ABSTRACT
In the three towns of Middelburg, Flushing and Veere were collected the merchants and the riches of the powerful province of Zeeland, whose Chamber represented two-ninths of the shareholders of the West India Company. That Company had been established in 1621 less with a view to steady trade and colonisation than in the hope of conquering rich lands or wresting booty from Portugal and Spain. "The Three Towns" are all situated on the small island of Walcheren—Middelburg almost in the centre, some four miles inland; and Flushing on the southern coast—guarding the narrow entrance to the Western Scheldt from the North Sea. Veere on the north-east coast on another arm of the Scheldt—four miles from Middelburg, eight from Flushing. In 1809, when the Napoleonic forces held the Netherlands, the town was bombarded by the English and its town hall unfortunately destroyed; those of Middelburg and Veere, each a gem of architecture, are still in excellent preservation.
