Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 1).djvu/398

 the ordinary Dutch merchant galliot of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Nature furnished abundance of materials to the mariners of the north for the building of their vessels; indeed, to this day, the primeval forests of Norway and Sweden supply vast quantities of timber, for shipbuilding and other purposes, to the European markets. The outfit of these vessels seems to have been singularly inexpensive—even provisions were supplied to them but scantily—their commanders being constantly in the habit of landing in the course of their passage to replenish their limited stock of meat, wine, and beer. Indeed this practice became a constant tax upon the people of the countries they visited, and whom they but too frequently pillaged of their whole stock of provisions. Nor was this all: it was customary in Sweden and Norway to compel the people of the maritime districts to hold in readiness a stated number of ships for the use of the king and, nominally, for purposes of defence: these vessels were, however, not unfrequently used for warlike and predatory expeditions, a custom which doubtless led to many of the unwarrantable attacks, whereby England and other parts of Europe were in succession, and for many ages, laid waste. From this marauding and unconquerable race, the daring and hardy sailors of England had their descent; and the adventures of this progeny of the Scandinavians, in more recent times, show that they have retained for many ages the adventurous, and too often lawless, spirit of their ancestors.