FOOTNOTES: 

[52] Ep. 423. p. 876.

XIX.  At the time of his marriage he was employed in a work of great importance, which was not published till the year following.  This was his Freedom of the Ocean, or the Right of the Dutch to trade to the Indies; dedicated to all the free nations of Christendom, and divided into thirteen Chapters.  The author shews in the first, that by the law of Nations navigation is free to all the world:  In the second, that the Portuguese never possessed the sovereignty of the countries in the East-Indies with which the Dutch carry on a trade:  In the third, that the donation of Pope Alexander VI. gave the Portuguese no right to the Indies:  In the fourth, that the Portuguese had not acquired by the law of arms the sovereignty of the States to which the Dutch trade:  He shews in the fifth, that the ocean is immense and common to all; that it is absurd to imagine that those who first navigate a sea ought to be judged to have taken possession of it; that a vessel which cuts the waves of a sea, gives no more right to that sea, than she leaves marks of her way in it; that, besides, the Portuguese are not the first who sailed in the Indian sea, since there are facts which demonstrate it was neither unknown to the Ancients, to the Spaniards, nor to the Carthaginians, nor even to the Romans.  The sixth chapter proves, that the right of navigation in that sea cannot belong exclusively to the Portuguese by virtue of Alexander VI’s donation, because donation cannot take place in things which enter not into trade; and that, besides, the Pope is not master of the sea.  In the seventh chapter it is shewn, that the Eastern sea, or the right of navigation in it, cannot belong to the Portuguese by prescription, since prescription being only by the civil law it cannot operate against the law of nature, by virtue of which, navigation in that sea is free to all the world; that, moreover, prescription doth not take place in things that cannot be alienated, such as the sea, the use of the sea, and things common to all men:  add to this, that the opposition of other nations, and their navigation in that sea would have hindered the prescription.  It is proved in the eighth, that by the law of nations the commerce between nations is free, and cannot be prohibited without injustice.  In the ninth it is shewn that the trade to the Indies doth not belong to the Portuguese, exclusive of other kingdoms, because they first took possession of it, since the title of first occupant takes place only in that which is corporeal.  The tenth proves, that the Pope could not grant the Portuguese an exclusive trade to the Indies:  the eleventh, that this trade does not belong to them by prescription:  the twelfth, that nothing is more unjust than the claim to an exclusive trade set up by the Portuguese.  The author concludes his work with the thirteenth chapter, exhorting the Dutch to continue their trade to the Indies in time of war, of truce, or of peace.