"In the brief sketch I gave you at Antwerp of the history of the Netherlands, that of Holland was included up to the period of the murder of the Prince of Orange, which occurred in 1584, while he was Stadtholder of the Seven United Provinces. At his death, his son, Prince Maurice, was elected Stadtholder in his father's place. He was then only seventeen years of age, but he proved to be a young man of great military ability, and commenced a glorious career, which ended only with his life, in 1625. With the bright example of Prince Maurice before them, I think our young captains of his age may be encouraged."
This remark "brought down the house," and more than fifty of the students glanced at Paul Kendall, whose "improbable" achievements in the Josephine were the admiration of everybody in the squadron, except Professor Hamblin.
"Philip II. died in 1598, and his successor continued his efforts to conquer the Dutch, but without success. By this time Holland had created the most powerful navy in the world, and with her seventy thousand seamen swept the commerce of the Spaniards from the seas, even in the remotest waters of the globe. The galleons and treasure ships from the colonies of Spain were captured, and their rich booty poured into the exchequer of the Dutch. The monarch of Castile was almost impoverished by these losses; and, deprived of the means to carry on the war of subjugation, he agreed, in 1609, to a truce of twelve years.
"Religious dissensions then broke out in Holland, which soon assumed a political turn. The Stadtholder, Prince Maurice, was ambitious to become the hereditary sovereign of Holland, in which he was opposed by Barneveldt, a venerable judge, aided by De Groot, or Grotius, a noted Dutch scholar and statesman. The opposition were styled 'remonstrants.' The judge was charged with a plot to hand his country over to the tyranny of Spain; and though he was a pure patriot, he was condemned and executed. Grotius, by an expedient which would have been deemed improbable in a novel, escaped from the Castle of Loevestein.
"At the expiration of the truce, Spain renewed her efforts to conquer Holland; but, after a war of twenty-seven years, the independence of the country was acknowledged in the peace of Westphalia. During this period the Dutch maintained their supremacy on the sea, attacking the Spanish possessions in all parts of the world, and especially in the East Indies, where they commenced the foundation of their empire in that part of the globe.