20

SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE COLONIES.

[CHAP. XLII.

as it was called. With this view tariffs were framed and commercial treaties concluded. Recourse was had to restrictive, mono-polizing, and prohibitory systems, which tended to produce isolation and even war. It was not before the latter half of the eighteenth century that philosophers began to promulgate more rational theories, or rather to revise some ancient Italian ones, and it was reserved for our own age to see them carried into practice. Commerce was now chiefly founded on colonization, which had reached a high pitch of development, and exercised a material influence on the prosperity and power of some of the leading States of Europe, enriching them both by the products of various climates and by the manufactures and other articles of native industry exported in return. Vast mercantile navies were thus created, the nurseries of hardy seamen; while the large fleets of war required for the protection of the colonies supplied a new element of national strength. Hence the colonial system has played so important a part in the wars and negotiations of the last two or three centuries, that we shall here give such a brief connected outline of its progress, down to the Peace of Paris in 1763, as our limits will permit.'

We have already taken a general view of maritime discovery and colonization down to the opening of the seventeenth century. The Spaniards and the Portuguese, as they were the first ocean navigators and discoverers, so they were the only nations which up to that period possessed any settlements out of Europe. The Spanish colonies were almost confined to the Western Hemisphere. They comprised, on the North American continent, New Spain or Mexico, with all the countries dependent on that viceroyalty; viz., California on the west, the vast and undefined region called New Mexico on the north, and on the east, Yucatan, Honduras, and all the countries on the isthmus which separates the two American continents. Some of these, however, and especially the northern and western districts, were but scantily settled, and subdued rather than occupied. In South America, Spain possessed Peru and its dependency, Chili, the kingdom of New Granada, the kingdom of Tierra Firme, stretching from the isthmus of Darien to

On this subject see Robertson, Hist. of America; Raynal, Hist. des établissemens des Européens dans les deux Indes; the Hist. générale des Voyages; Lafitau, Hist. des découvertes et conquétes des Portugais dans le nouveau monde; Lüder, Gesch. des Holländischen Handels (from Luzac's Hollands Rykdom); Du Tertre, Hist. générale des Antilles habitées par les

Français; Heeren, Handb. der Gesch. des Europ. Staatensystems und seiner Colonieen (for a general view of Colonization and its European effects; in English, Political System of Europe and its Colonies); Bancroft, Hist. of the United States of America; Mill's Hist. of British India, &c.

CHAP. XLII.]

DUTCH EAST INDIA TRADE.

21

the mouth of the Orinoco, and the southern colony of La Plata, or Paraguay. All these vast regions were subject to the Viceroy of Peru. Besides these continental possessions, Spain also held all the principal islands in the Caribbean Sea.

The maritime enterprises of the Portuguese, the rivals of the Spaniards in discovery and colonization, were chiefly directed towards the East. We have already indicated generally their settlements in Asia and Africa, as well as the foundation of the Empire of Brazil in South America. By the conquest of Portugal by Philip II. in 1580, all the Portuguese colonies fell under the dominion of the Spanish Crown; so that at this period Spain was the sole possessor of all the European settlements in America and the East Indies. In the latter quarter the only Spanish possession, previously acquired, was the Philippine Isles, occupied in 1564. These were governed by a viceroy; but they were chiefly valued by the bigoted Court of Spain as the seat of Catholic missions, and most of the soil belonged to the monks. A regular commerce, carried on by a few South Sea galleons, had been established between Manilla and Acapulco, which diverted to the East much of the Mexican silver. The union of the Portuguese colonies in Asia under the Spanish sceptre, by exposing them to the attacks of the enemies of Spain, as well as by the neglect which they experienced from the Spanish Government, was one of the chief causes of their ruin. Nor had they been governed by the Portuguese in a way calculated to promote their strength and provide them with the means of resistance. The frequent change of viceroys, who were recalled every two or three years, prevented the establishment of a strong administration. King Sebastian rendered matters still worse by distributing the colonies under the three independent governments of Monomotapa, India, and Malacca, and by further lessening the authority of the viceroys by the addition of a council. To these sources of decay must be added a wretched system of administration, and the depressing influence which a bigoted and superstitious church naturally exercised upon all enterprise.

The shutting of the port of Lisbon against the Dutch in 1594, and the edict of Philip III. prohibiting his subjects from all commerce with that people, were followed by the most disastrous effects to the Portuguese colonies. The Dutch being thus deprived of their customary trade, and having discovered the weakness of the Spaniards at sea, resolved to extend their enterprises beyond the bounds of Europe, to which they had hitherto confined them, and

See Vol. II. p. 137, sq.

22

ENGLISH EAST INDIA COMPANY.

[CHAP. XLII. to seek at the fountain-head the Indian trade, of which they had up to this time partaken only at second-hand through the medium of the Portuguese. We have already given a general sketch of the progress of the Dutch in the East Indies.' Batavia, founded in 1619, became the centre of their commerce and the seat of their government in the East. Trade, not colonization, was their aim. They at first avoided the Indian continent, where the Mogul dynasty was then very powerful, and sought in preference to establish themselves in the islands, with a view especially to the spice trade. Throughout the century their power continued to increase in Asia. In 1661 they wrested from the Portuguese Palicata on the coast of Coromandel, Calicut, Cochin and Cananor in Malabar, together with several places in Ceylon, Malacca, &c. The Portuguese were also expelled from Japan, and the Asiatic possessions of that nation were ultimately reduced to Goa and Diu. The extensive jurisdiction of the Dutch East India Company was. divided into the five governments of Java, Amboyna, Ternate, Ceylon, and Macassar, besides several directories and commanderies; the whole under the central government of Batavia. Their colony at the Cape of Good Hope, founded in 1653, constituted a sixth government, and formed a sort of defensive outwork to their East Indian possessions.

The Dutch long enjoyed their pre-eminence in the East. The enterprises of the English and French, their only rivals in this quarter of the globe, were at first but slow and feeble. The attempts of the English East India Company, founded as we have said in the year 1600, to open a trade with the Spice Islands, excited the jealousy of the Dutch, and the most bloody engagements ensued between the two nations in the Indian Ocean and its islands. To put an end to these horrible scenes a treaty was. concluded in 1619, between James I. and the States-General, by which the English were to be admitted to a share of the spice trade; but the Dutch, by their cruelties at Amboyna, to which we have already referred, succeeded in excluding them from the Moluccas. In other respects, also, the English East India Com-pany made little progress during the first half of the seventeenth century, and seemed on the point of dissolution. It had not. attempted to make settlements and build forts, and had contented itself with establishing a few factories at Bantam and along the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel. It had, however, acquired Madras, by permission of the King of Golcondo (1640). The 2 Vol. III. p. 294.

2

1 See Vol. III. p. 54.

CHAP. XLII.]

THE DUTCH IN AMERICA.

23

Protector Cromwell somewhat revived the Company, by granting it new privileges (1658). Madras was now erected into a presidency. Charles II. also enlarged the Company's political privileges, and increased its territorial dominion by assigning to it Bombay (1668), which he had acquired as part of the portion of his consort Catharine of Portugal. Bombay rapidly increased in importance, and in 1685 the Government was transferred thither from Surat. The English power in the East now began to make more rapid strides. Before the end of the century, factories and forts had been established at Bencoolen in Sumatra and at Hooghly; and the district of Calcutta was purchased, and Fort William founded in 1699. During this period the French East India Company, established by Colbert, had planted a factory at Surat, in Malabar (1675), and founded Pondicherry on the coast of Coromandel (1679). Meanwhile, however, the Dutch continued to retain their monopoly of the spice trade, the French and English commerce chiefly consisting in manufactured articles and raw stuffs.

The Dutch had not confined their enterprises to the East Indies. They had also founded in North America, in the present State of New York, the colony of Nova Belgia, or New Netherlands. Hudson had explored the vast regions to the north, and the shores of the great bay which takes its name from him; and as Hudson was an Englishman, though he sailed in the Dutch service, this circumstance subsequently gave rise to conflicting claims between the two nations. The Dutch had also established a West India Company, chiefly with the design of conquering Brazil; and in 1630 they succeeded in making themselves masters of the coast of Pernambuco. John Maurice, Count of Nassau, who was sent thither in 1636, subdued all Pernambuco, as well as some neighbouring provinces; and by the truce between the States-General and Portugal, in June, 1641, after the latter country had thrown off the Spanish yoke, it was stipulated that the Dutch were to retain these conquests. In spite, however, of the peace between the mother countries, the war was renewed in Brazil in 1645; the Count of Nassau had been recalled, the Portuguese possessions were heroically defended by Don Juan de Vieira; and in January, 1654, the Dutch were totally expelled from South America. This was the chief, and, indeed, only important reverse which the Dutch experienced up to this period, who were now at the height of their commercial prosperity. Besides their settlements in the East Indies, they had extended their trade in the Baltic, and were become the chief carriers of Europe. They had also established

24

ENGLISH COLONIZATION IN AMERICA.

[CHAP. XLII. themselves at St. Eustatia, Curaçao, and one or two other small West India Islands. The first check to this prosperity was experienced from the rivalry of England, and especially from the celebrated Navigation Act, to which we have before adverted.

The English, indeed, under the sway of the pacific James, instead of opposing the Dutch in the East, had chiefly directed their attention to the Western Hemisphere, where their establishments made a surprising progress during the first part of the seventeenth century. In this period they occupied the Bermudas, Barbadoes, St. Kitt's, Nevis, the Bahamas, Montserrat, Antigua, and Surinam. In 1655, Jamaica fell into their power as it were by an accident. But more important than all these settlements wast the vast progress made in the colonization of the North American Continent, to which a great impulse had been given by the voyage of Bartholomew Gosnold, in the last year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. By steering due west, instead of taking the usual southern route, Gosnold made the land at the promontory which he named Cape Cod, thus shortening the voyage by a third. The reports which he brought home of the inviting aspect of the country created a great sensation in England; and, as they were confirmed by other navigators who had been despatched purposely to ascertain their correctness, plans of colonization began to be formed. Richard Hakluyt, a Prebendary of Westminster, the publisher of the well-known Collection of Voyages, was a distinguished promoter of this enterprise. In 1606 King James I. divided the whole western coast of America, lying between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude, into two nearly equal portions; which retained the name of Virginia, bestowed on this part of the American continent in honour of Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign, as already mentioned, Raleigh had made an unsuccessful attempt to colonize it. The two divisions made by James were respectively called the First, or South, and the Second, or North Colony of Virginia; but the latter portion obtained, in 1614, the name of New England. The settlement of Southern Virginia was assigned to a London Company; that of the Northern portion to an association formed in the West of England, and called the Plymouth Company. James Town, in Virginia, founded by Captain Newport, in 1607, was the first English settlement in the New World. It was, however, Captain Smith who, by his courage and perseverance in defending the infant colony from the attacks of the native savages, and in cheering the settlers when dejected by famine and disease, may be