History of the United Netherlands, 1607a | Page 2

The sailors of Holland and Zeeland were indignant that

the richly freighted fleets of the two Indies had been allowed to slip so
easily through their fingers. The great East India Corporation was
importunate with Government that such blunders should not be
repeated, and that the armaments known to be preparing in the
Portuguese ports, the homeward-bound fleets that might be looked for
at any moment off the peninsular coast, and the Spanish cruisers which
were again preparing to molest the merchant fleets of the Company,
should be dealt with effectively and in season.
Twenty-six vessels of small size but of good sailing qualities,
according to the idea of the epoch, were provided, together with four
tenders. Of this fleet the command was offered to Jacob van
Heemskerk. He accepted with alacrity, expressing with his usual quiet
self-confidence the hope that, living or dead, his fatherland would have
cause to thank him. Inspired only by the love of glory, he asked for no
remuneration for his services save thirteen per cent. of the booty, after
half a million florins should have been paid into the public treasury. It
was hardly probable that this would prove a large share of prize money,
while considerable victories alone could entitle him to receive a stiver.
The expedition sailed in the early days of April for the coast of Spain
and Portugal, the admiral having full discretion to do anything that
might in his judgment redound to the advantage of the republic. Next in
command was the vice-admiral of Zeeland, Laurenz Alteras. Another
famous seaman in the fleet was Captain Henry Janszoon of Amsterdam,
commonly called Long Harry, while the weather-beaten and
well-beloved Admiral Lambert, familiarly styled by his countrymen
"Pretty Lambert," some of whose achievements have already been
recorded in these pages, was the comrade of all others upon whom
Heemskerk most depended. After the 10th April the admiral, lying off
and on near the mouth of the Tagus, sent a lugger in trading disguise to
reconnoitre that river. He ascertained by his spies, sent in this and
subsequently in other directions, as well as by occasional merchantmen
spoken with at sea, that the Portuguese fleet for India would not be
ready to sail for many weeks; that no valuable argosies were yet to be
looked for from America, but that a great war- fleet, comprising many
galleons of the largest size, was at that very moment cruising in the
Straits of Gibraltar. Such of the Netherland traders as were returning
from the Levant, as well as those designing to enter the Mediterranean,

were likely to fall prizes to this formidable enemy. The heart of Jacob
Heemskerk danced for joy. He had come forth for glory, not for booty,
and here was what he had scarcely dared to hope for--a powerful
antagonist instead of peaceful, scarcely resisting, but richly-laden
merchantmen. The accounts received were so accurate as to assure him
that the Gibraltar fleet was far superior to his own in size of vessels,
weight of metal, and number of combatants. The circumstances only
increased his eagerness. The more he was over-matched, the greater
would be the honour of victory, and he steered for the straits, tacking to
and fro in the teeth of a strong head-wind.
On the morning of the 25th April he was in the narrowest part of the
mountain-channel, and learned that the whole Spanish fleet was in the
Bay of Gibraltar.
The marble pillar of Hercules rose before him. Heemskerk was of a
poetic temperament, and his imagination was inflamed by the spectacle
which met his eyes. Geographical position, splendour of natural
scenery, immortal fable, and romantic history, had combined to throw a
spell over that region. It seemed marked out for perpetual illustration
by human valour. The deeds by which, many generations later, those
localities were to become identified with the fame of a splendid
empire--then only the most energetic rival of the young republic, but
destined under infinitely better geographical conditions to follow on
her track of empire, and with far more prodigious results--were still in
the womb of futurity. But St. Vincent, Trafalgar, Gibraltar--words
which were one day to stir the English heart, and to conjure heroic
English shapes from the depths so long as history endures--were capes
and promontories already familiar to legend and romance.
Those Netherlanders had come forth from their slender little fatherland
to offer battle at last within his own harbours and under his own
fortresses to the despot who aspired to universal monarchy, and who
claimed the lordship of the seas. The Hollanders and Zeelanders had
gained victories on the German Ocean, in the Channel, throughout the
Indies, but now they were to measure strength with the ancient enemy
in this most conspicuous theatre, and before the eyes of Christendom. It
was