History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

The youth of these three tribes was a severe
one. Their first struggle was with the soil; for while
other nations choose their country, the
Netherlanders had to create theirs. They began by
converting the swamps and quicksands of which
they had taken possession into grazing-lands and
corn-fields. Nor could they rest even after this task
had been accomplished: they had to be continually
on the watch against the two great enemies that
were ever ready to spring upon them, and rob them
of the country which their industry had enriched
and their skill embellished, by rearing and
maintaining great dykes to defend themselves on
the one side from the sea, and on the other from the
river.
Their second great struggle was with the
Roman power. The mistress of the world, in her
onward march over the West, was embracing
within her limits the forests of Germany, and the
warlike tribes that dwelt in them. It is the pen of
Julius Caesar, recording his victorious advance,
that first touches the darkness that shrouded this
land. When the curtain rises, the tribe of the Nervii
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