Page 16 (1/2)

On that day the Scheldt presented at Antwerp a striking spectacle Many

ships which had been detained in the North Sea by the east ere

approaching the city, with their various colored flags floating on the

breeze, while, far as the eye could reach, the broad expanse of water was

covered with sails, and still, in the dim horizon, ers of an ith in casting anchor and eous position The crews of the

different ships vied with each other, and exerted theetically that the heavily laden crafts tre wild and harsh as the sharp creaking of the

capstan, but joyous as the triu in every tongue of the commercial world by robust sailors,

seemed, as they afted over the river to the city, like the long,

loud acclamations of a vast multitude

The only sounds which could be heard in the midst of these confused cries

were the voices of the captains speaking through the tru from the West Indies, appeared before the city,

a salvo of cannon rose like the rolling of thunder above all other sounds

The sun shone brightly upon this animated scene of huht up in the rippling waves of the broad

river

Hundreds of flags floated in the air; gondolas and longboats furrowed the