian de), a celebrated Dutch admi¬ 
ral, born at flushing in 1607, entered into the naval service 
of his country very early. From the situation of cabin-boy 
he rose through all the commands to the rank of captain, in 
which he distinguished himself both among his own coun¬ 
trymen and foreigners. Much of the early part of his life was 
spent in the service in the West Indies, to which he is said 
to have made eight voyages, and two to Brazil. In 1641 he 
was sent to the assistance of the Portuguese, who had thrown 
off the yoke of Spain, and on this occasion he was raised to 
the rank of rear-admiral. His conduct obtained for him the 
applause of the king of Portugal, and he afterwards rendered 
some important, services on the Barbary coast, entering the 
road of Sallee in a single ship, although five Algerine corsairs 
disputed the passage. When war broke out, in 1652, 
between the English and Dutch, Van Tromp having been 
disgraced, De Ruyter was appointed to the comand of a sepa¬ 
rate squadron, for the purpose of convoying home a rich fleet 
of merchantmen. He fell in with the English admiral Ays- 
cough, with whom he had an engagement off - Plymouth, in 
the month of August, which lasted two days, and terminated 
so far to the advantage of the Dutch, that he brought his con¬ 
voy safe into port. In the following October, De Ruyter and 
De Witte had an action with Blake and Ayscough on the 
TER. 
Flemish coast, which was severely contested; but De Ruvter, 
being deserted by some of his captains,found it advisable to 
retreat to his own coast, the loss having been nearly equal on 
both sides. Van Tromp was now restored to the chief com¬ 
mand, and De Ruyter had a squadron under him in the battle 
of December, off Folkstone, in which Blake was obliged to 
take shelter in the Thames. De Ruyter likewise distinguished 
himself in the terrible battle of three days, fought in Fe¬ 
bruary 1653, between Tromp andBlake, near the mouth of the 
channel. In the month of June, Tromp and De Ruyter en¬ 
gaged Monk and Dean, of Nieuport; and after a battle of 
two days, in which the two Dutch admirals successively res¬ 
cued each other from imminent danger, the Dutch confessed 
their inferiority by retiring behind their own sand-banks. 
The commanders thence sent a warm remonstrance to the 
States concerning the necessity of a reinforcement, and at 
length they were enabled to attack the English, under Monk 
and Lawson, near Scheveling. In the final battle between 
the two republics, Tromp was killed; and though De 
Ruyter made every effort to restore the day, returning to the 
combat after he had been obliged to shift his flag to a frigate, 
yet he was at length compelled to withraw his shattered ships 
to the Meuse. The peace with England, which was concluded 
the following year, gave arespite to this terribleservice, and De 
Ruyter was sent to cruize in the Mediterranean. Hewas next 
ordered to reinforce Opdam, who was laying siege to Dantzig, 
and this service being effected, he returned to his station. 
The Dutch trade was at this time much molested by French 
privateers, but the vigorous conduct of De Ruyter put an end 
to this predatory warfare. A dispute with Portugal brought 
this Dutch admiral again into action, and he exhibited his 
vigilance, taking several Portuguese ships at the mouth of the 
Tagus, and made several prizes from the Brazil fleet, till a 
want of provisions obliged them to return to Holland. War 
having recommenced between the Swedes and Danes in 
1658, De Ruyter was sent with a fleet to the assistance of the 
latter. He made a descent on the island of Funen, defeated 
the Swedes, and forced them to surrender at discretion in 
Nyborgh, whither they had retired. He then wintered at 
Copenhagen, where the king of Denmark ennobled him for his 
good services. In 1662 he was sent with a strong squadron 
to curb the insolence of the Barbary states, who had exercised 
their piracy upon the Dutch shipping, and succeeded en¬ 
tirely to the satisfaction of his employers. At the commence¬ 
ment of the disputes between Charles II. and the United Pro¬ 
vinces, De Ruyter had a command on the coast of Africa, 
where He recovered the forts which had been taken from the 
Dutch by the English, and made prizes of some merchant 
ships. After the defeat of the fleet of Opdam, by the Duke of 
York, in 1665, De Ruyter'returned, and was raised to the 
rank of lieutenant-admiral-general of the Dutch navy. In 
the parties into which Holland was at this time divided, De 
Ruyter was at this time considered as attached to the repub¬ 
lican cause, while the younger Tromp, his rival, was a warm 
adherent to the house of Orange : they however, went to sea 
together. The first service of De Ruyfer was to convey 
home a fleet of merchantmen ; and in June 1666, the great 
fleets of the two marine powers met in the Downs; the Dutch 
commanded by De Ruyter and Tromp; the English by 
prince Rupert and Monk, afterwards duke of Alber- 
marle. In the three day’s fight which ensued the Dutch had 
the advantage, though the valour of the English rendered the 
contest very severe. Both De Ruyter and Tromp were 
obliged several times to shift their flags from ship to ship, 
and the latter having borne down to the centre of the Eng¬ 
lish, was reduced to the utmost extremity, when he was nobly 
rescued by his rival and political foe. The action was re¬ 
newed on the fourth day, and in the end the English, who 
had been the greatest sufferers, withdrew to their harbour. 
In the following August, the duke of Albermarle and prince 
Rupert fell in, near the coast of Essex, with De Ruyter 
and Tromp, and in the ensuing action, Tromp, eagerly 
pursuing a defeated division of the English fleet, left De 
Ruyter alone to contend with the main body of the enemy, 
who, after a long and most severe contest, was obliged to 
retreat, 
