In these seas, in the centre of the commercial and political world, there is always work for cruisers.
Notwithstanding the difficulties they met, owing to the absence of large friendly fleets, they served advantageously the cause of the two peoples [French and Spanish].

These cruisers, in the face of the Anglo-Dutch power, needed good luck, boldness, and skill.

These three conditions were not lacking to our seamen; but then, what chiefs and what captains they had!"[39] The English historian, on the other hand, while admitting how severely the people and commerce of England suffered from the cruisers, bitterly reflecting at times upon the administration, yet refers over and over again to the increasing prosperity of the whole country, and especially of its commercial part.

In the preceding war, on the contrary, from 1689 to 1697, when France sent great fleets to sea and disputed the supremacy of the ocean, how different the result! The same English writer says of that time:-- "With respect to our trade it is certain that we suffered infinitely more, not merely than the French, for that was to be expected from the greater number of our merchant-ships, but than we ever did in any former war....

This proceeded in great measure from the vigilance of the French, who carried on the war in a piratical way.