2

hope will-easily ascertain for himself. Unfortunately, those to
whom these commonplaces should be familiar are the very people
who know least about them.
Observe also that I am not denying or disputing the achieve
ments of other nations. My present concern is with Holland, and
Holland alone; not to give you a formal history of Holland, but to
remind or tell you of what Holland has done, not only for herself,
but also for the world; why she is entitled to be called Great. Such
a survey must necessarily be rapid and general; I shall have to
condense and compress where it is necessary to expand; to give
names only, where you will expect history; but if the subject inter-
ests you, there is abundant scope for further detailed investigation.
Take, first, Exploration and Colonisation. The Dutch were
not the first sea-faring adventurers of the modern world. That
honour belongs to the Portuguese and the Spaniards. By the end
of the fifteenth century, Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama had
discovered a sea-route eastward to India, and Columbus westward
to America. Early in the next century began the attempts to find
a northerly route to China (and incidentally India) across the Arctic
Ocean, since Spain and Portugal kept the secrets of the southern
routes to themselves. The famous North-West and North-East
Passages were the result two centuries later, and in these adventures
the English took a leading part.
But all this while the Dutch were not idle, though at that time
their resentment against the tyranny of Spain, their unnatural over-
lord, was becoming acute. In 1565 Dutch merchants founded a
settlement at Kola in the north of Russia, on the Arctic Coast, and
thirteen years later, at Archangel, more to the east. The most
prominent name in the history of early Arctic exploration is that of
Barents, who in 1596 discovered Bear Island and Spitzbergen, still
so named in English maps. " This was the first time," says Dr. H.
R. Mill, " that an Arctic winter was successfully faced. The
voyages of Barents stand in the first rank among the polar enter-
prises of the 16th Century. They led to flourishing whale and sea
fisheries which long enriched the Netherlands." He adds: "The
Dutch whale fishery continued to flourish until the French Revolu-
tion, and formed a splendid nursery for training the seamen of the
Netherlands." 1
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1 Encyc. Brit. xxi. 942.

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