In 1599, a fleet of seventy ships sailed from Holland for the Canary Islands, and captured the town of Laguna, which was plundered and burnt. Another expedition attacked St. Thomas, and "brought off rich booty"; while a third captured the Spanish galleon St James off St. Helena, "having a cargo of pearls, gems, gold, amber, and other goods of inestimable value." These, with seventeen brass guns and four hundred prisoners, were taken on
A DUTCH MAN-OF-WAR, 1630
board the Dutch ships and landed in Holland; and "so great was the success of the Dutch upon the sea, and their names so famous in all parts, that one Embassy came to them from Japan, another from Morocco, and another from Persia, all extending invitations of friendship and the assurance of desire for mutual commerce."
In 1628, Admiral Pieter Hein captured the Spanish silver fleet, the value of the cargoes of these vessels being 30,000,000 florins, or about
