Note 24 — Part II

1. Some may think that this navigation is prohibited to the Spaniards by the treaties of peace, and that on this account we have not established a commerce like that of the Dutch, English, French, Swedes, Danes, and other nations. But it is certain that there is no such prohibition, and that our natural inactivity, laziness, and lack of application to commerce, has been the cause of our not undertaking the aforesaid navigation, which is equally free to us as to all the other powers. For the prohibition that the Englishman, the Dutchman, and the rest can lay upon us is, that our ships may not enter their ports, just as they have been forbidden to enter our ports; but they cannot hinder us from navigating in all the seas of the world, in accordance with natural right and the law of nations. That law does not allow the dominion of the sea to any power, according to Grotius, Heinsius, and others—contrary to the Mare clausum [i.e., “closed sea”], of the Englishman Selden,24 who in regard to the dispute of the year 1653 defended the [English] dominion of the White Sea, and the right of forbidding this navigation to the Dutch; but they maintained their freedom with powerful fleets, and with the same arguments which justify the freedom which the Spaniards possess for navigating by way of the Cape of Good Hope.