Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/377

Rh In Saardam and its environs there are about two thousand windmills, which at a distance form something like the appearance of a forest. The trade of the place is so greatly impoverished, that scarcely two hundred of these mills were at work, and a large proportion of the number unemployed seemed in a ruinous and decayed condition. The war has most materially affected the prosperity of Saardam, by putting a stop to the navigation of Holland, and consequently to the demand for ships, the construction of which was the principal source of the opulence of Saardam. I did not see a single ship upon the stocks at Saardam, but there were two or three large men-of-war in a wet dock, which I understood had been lately launched, and some frigates were repairing. In the different yards for ship building which we passed, there was a great abundance of excellent timber for the construction of vessels, but very few carpenters were at work in any of the yards. In some of them it did not appear that the least