1655. War with is continually warped by their temper, no sooner was peace made with Holland, than he began to deliberate what new enemy he should invade with his victorious arms. The extensive empire and yet extreme weakness of Spain in the West Indies; the vigorous courage and great naval power of England; were circumstances which, when compared, excited the ambition of the enterprising protector, and made him hope that he might, by some gainful conquest, render for ever illustrious that dominion which he had assumed over his country. Should he fail of these durable acquisitions, the Indian treasures, which must every year cross the ocean to reach Spain, were, he thought, a sure prey to the English navy, and would support his military force without his laying new burthens on the discontented people. From France a vigorous resistance must be expected: no plunder, no conquests could be hoped for: the progress of his arms, even if attended with success, must there be slow and gradual; and the advantages acquired, however real, would be less striking to the multitude, whom it was his interest to allure. The royal family, so closely connected with the French monarch, might receive great assistance from that neighbouring kingdom; and an army of French protestants landed in England would be able, he dreaded, to unite the most opposite factions against the present usurpation. These motives of policy were probably seconded by his bigotted prejudices; as no human mind ever contained. so strange a mixture of sagacity and absurdity as that of this extraordinary personage. The Swedish alliance, though much contrary to the interests of England, he had contracted merely from his zeal for protestantism *; and Sweden being closely connected with France, he See the account of the negotiations with France and Spain by Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759. He proposed to Sweden a general league and confederacy of all the protestants. Whitlocke, p. 620. Thurloe, vol. vii. p. 1. In order to judge of the maxims by which he conducted his foreign politics, see farther Thurloe, vol. iv. p. 295. 343. 443. vol. vii. p. 174. could not hope to maintain that confederacy, in which he so much prided himself, should a rupture ensue between England and this latter kingdom". The hugonots, he expected, would meet with better treatment. while he engaged in a close union with their sovereign*. And as the Spaniards were much more papists than the French, were much more exposed to the old puritanical hatred, and had even erected the bloody tribunal of the inquisition, whose rigours they had refused to mitigate on Cromwell's solicitation"; he hoped that a holy and meritorious war with such idolaters could not fail of protection from heaven. A preacher, likewise, inspired as was supposed by a prophetic spirit, bid him "go and prosper;" calling him "a stone cut out of the mountains. without hands, that would break the pride of the Spaniard, crush antichrist, and make way for the purity of the gospel over the whole world ". Actuated equally by these bigotted, these ambitious, and these interested motives, the protector equipped two considerable squadrons; and while he was making those preparations, the neighbouring states, ignorant of his intentions, remained in suspense, and looked with anxious expectation on what side the storm should discharge itself. One of these squadrons, consisting of thirty capital ships, was sent into the Mediterranean under Blake, whose fame was now spread over Europe. No English fleet, except during the crusades, had ever before sailed in those seas; and from one extremity to the other there was no naval force, christian or mahometan, able to resist them. The Roman pontiff, whose weakness and whose pride equally provoked attacks, dreaded invasion from a power which professed the most inveterate enmity against him, and which so little regulated its movements by the usual motives of interest and prudence. Blake, casting anchor before Leghorn, demanded and obtained from the duke of Tuscany reparation for some Thurloe, vol. i. p. 759. y Ibid. Ibid. Don Alonzo said, that the Indian trade and the inquisition were his master's two eyes, and the protector insisted upon the putting out both of them a Carrington, p. 191. b Bates. at once. x Ibid. 1655. 1655. losses which the English commerce had formerly sus tained from him. He next sailed to Algiers, and compelled the dey to make peace, and to restrain his piratical subjects from farther violences on the English. He presented himself before Tunis; and having there made the same demands, the dey of that republic bade him look to the castles of Porto-Farino and Goletta, and do his utmost. Blake needed not to be roused by such a bravado: he drew his ships close up to the castles, and tore them in pieces with his artillery. He sent a numerous detachment of sailors in their long boats into the harbour, and burned every ship which lay there. This bold action, which its very temerity perhaps rendered safe, was executed with little loss, and filled all that part of the world with the renown of English valour. The other squadron was not equally successful. It was commanded by Pen, and carried on board four thousand men, under the command of Venables. About five thousand more joined them from Barbadoes and St. Christopher's. Both these officers were inclined to the king's service; and it is pretended that Cromwell was obliged to hurry the soldiers on board, in order to prevent the execution of a conspiracy which had been formed among them in favour of the exiled family. The ill success of this enterprise may justly be ascribed as much to the injudicious schemes of the protector who planned it, as to the bad execution of the officers by whom it was conducted. The soldiers were the refuse of the whole army: the forces enlisted in the West Indies were the most profligate of mankind: Pen and Venables were of incompatible tempers: the troops were not furnished with arms fit for such an expedition: their provisions were defective both in quantity and quality: all hopes of pillage, the best incentive to valour among such men, were refused the soldiers and seamen: no directions or intelligence were given to conduct the officers in their enterprise and at the same time they were tied down to follow the advice of commissioners, who disconcerted them 1655. in all their projects *. It was agreed by the admiral and general to attempt April 13. St. Domingo, the only place of strength in the island of Hispaniola. On the approach of the English, the Spaniards in a fright deserted their houses, and fled into the woods. Contrary to the opinion of Venables, the soldiers were disembarked without guides ten leagues distant from the town. They wandered four days through the woods without provisions, and, what was still more intolerable in that sultry climate, without water. The Spaniards recovered spirit, and attacked them. The English, discouraged with the bad conduct of their officers, and scarcely alive from hunger, thirst, and fatigue, were unable to resist. An inconsiderable number of the enemy put the whole army to rout, killed six hundred of them, and chased the rest on board their vessels. The English commanders, in order to atone as much as possible for this unprosperous attempt, bent their course to Jamaica, which was surrendered to them with- Jamaica out a blow. Pen and Venables returned to England, conquered. and were both of them sent to the Tower by the protector, who, though commonly master of his fiery temper, was thrown into a violent passion at this disappointment. He had made a conquest of greater importance than he was himself at that time aware of; yet was it much inferior to the vast projects which he had formed. He gave orders, however, to support it by men and money; and that island has ever since remained in the hands of the English; the chief acquisition which they owe to the enterprising spirit of Cromwell. As soon as the news of this expedition, which was an unwarrantable violation of treaty, arrived in Europe, the Spaniards declared war against England, and seized all the ships and goods of English merchants, of which they could make themselves masters. The commerce with Spain, so profitable to the English, was cut off; and near e Burchet's Naval History. See also Carte's Collection, vol. ii. p. 46, 47. Thurloe, vol. iii. p. 505. VOL. VII. 1656. 1656. fifteen hundred vessels, it is computed', fell in a few years into the hands of the enemy. Blake, to whom Montague was now joined in command, after receiving new orders, prepared himself for hostilities against the Spaniards. Success, Several sea officers, having entertained scruples of conscience with regard to the justice of the Spanish war, threw up their commissions, and retired. No commands, they thought, of their superiors could justify a war which was contrary to the principles of natural equity, and which the civil magistrate had no right to order. Individuals, they maintained, in resigning to the public their natural liberty, could bestow on it only what they themselves were possessed of, a right of performing lawful actions, and could invest it with no authority of commanding what is contrary to the decrees of heaven. Such maxims, though they seem reasonable, are perhaps too perfect for human nature; and must be regarded as one effect, though of the most innocent and even honourable kind, of that spirit, partly fanatical, partly republican, which predominated in England. Blake lay some time off Cadiz, in expectation of intercepting the Plate fleet, but was at last obliged, for want of water, to make sail towards Portugal. Captain Stayner, whom he had left on the coast with a squadron of seven vessels, came in sight of the galleons, and immediSeptember. ately set sail to pursue them. The Spanish admiral ran his ship ashore: two others followed his example: the English took two ships, valued at near two millions of pieces of eight. Two galleons were set on fire; and the marquis of Badajox, viceroy of Peru, with his wife, and his daughter, betrothed to the young duke of Medina Celi, were destroyed in them. The marquis himself might have escaped; but seeing these unfortunate women, astonished with the danger, fall in a swoon, and perish in the flames, he rather chose to die with them, than drag out a life imbittered with the remembrance of such dismal scenes". When the treasures gained by this enter Thurlee, vol. iv. p. 135. World's Mistake in Oliver Cromwell, in the Harl. |