Note 708 — Chapter X · THE PARLIAMENT, THE COMMONWEALTH, AND THE PROTECTORATE. THE FIRST DUTCH WAR.

Aitzema, iii. 713. Tideman, 124, 130, 132. The draft instructions were dated (April 30)/(May 10), and were approved on May 6/16. A translation of the 7th Article is as follows :“The superior officers and captains either already in command of the aforesaid squadrons or hereafter appointed, are to be charged to free the ships of this country from all search by any one whatever, and to defend them against all who try to do them injury, and to release them to the uttermost of their power from every one who may have captured them, and further to do whatever their ordinary instructions in their commission requires in a sailor-like fashion for the service of the country.” By the 5th Article, fifteen men-of-war were to be sent for the protection of the “great” (herring) fishery, “which is of so great importance to the State,” along with the ordinary national convoy-ships, and the ships which the towns of Enkhuizen, Delft, Rotterdam, and Schiedam were accustomed to add. Gardiner, Letters and Papers, i. 155.