A Battel at Sea between the Swedes and the Dutch, and the former beaten. proach, put themfelves in order of Battel, Witte Witzen, the first Vice Admiral, being in the Van, Admiral Opdam in the Centre, and Peter Floris, the fecond Vice-Admiral, in the Rear. Witte was first received with the whole Fire of the Swedish Admiral, who attempting to clap him on board, and grapple him to his own Ship, met with fo warm a Reception, that he fheer'd off to undertake Opdam, who fired with fuch Fury upon him, that he was forced to retire under the Protection of the Caftle of Cronenburg. In the mean time Vice- Admiral Witte having been forced to quit the Line of Battel in the Heat of his Engagement with Wrangel, was attacked by two large Swedish Ships, against which he defended himfelf with great Bravery for two Hours, without receiving any Affiftance from his own Squadron, and at length funk them both by his fide, but his own Ship had the fame Fate foon after, and he himself was carried afhore to Elfinore mortally wounded with two MusketBalls. Admiral Opdam was furrounded with feven Swedish Ships, and bravely defended himfelf fingly against them for fome time, till he was at length difengag'd by two Dutch Captains, who came in to his Affiftance, when he had juft funk the Swedish Vice-Admiral Wrangel, the Son of the Admiral, who chose rather to perish in the Sea, than owe his Life to the Dutch. The King of Sweden had ordered his Officers to make their principal Efforts against the Flag-Ships of the Enemics; fo that after Witte, it fell to Floris, the other Vice Admiral's Share to fuftain the most vigorous Attacks of the Swedes, which he did with great Bravery, and made a prodigious Slaughter among them before he received his Death's Wound. The Engagement lafted four Hours amidst the Fire of three thousand Pieces of Cannon, when at length the Lofs of fo many Ships and Men made the Courage and Firmnefs of the Swedes begin to give way, and the Victory, which had continued long doubtful, appeared in favour of the Dutch, who loft in this bloody Action only one Ship, which was that of Vice Admiral Witte, but the Swedes, according to their Enemy's Account, loft fourteen, ten of which were burnt or funk, and the other four carried into Copenhagen, whither The Swedes the Dutch failed triumphantly with their Succours for his Danish forced from Majefty, who was then hard prefs'd with the Siege. This obliged before Copenhigen. the King of Sweden to turn it into a Blockade, which he continued This Lofs was fo afflicting to King Charles, that it threw him into a Distemper, of which he died in the Flower of his Age, leavA Peace being his Son, an Infant of the fame Name, to fucceed him in the tween the Swedes and Danes, but foon after the The Peace of Throne. Hereupon a Peace was concluded with the Danes near Danes Danes had taken from them; after which the King of Sweden applied himself to repair the Damage his Country had fuftained during the Wars, and procured that great Revolution there in favour of the Kingly Prerogative, which, of a limited Monarch, made him a very abfolute one; and at length dying in 1697, he was fucceeded by A. D. 1697. his Son Charles XII, the prefent King. An Alliance being enter'd into against him by Denmark, Mufcovy, and Poland, he fided with the Duke of Holftein against the Danes, and next Year the English A. D. 1790. and Dutch Fleets coming into the Sound, declared in his Favour, and, joining the Swedish Fleet, affifted in a Defcent upon Zeeland, where the Swedes landing an Army, obliged the King of Denmark to come to an Accommodation by the Peace of Travendahl. Since The Peace of which there having happened nothing remarkable to our purpose, I go on to the Naval Wars of Denmark. Travendahl. TH CHA P. XII. Of the Naval Wars of the Danes. Danes. HE Danish Hiftorians pretend to give very particular Accounts of the Affairs of their own Nation, for many Ages before the Birth of Chrift; but thofe Narrations are looked upon by all the Learned as fabulous; nor is more Credit, perhaps, to be given to their History for fome Centuries after that Period of Time. Cotemporary with our Saviour, according to them, was their King About the AnFrotho III, who enjoyed a long and peaceable Reign over his large tiquity of the Dominions, confifting (fay they) not only of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, but also great part of Germany, together with England and Ireland, and all the neighbouring Ilands, which they pretend to have been conquered by their Kings many Ages before this Prince. After his Death England and Norway made Attempts to recover their Liberty, and their Pirates infefting the Coasts of Denmark, Frotho IV. fent out one Stercather against them with a confiderable Fleet, who entirely cleared the Sea of them, and restored the Freedom of Navigation, not claiming it (fays Meurfius, with a Glance at our Sea-Dominion) as the Propriety of his Mafter, but making it common to all peaceable Navigators and Traders. After this Haldan II, another of their Kings, is faid to have repressed the Piracies of Amund, the Son of the King of Norway, who fcoured the Sea with a strong Force. Harold III. appointing Ubbo Frifius Commander in Chief of his Fleet, he is faid to have defeated a King of Britain in a Sea-Fight, to have ravaged the Coafts of Aquitaine, and commanded all at Sea from the River Garonne to the Coafts of Denmark. The Danes About the Year 800, Sigefrid then reigning in Denmark, the 800. Danes made an Expedition to England, which, more agreeably to make an Exthe Truth of History than what is before related from their Writers, pedition so Rr was England. England, and Knute conquers it. Af was the first of their Attempts upon our Nation, in which they committed great Spoil in Devonshire, and the Parts adjacent ter which, invited by the fertile Soil, and temperate Climate, they made frequent Vifits to it, and at length King Sueno, or Swane, as Swain reduces our Hiftorians call him, reduced great part of the Country to his great part of Obedience, and under Canutus, or Knute, his Son, the whole Kingdom was fubdued, who leaving it to his eldest Son Harold, he was fucceeded by Hardiknute, the last of the Danish Kings in England. The beforementioned Sueno appointed one Wetheman his fupreme Officer at Sea against the Piracies of the Vandals, (by which Name in thofe Times were known all the People of Germany North of the Elbe, as well on the Ocean, as along the Coasts of the Baltick Sea) which Officer had Orders to take all Ships whatsoever which he could meet with, upon that Service, whether the Owners confented or not, only engaging each fhould have their Share of the The Danes Booty which might be taken. By this means a numerous Fleet being gotten together, he cleared the Sea of the Pirates, taking eighty leven of their Ships, and difperfing the reft to distant Countries. The Vandals, enraged at thefe Proceedings, made Inroads into Denmark, but Sueno well provided to give them a warm Reception, ftrengthening his Towns and Sea-Ports with Garrifons, and ordered Beacons to be fired by Night, and Smoak to be made by Day to give Notice of their Approach, and alarm the Country against them. He alfo threw up a Trench from Slefwick to the Sea, to prevent their Incurfions, which Waldemar afterwards fortified with a strong Wall. overcome the Vandals at Sea. The Danes of Rugen, &c. This Waldemar putting to Sea with a strong Fleet, having on board a Body of Troops, failed over to the River Warna, where difembarking his Troops, he befieged Roftock by Sea and Land, and foon carried it; after which, in a Sea-Fight near Stralfund, he detake the land feated the People of Rugen, and made himfelf Master of that Island, and at length annexed the whole Country of Vandalia to his Dominions; while his Fleet, in the mean time, under the Command of one Esberne, ruining the Pirates of Efthonia and Courland, reftored the Freedom of Navigation throughout the Baltick. Which extraordinary Succefs of his Arms acquired him the Title of Waldemar the Great. His Son Canute, refufing to pay Homage to the Emperor of Germany, who pretended a Right of Sovereignty to difpoffeffed of his Dominions, he was by him difpoffeffed of the Ifle of Rugen; but Rugen, but Christopher II. fome time after recovered it again. recover it. 1180. The Danes Under Eric VI. the Danes defeated at Sea two great Fleets of the Vandals, taking thirty Sail of Ships, with a great Booty on board them. About which time Gerard, Duke of Holftein, (a part The Vandals of Vandalia) fitted out a confiderable Flect against the Danes, and Holtein- which he caufed to rendezvous in the Port of Wifmar, from whence ers beaten by the Danes. he fet fail for Copenhagen, with defign to attack the Citadel of that Place, and arriving before it, he laid Stages from one Ship to another, that fo his Men might fight as on firm Ground, and funk fome Ships in the Entrance of the Port to block up the Paffage; but the Danes cutting their Cables, the Stages were prefently torn afunder, which produced fuch a Confufion and Disorder among the Holfteiners, that most of them were cut off, or fell into the Hands of the Danes, 1340. The Danes have the bet Under Waldemar III, who came to the Crown in 1340, the Danes had a War at Sea with the Hans Towns, which was carried on for a confiderable Time with various Succefs on both fides, but ter of the Hans at length ended to the Advantage of the Danes: Since which what Towns at Sea. Naval Wars they have been engaged in having been with the Swedes, for whom we have already accounted, our propofed Method next brings us to thofe of Muscovy. CHA P. XIII. Of the Naval Wars of the Muscovites, and of the Turks. T vites take A HE maritime Power of the Muscovites is of fo late a Date, that it may be rather faid to be likely to be very fruitful in Events, that it may be the Subject of fome future Naval History, than to furnish any for this; fo that we can add little more to what we have faid of them in the first Book, than that the Czar feems no lefs intent on procuring to himself a Naval Force upon the Black Sea, than in the Baltick; having, after the taking of Afoph The Mufcofrom the Turks, ordered a good Harbour to be made there, and a foph, and Fleet to be built of eighty Gallies, and a hundred and fifty Brigan- build a Fleet. tines; and, to open a new Courfe of Trade in thofe Parts, he has caufed a Canal to be cut from the Volga (which difembogues itself in the Cafpian Sea) to the River Don, which falls into the Palus Maotis at Afoph. Indeed the taking of that important Place from the Turks was the Confequence of a Naval Victory; for, being maintained by a Garrifon of ten thoufand Men, the Czar had for fome time befieged it with a hundred thousand Foot, and twenty thousand Horfe; but having then no Shipping, the Turks threw in Supplies as they pleased, fo that he was at length obliged to raise the Siege; but refolving to repair that Difgrace, he made greater Preparations of Artillery and Bombs than before, and provided a Number of large Gallies, fome of them a hundred Feet in Length, with which engaging the Turks in Perfon, he took or funk all the Saiques laden with Supplies and Provifions, and utterly defeated their whole Fleet; whereupon the Garrifon in the Town immediately came to a Capitulation. Having thus briefly dismiss'd the Mufcovites, the Turkish Naval Wars are what next claim our Confideration. 1453. The Turks become Mafters of potent Fleets. The Turks very fuccefs ful by Sea and Land. Bajazet de netians at Sea. 1500. Tunis. TH Of the Naval Wars of the Turks. HOSE People having continued for many Ages among their native Mountains of Scythia, and after their leaving those Habitations, and raifing themfelves to a confiderable Power, their Seat of Empire having been for a long time chiefly in the Inland Parts of Afia, their History affords few or no Materials for our purpofe, till Mahomet I. took the City of Conftantinople, in 1453; after which time they became Mafters of numerous and potent Fleets. The taking of that Place was foon follow'd by the Destruction of the Empire of Trebizonde, which City, after feveral Naval Skirmishes before it upon the Euxine Sea, was reduced to their Obedience. After which, with their Fleet, they took the Ifle of Metelino, in the Archipelago, and tranfplanted the Inhabitants to Conftantinople. Then having reduced Negroponte, Mahomet made a great Progrefs by Land, and enter'd Stiria and Carinthia, two Frontier Provinces of Germany, where carrying all before him, he thence penetrated into Italy, and gave the Venetians a fignal Defeat at the River Soutius, which, not without Reafon, ftruck a univerfal Terror through the reft of Italy; for his Flect having already reduced Otranto, he had certainly marched to Rome, had not his Death fhortly after prevented. He was fucceeded by his eldest Son Bajazet II, who took Lefeats the Ve- panto and Durazzo from the Venetians, and defeated them in a Sea-Fight before Modon, which Place, with Coron and Navarino, fell at the fame time into his Hands. His Son, Selim I, having defeated the Perfians, carried his Arms into Egypt, where having They conquer broke the Power of the Mamalukes in feveral Battels, the whole Ægypt, Rhodes, and Country fubmitted to his Obedience. His Son and Succeffor Solyman, furnamed the Magnificent, with a great Fleet, and a numerous Army, attacked the Inland and City of Rhodes, which, after a brave Defence by the Knights of St. John of Jerufalem, who then had their Refidence there, was furrendered to him, and they removed thence to Malta. After which Solyman had Tunis reduced to his Obedience by the Pirate Barbaroffa: and then affembling from the Black Sca, and other parts of his Dominions, a Fleet of a hundred and fifty great Gallies, with eighty of a leffer Rank, and two hundred and fifty other Veffels of divers forts, he ordered an The Turks ra- Attempt to be made on the Ifle of Corfu, from whence the Turks having ravaged the Coafts, and killed and carried off great Numbers of the Inhabitants, again retired, and plundering Zante and Cerigo, laid waste the Ifland of Engia; after which they reduced Nacfia and Pario, while, in the mean time, other of Solyman's Squadrons fcoured the Coafts of Naples, and the Tufcan Sea, and difperfed the united Fleet of the Emperor, the Pope, and the Venetians. Receiving into his Protection the Pirates Barbaroffa, Haidin, Sinan the Jew, Gallicola, and others, he ordered them to infeft the Spaniards, then preparing for the Reduction of Barbary, vage many Ilands, and difperfe the Emperor, |