Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/361

Rh And what a noble field of honour and profit had we before us, wherein to employ the best of our strength, which, against the maxims of British policy, we suffered to lie wholly neglected! I have sometimes wondered how it came to pass, that the style of maritime powers, by which our allies, in a sort of contemptuous manner, usually couple us with the Dutch, did never put us in mind of the sea; and while some politicians were showing us the way to Spain by Flanders, others to Savoy or Naples, that the West-Indies should never come into their heads. With half the charge we have been at, we might have maintained our original quota of forty thousand men in Flanders, and at the same time, by our fleets and naval forces, have so distressed the Spaniards, in the north and south seas of America, as to prevent any returns of money from thence, except in our own bottoms. This is what best became us to do as a maritime power; this, with any common degree of success, would soon have compelled France to the necessities of a peace, and Spain to acknowledge the archduke. But while we, for ten years, have been squandering away our money upon the continent, France has been wisely engrossing all the trade of Peru, going directly with their ships to Lima and other ports, and there receiving ingots of gold and silver for French goods of little value; which, beside the mighty advantage to their nation at present, may divert the channel of that trade for the future, so beneficial to us, who used to receive annually such vast sums at Cadiz, for our goods sent thence to the Spanish West-Indies. All this we tamely saw and suffered, without the least attempt to hinder it; except what was. III.