windows, they hastily withdrew as we approached; and if the door of a house was open, it was shut with inhospitable rudeness. Want of curiosity is, I believe, a quality characteristic of the Dutch nation, and it certainly reigns with sovereign dullness in the village of Broek[1].
From Broek, we drove in our voiture to Saardam. Part of the road is on the dyke which defends North Holland from the waters of the Y. At different commanding points of this road, there were batteries, mounting three or four large guns, which had been erected the year before, to oppose the progress of the English, had they advanced against Amsterdam. The guns of some of these batteries were removing by Dutch soldiers; and we were told, that in so secure a state was the country supposed to be, that it was intended the whole should be razed.
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- ↑ The bark of the tree of liberty at Broek, according to the taste of its inhabitants, is painted with the national colours. It is a young tree, and alive!
