of the Wars Sinews, Money; and has now got a Command so wide, that out of his Dominions the Sun can neither rise nor set.
The whole Seventeen Provinces are not above a thousand Eng∣lish Miles in Circuit, and in the States Hands there is not seven of those; yet have they in the Field sometimes sixty thousand Sol∣diers, besides those which they always keep in Garrison, which cannot be but a considerable number, near thirty thousand; there being in the whole Country above two hundred Wall'd Towns and Cities. So that if they have People for the War, one would wonder where they should get Money to pay them, they being, when they have an Army in the Field, at a thousnnd pound a Day charge extraordinary.
To maintain this, their Excise is an unwasted Mine, which with the infiniteness of their Traffick, and their untired industry, is by every part of the World in something or other contribu∣ted to.
The Sea yields them by two sorts of Fish only, Herring, and Cod, sixty thousand pound per Annum; for which they go out sometimes seven or eight hundred Boats at once; and for greater Ships, they are able to set out double the number:
Their Merchandise amounted in Guicciardine's time to Fourteen Millions per Annum. Whereas England, which is in compass al∣most as large again, and hath the Ocean as a Ring about her, made not above six Millions yearly; so sedulous are these Bees to labour and enrich their Hive.
As they on the Sea, so the Women are busie on Land in wea∣ving of Nets, and helping to add to the heap. And though a Husband's long absence might tempt them to lacivious ways, yet they hate Adultery, and are resolute in Matrimonial Chastity. I do not remember that ever I read in Story, of any great Lady of that Nation, that hath been tax'd with looseness: And questionless, 'tis their ever being busie, makes them have no leisure for Lust.
'Tis idleness that is Cnpid's Nurse, but business breaks his Bow, and makes his Arrows useless.
They are both Merchants and Farmers; an their act parts, which Men can but discharge with us: As if they would shew, thrt the Souls in all are Masculine, and not varied into weaker Sex, as are the Bodies that they wear about them.
Whether this be from the Nature of their Country, in which, if they be not laborious, they cannot live; or from an Innate Ge∣nius of People, by a superiour Providence adapted to them of such a Situation; from their own Inclinations, addicted to Pasi∣mony; from Custom in their Way of Breeding; from any Tran∣scendency of Active Parts, more than other Nations; or from be∣ing in their Country, like People in a City besieg'd, whereby their own Vertues do more compact, and fortifie, I will not de∣termine. But, certainly, in general, they are the most painful and diligent People on Earth; and, of all other, the most truly