10. The King David of 360 tons and seventy-nine men, with sixteen pieces
of brass cannon, captain John Thomason.
11. The Griffin of 320 tons, and seventy-eight men, with fourteen iron
cannon, captain Peter Cornelison Hurdloop.
The whole of this fleet of eleven sail, carrying 294 pieces of cannon,
had 1637 men, of whom 600 were regular soldiers, divided into five
companies of 120 men in each. The East India Company contributed largely
to the expence, but does not appear to have equipped any ships on this
occasion.
SECTION I.
Incidents of the Voyage from Holland to the South Sea.
This armament, usually called the Nassau fleet, was by far the most
considerable that had hitherto been sent against the Spaniards in the
new world, and none so powerful has since navigated along the western
coast of America in an hostile manner. It sailed on the 29th April,
1622, from Goeree roads, all but the Orange, which joined next day.
On the 7th June, while chasing a Barbary corsair, a Christian slave, who
happened to be at the helm, ran the corsair on board the Dutch
vice-admiral, and immediately he and other slaves took the opportunity
of leaping on board to escape from slavery. The captain of the corsair,
who happened to be a Dutch renegado, followed them, and demanded
restitution of his slaves; but the vice-admiral expostulated so strongly
with him on the folly and infamy of deserting his country and religion,
that he sent for every thing belonging to him out of the corsair, and
agreed to go along with the fleet, to the regret of the Turks, who thus
lost their captain and seventeen good men.
