gun ships without camels. In peace two packets Port Towns: sail every week between it and Harwich. Gertruydenberg, at the S.E. extremity of the Biesbosch and on the river Dungen, is an important fortress, with a little town of 1,800 inhabitants. Williamstadt, in Dutch Brabant, on Klundert Island, and on the channel into the Biesbosch, called Holland's Diep, is also a strong fortress, with a village of 400 inhabitants. The province of Zealand is composed of the Zealand. islands formed by the Meuse and Scheld, and has two divisions, the eastern one containing Goree, Overflackie, Schonen, Duiveland, Tholen, Philipsland, and some others. Goree is the first land usually made by vessels bound to Rotterdam: it has only a village. Schonen is five leagues long, its chief place is Zierik Zee, on the south, an antient trading town of 6,000 inhabitants. Browershaven, on the north, has 1,000 inhabitants, and a tolerable harbour; and Hamstead, on the west, is a large handsome village. Duiveland has no town, but several large villages. Tholen has a small fortified town of the same name. St. Philipsland only villages. Zommerdyk is the principal place of Overflackie, on the north coast. The west division contains Walcheren, North and South Beveland, Wolfersdike, and Juisteland, with some other lands. Walcheren, including Juisteland, which is separated from it by a very narrow channel, is the most fertile and populous of the Zealand islands. Middleburg, the capital of the province,has 1,600 inhabitants, and communicates Zealand. Port Towns with Flushing by a canal fit for large vessels, Flushing, (Vlissingen) on the south end of Walcheren, has 10,000 inhabitants, and a beautiful port within two moles, capable of holding eighty sail of the line, besides extensive docks and basins, It is strongly fortified, and commands the West Scheld or Hondt. Terveer, on the east, has a good port and marine arsenal. Armuyden, on the east point, had formerly a port, but it is now choaked. Dutch Flanders. Austrian South Beveland, the largest of the Zealand islands, is eight leagues long and two to three broad. Goes, on the north, is the chief place, and is a neat town with a harbour for small vessels. North Beveland is six miles long and four broad; it has the little town of Korting. In Dutch Flanders are Cadsand, on the west end of the island of the same name, separated from the main land by the channel called the Swin; Ysandik, a fortress and village of 160 houses; Biervliet, an insignificant place on an island near the south shore of the Hondt; Ter neuse, on the same shore, a small fortified town almost surrounded by water at high tides. Sluys (Ecluse, French), on the Swin, opposite Cadsand, is a small fortified town of 1,500 inhabitants; its port, which was formerly deep, can now only receive small craft. In Austrian Flanders afe ANTWERP (Anvers, French) on the Scheld; it is one of the handsomest cities of Europe, and has 56,000 inhabitants. Its port, which was vastly improved by the French, is capable Austrian capable of receiving seventy-four gun ships. The Port Towns. city is intersected by eight canals, and besides other strong fortifications has a regular citadel, and the whole country may be laid under water by sluices. It was antiently one of the most commercial cities of Europe, but ceded to its rival Amsterdam, and its remaining commerce was annihilated by the closing of the Scheld; but when this river was again opened in 1784, its trade revived, fifty vessels entering from sea in 1800, and 142 in 1801. It communicates with Brussels by a canal. On the sea coast of Austrian Flanders are Blankenburg, a fishing town on the sand beach. Ostend, a celebrated commercial town of 10,000 inhabitants. Its haven is formed by two jetties of wood, enclosing rough stones; it can receive vessels of twenty-one feet at high water, there being a bank before the entrance with but six feet at low ebb, but inside is four fathoms at low water. On the left of the entrance is an elevated column with a lanthorn. Ostend being declared a free port in 1781, a vast trade was carried on from it till the end of the American war, by the French and Dutch, under the Imperial flag. Several canals, navigated by vessels of 200 tons, communicate between Ostend, Furnes, Bruges, Nieuport, Dunkirk, &c. Middlekirk, two leagues west of Ostend and Nieuport, on the Yperlee, are fishing villages: the former is protected by a fort, and the latter has a dry tide haven, with thirteen feet at high water. Commerce. Tenth Cen tury. Fifteenth A. D. 1565. 1566. We have already noticed, in treating of the commerce of the Baltic, that the regular system of commercial exchanges which originated in the south gradually spread itself towards the north, where free fairs were established, in imitation of those of the Italian States, about the tenth century. Amongst the trading cities Gand (Ghent) first took the lead, but was soon surpassed by Bruges, which in its turn ceded to Antwerp, in whose port, in the fifteenth century, 2,500 vessels were seen at one time. Charles V., when he united the seventeen provinces of the Netherlands to the crown of Spain, respected their antient privileges, and in return they contributed largely to the splendour of his reign. His son, Philip II., blinded by the spirit of despotism, pretending to govern these provinces as arbitrarily as Spain, irritated the Flemings to resistance; and this resistance, which was considered as rebellion, combined with religious fanaticism, called down on them every species of oppression and persecution from the monarch and his viceroys, until the country, before so happy, became a scene of horror and desolation. At length driven to desperation, seven of the provinces openly revolted, and declared their independence, under the name of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces. Before the revolution these provinces were amongst the poorest of the Netherlands, but no sooner had they proclaimed themselves free than their situation rapidly improved. Rich citizens, and and skilful and industrious manufacturers, flocked Commerce. to them from the other provinces, either to escape from political vexation or religious persecution, or to seek that liberty and equality which can only exist in the infancy of a virtuous commonwealth. Amsterdam became the rival of Antwerp, and soon outstripped her in the career of commerce. The temperate and liberal form of the government, and the equity and prudence of the magistrates, founded and increased the prosperity and grandeur of the new republic, and enabled it to support, and to terminate successfully, the struggle A. D. 1648. for its liberties, against the most powerful monarchy in Europe, and afterwards to measure its strength with a balanced success against England. During these wars, Holland did not cease to extend her commerce, on account of which they were partly undertaken, and which, by a reaction, principally enabled her to carry them on: but the territory of the republic affording few commercial objects, it was necessary to seek for them abroad; and they were found in the fisheries, and in the East and West Indies and carrying trades. The herring fishery, which was long called, with Fisheries. propriety, the gold mine of Holland, was carried on, on the coasts of the Low Countries, in the twelfth century; but the art of curing and barrelling these fish was first invented by Beukelz, of Biervliet, in 1316. In 1402, this fishery received its first grand extension after the terrible inundation, which having destroyed |