United States or Saint Martin ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The Dutch, though far inferior in number, having only seventy-five vessels, convinced that this struggle was to be the most desperate and the last, prepared themselves for it as men who had everything at stake. After a short but inspiring harangue, De Ruyter gave the signal for attack.
The rest of the captains, who had been on shore, returned on ship-board; and, with the two newly arrived vessels, the whole fleet consisted of nine, their number also being increased by fifty men; they were in all two hundred and thirty Portuguese.
There were even some who expected to make their return voyage on the Melpomene-Thalia, which would leave New York on the next Monday. The Euterpe-Thalia was one of those combination ocean vessels which had now been in use for nearly ten years, and although the present voyage was not a particularly rapid one, it had been made in a little less than three days.
On the 17th August, the two fleets, so vastly disproportionate in number, size, equipment, and military force eighteen galleons and galleys, with four or five thousand fighting men, against eleven small vessels and twelve or fourteen hundred sailors met in that narrow sea. The action lasted all day. It was neither spirited nor sanguinary.
To exchange views as to the rate that should be accepted would have been regarded as a decided token of business incapacity. Supposing two captains had their vessels unchartered, each would give instructions to be called early in the morning, that they might go in the first boat to St. Petersburg, and neither would know what the other intended.
The leader of the pirates evidently saw that there was no chance of evading the fight. A flag was run up to the masthead of his ship, and the three vessels began to endeavour to turn, so as to meet the galley. The operation, however, took some time.
An arrangement was, however, speedily reached, and upon notification from the Government of Spain that all differential treatment of our vessels and their cargoes, from the United States or from any foreign country, had been completely and absolutely relinquished, I availed myself of the discretion conferred by law and issued on the 27th of October my proclamation declaring reciprocal suspension in the United States.
Meantime, as the sickly light, of the waning moon came forth at intervals through the stormy clouds the soldiers could plainly perceive the files of Zealand vessels through which they were to march, and which were anchored as close to the flat as the water would allow.
To these it was thought improper to accede, and in consequence the restrictive regulations which had been adopted on her part, being countervailed on the part of the United States, the direct commerce between the two countries in the vessels of each party has been in great measure suspended.
"And yett, for the cleansing of the small Blood Vessels, and making way for the free circulation of the Blood and Lymph there is nothing like Mercurial Deobstruents." From this we learn that mercury was already in common use, and the subject of the same popular prejudice as in our own time.
Word Of The Day