This eBook was produced by David Widger
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS
From the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Year's Truce—1609
By John Lothrop Motley
MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, Project Gutenberg Edition, Vol. 79
History of the United Netherlands, 1607
A Dutch fleet under Heemskerk sent to the coast of Spain and Portugal—Encounter with the Spanish war fleet under D'Avila—Death of both commanders-in-chief—Victory of the Netherlanders—Massacre of the Spaniards.
The States-General had not been inclined to be tranquil under the checkwhich Admiral Haultain had received upon the coast of Spain in the autumnof 1606. The deed of terrible self-devotion by which Klaaszoon and hiscomrades had in that crisis saved the reputation of the republic, hadproved that her fleets needed only skilful handling and determinedleaders to conquer their enemy in the Western seas as certainly as theyhad done in the archipelagos of the East. And there was one pre-eminentnaval commander, still in the very prime of life, but seasoned by anexperience at the poles and in the tropics such as few mariners in thatearly but expanding maritime epoch could boast. Jacob van Heemskerk,unlike many of the navigators and ocean warriors who had made and weredestined to make the Orange flag of the United Provinces illustrious overthe world, was not of humble parentage. Sprung of an ancient, knightlyrace, which had frequently distinguished itself in his native province ofHolland, he had followed the seas almost from his cradle. By turns acommercial voyager, an explorer, a privateer's-man, or an admiral of war-fleets, in days when sharp distinctions between the merchant service andthe public service, corsairs' work and cruisers' work, did not exist, hehad ever proved himself equal to any emergency—a man incapable offatigue, of perplexity, or of fear. We have followed his career duringthat awful winter in Nova Zembla, where, with such unflinching cheerfulheroism, he sustained the courage of his comrades—the first band ofscientific martyrs that had ever braved the dangers and demanded thesecrets of those arctic regions. His glorious name—as those of so manyof his comrades and countrymen—has been rudely torn from cape,promontory, island, and continent, once illustrated by courage andsuffering, but the noble record will ever remain.
Subsequently he had much navigated the Indian ocean; his latestachievement having been, with two hundred men, in a couple of yachts,to capture an immense Portuguese carrack, mounting thirty guns, andmanned with eight hundred sailors, and to bring back a prodigious bootyfor the exchequer of the republic. A man with delicate features, largebrown eyes, a thin high nose, fair hair and beard, and a soft, gentleexpression, he concealed, under a quiet exterior, and on ordinaryoccasions a very plain and pacific costume, a most daring nature,and an indomitable ambition for military and naval distinction.
He was the man of all others in the commonwealth to lead any newenterprise that audacity could conceive against the hereditary enemy.
The public and the States-General were anxious to retrace the track ofHaultain, and to efface the memory of his inglorious return from theSpanish coast. The sailors of Holland and Zeeland were in