172 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
DE RUYTER'S NAVAL OPERATIONS AGAINST 
ENGLAND. 
ABSTRACT OF LECTURE BY W. CECIL WADE. 
(Read 22nd November, 1888.) 
The lecturer stated that no full and impartial account existed of 
these operations as viewed by both countries, and went on to 
describe the causes of the outbreak of the great war with Holland, 
which, in opposition to Green, he attributed entirely to the 
jealousies and rivalries of the English and Dutch West African 
Companies. The English and German East African Companies 
of to-day were similarly situated as regarded a possibility of 
antagonism in the near future. Parliament petitioned King 
Charles II. to take speedy redress for the losses inflicted on our 
trade and merchants, and offered to assist him with "their lives 
and fortunes." Private hostilities of the most pronounced kind 
were carried on by the rival national companies, until at last the 
Dutch States ordered their admiral, De Ruyter, to secretly steal 
away and ravage the English settlements. Giving a brief outline 
of the previous life of De Ruyter, the lecturer passed on to the 
declaration of war, and the engagement of the Dutch fleet under 
Opdam with the English under the Duke of York, at Solebay, 
which resulted in the destruction of a large part of the Dutch 
fleet, and death of their admiral, who was blown up with his 
ship. Then followed a battle of four days' duration between the 
Duke of Albemarle and De Ruyter, in which the English would 
have been at last entirely overpowered by superior numbers but 
for the timely arrival of Prince Rupert's squadron, which ended 
the fight. In the next battle De Ruyter was defeated off the 
North Foreland; and the English, under Admiral Holmes, suc- 
ceeded in burning an immense number of Dutch merchant ships 
in the Texel, besides burning the large town of Brandaris. Great 
rejoicings took place at Plymouth when the news of these events 
