is a city in the province of Holland, in E. Long. 4. 20. N. Lat. 52. situated on the north bank of the river Maese, about 37 miles south of Amsterdam, nine south-east of the Hague, and 15 to the eastward of Brielle. It is a large and populous city, of a triangular figure, handsomely built of brick, the streets wide and well paved. There are ten gates to the town, five of which are at the land side and four at the side of the Maese. It is supposed to take its name from the Roter, or Rotter, a little river that falls into the canals of this city, and from Dam, a dike. It is uncertain when it was first built; and though it is supposed to be very ancient, yet we find no mention made of it before the 13th century. In the year 1270 it was surrounded with ramparts, and honoured with several privileges; but 27 years after it was taken by the Flemings. In the year 1418, Brederode chief of the Haeks made himself master of it; since which time it has continued yearly to increase by means of the conveniency of its harbour. Its arms are vert, a pale argent, quarterly in a chief on the first and third, or, a lion spotted fesse, on the second and fourth a lion spotted gules.

Rotterdam is not reckoned one of the principal ci- ties of the province, because it has not been always in its present flourishing condition. The Dutch call it the first of the second rank, whereas it ought to be esteemed the second of the first, being, next to Amsterdam, the most trading town in the United Provinces. Its port is very commodious; for the canals, which run through most parts of the town, bring the ships, some of 200 or 300 tons, up to the merchant's door; a convenience for loading and unloading which is not to be found in other places. The great ships go up into the middle of the town by the canal into which the Maas enters by the old head, as it comes out by the new.

A stranger, upon his first entering this place, is astonished at the beautiful confusion of chimneys intermixed with tops of trees with which the canals are planted, and streamers of vessels; insomuch that he can hardly tell whether it be fleet, city, or forest. The Harring Vliet is a very fine street; most of the houses are new, and built of hewn stone; but the grandest as well as most agreeable street in Rotterdam is the Bomb Quay, which lies parallel with the Maas; on one side it is open to the river, and the other is ornamented with a grand façade of the best houses in the city, inhabited chiefly by the English; they are five or six stories high, maffy and very clumsy: wherever there is any attempt at ornament, it is the worst that can be conceived. One sees no Grecian architecture, except Doric entablatures, stuck upon the top of the upper story, without pilasters; Ionic volutes, turned often the wrong way, and an attempt at Corinthian capitals, without any other part of the order. The doors are large, and stuck with great knobs and clumsy carving; you ascend to them, not in front, but by three or four steps going up on each side, and you are affixed by iron rails of a most immense thickness. These houses are almost all window; and the window shutters and frames being painted green, the glass has all a green cast, which is helped by the reflection from the trees that overshadow their houses, which, were it not for this circumstance, would be intolerably hot, from their vicinity to the canals. Most of the houses have looking-glasses placed on the outsides of the windows, on both sides, in order that they may see every thing which passes up and down the street. The stair-cases are narrow, steep, and come down almost to the door. In general, the houses rise with enormous steep roofs, turning the gable end to the street, and leaning considerably forward, so that the top often projects near two feet beyond the perpendicular. The Bomb Quay is so broad, that there are distinct walks for carriages and foot-passengers, lined and shaded with a double row of trees.—You look over the river on some beautiful meadows, and a fine avenue of trees, which leads to the Peet-house: it seems to be an elegant building, and the trees round it are disposed as to appear a thick wood. This street is at least half a mile in length, and extends from the old to the new head, the two places where the water enters to fill the canals of this extensive city. When water runs through a street, it then assumes the name of a canal, of which kind the Heeren-fleet has the pre-eminence; the houses are of free-stone, and very lofty; the canal is spacious, and covered with ships: at one end stands the English church, a neat pretty building, of which the bishop of London is ordinary.

This port is much more frequented by the British merchants than Amsterdam, insomuch that, after a frost, Rotterdam, when the sea is open, sometimes 300 sail of British vessels fail out of the harbour at once. There is always a large number of British subjects who reside in this town, and live much in the same manner as in Great Britain. The reason of the great traffic between this place and England, is because the ships can generally load and unload, and return to England from Rotterdam, before a ship can get clear from Amsterdam and the Texel. Hence the English merchants find it cheaper and more commodious, after their goods are arrived at Rotterdam, to send them in boats over the canals to Amsterdam. Another great advantage they have here for commerce is, that the Maas is open, and the passage free from ice, much sooner in the spring than in the Y and Zuyder-see, which lead to Amsterdam.

The glass-house here is one of the best in the seven provinces; it makes abundance of glass-toys and enamelled bowls, which are sent to India, and exchanged for china-ware, and other oriental commodities.

The college of admiralty here is called the college of the Maas, the chief of all Holland and the United Provinces. The lieutenant-general, admiral of Holland, is obliged to go on board of a Rotterdam ship in the Maas when he goes to sea, and then he commands the squadron of the Maas.

On the east side of the city there is a large basin and dock, where ship-carpenters are continually employed for the use of the admiralty, or of the East India company. But the largest ships belonging to the admiralty of Rotterdam are kept at Helvoetsluys, as the most commodious station, that place being situated on the ocean; for it requires both time and trouble to work a large ship from the dock of Rotterdam to the sea.

Rotterdam has four Dutch churches for the established religion. There is one thing very remarkable in respect to the great church, that the tower which leaned on one side was set up straight in the year 1655, as appears by the inscription engraved on brass at the bottom of the tower withinside. In the choir of this church are celebrated, with no small solemnity, the promotions made in the Latin schools. Besides, there are two English churches, one for those of the church of England and the other for the Presbyterians; and one Scotch church; as likewise one Lutheran, two Armenian, two Anabaptist, four Roman Catholic chapels, and one Jewish synagogue.

Though the public buildings here are not so stately as those of Amsterdam and some other cities, yet there are several of them well worth seeing. The great church of St Laurence is a good old building, where are many stately monuments of their old admirals. From the top of this church one may see the Hague, Delft, Leyden, Dort, and most of the towns of South Holland. There are several fine market-places, as three fish-markets, the great-market, the new-market, and the hogs-market. The stadthouze is an old building, but the chambers large and finely adorned. The magazines for fitting out their ships are very good structures. The exchange is a noble building, begun in the year 1720, and finished in 1736. Upon the great bridge in the market-place there is a fine brass statue erected to the great Erasmus, who was born in this city in 1467, and died at Basil in Switzerland. He is represented... Rotterdam fented in a furred gown, and a round cap, with a book in his hand. The statue is on a pedefal of marble, surrounded with rails of iron. Just by, one may fee the houfe where this great man was born, which is a very small one, and has the following ditich written on the door:

Ædibus his ortus, mundum decoravit, Erasmus, Artilbus, ingenio, religione, fide.

Rotterdam and the whole of the United Provinces are now in the poftion of the French, and form nominally a separate kingdom.