half by man,
half by nature--a bit of Holland encircled and imprisoned by the
waters, like a battalion overcome by an army. It is bounded on the
four sides by the river Merwede, the ancient Mosa, the Dordsche Kil,
and the archipelago of Bies-Bosch, and is crossed by the New Merwede,
a large artificial water-course. The imprisonment of this piece of
land on which Dordrecht lies is an episode in one of the great battles
fought by Holland with the waters. The archipelago of Bies-Bosch did
not exist before the fifteenth century. In its place there was a
beautiful plain covered with populous villages. During the night of
the 18th of November, 1431, the waters of the Waal and the Meuse broke
the dykes, destroyed more than seventy villages, drowned almost a
hundred thousand souls, and broke up the plain into a thousand
islands, leaving in the midst of this ruin one upright tower called
Merwede House, the ruins of which are still visible. Thus was
Dordrecht separated from the continent, and the archipelago of
Bies-Bosch made its appearance, which, as though to show its right of
existence, provides hay, reeds, and rushes to a little village which
hangs like a swallow's nest on one of the neighboring dykes. But this
is not all that is remarkable in the history of Dordrecht. Tradition
relates, many believe, and some uphold, that at the time of this
remarkable inundation Dordrecht--yes, the whole town of Dordrecht,
with its houses, mills, and canals--made a short journey, like an army
moving camp; that is to say, it was transported from one place to
another with its foundations intact: in consequence whereof the
inhabitants of the neighboring villages, coming to the town after the
catastrophe, found nothing where it had been. One can imagine their
consternation. This prodigy is explained by the fact that Dordrecht is
founded on a stratum of clay, which had slipped on to the mass of turf
which forms the basis of the soil. Such is the story as I heard it.

Before the vessel left the Noord Canal the hope of seeing my first
Dutch sunset was disappointed by another sudden change in the weather.
The sky was obscured, the waters became livid, and the horizon
disappeared behind a thick veil of mist.

The ship entered the Meuse, and turned for the tenth time, to the
left. At this point the Meuse is very wide, as it carries away and
imprisons the waters of the Waal, the largest branch of the Rhine, and
the waters of the Leck and Yssel als