<156>The colonial and maritime enterprise of England did not die with Raleigh. The Colony of Virginia which, before the dream of 1614.Dale’s administration in Virginia.the golden mine had led him astray, he had striven to found, was at last on the way to prosperity. Sir Thomas Dale, who succeeded Gates as governor in 1614,[271] ruled with firmness and ability. The land which had hitherto been held in common was divided into private holdings, a measure which was attended with the best effects. If 1616.the settlers did not acquire wealth rapidly, they were at least contented and prosperous. After two years, Dale returned to England well satisfied with the results of his administration.
On board the vessel on which Dale re-crossed the Atlantic was a passenger likely to attract far more attention than himself. Pocahontas, Visit of Pocahontas to England.the daughter of the Indian chief Powhattan, who in the early days of the colony had served as a friendly messenger between her father and the settlers, was in the ship. She was now the wife of an Englishman, and was eagerly looking forward to the first sight of the land which, in her childhood, had so powerfully attracted her imagination.
The history of her marriage was a strange one. In 1612, Her previous history.a vessel came out to the colony, under the command of a daring and unscrupulous adventurer, named <157>Argall. Finding that hostilities prevailed between the colonists and the natives, he formed the design of seizing as a hostage the daughter of the principal chief in the neighbourhood. By the bribe of a copper tea-kettle he induced an Indian to entice Pocahontas on board his vessel, and sailed away with his prize to Jamestown. For some months it seemed that the outrage had been committed in vain. Powhattan still refused to submit to the terms demanded of him. At last, however, he was informed that one of the settlers, named Thomas Rolfe, wished to marry his daughter. The intelligence pleased him, and a general pacification was the result. Pocahontas was instructed in the religion of her husband, and was baptized by the name of Rebecca.[272]
Sanguine men believed that in this marriage they saw the commencement of a union between the two races, from which a great Christian nation would arise in America under the protection of the English Crown. It was not so to be. The story of Pocahontas herself was too sure an indication of the fate which awaited her race. At first everything smiled upon her. Captain Smith, 1617.Her presentation at Court.who had known her well in Virginia, presented her to the Queen. Anne received her kindly, and invited her to be present at the Twelfth Night masque. So delighted was the Indian girl with the brilliancy of the scenes which opened before her, that she could hardly be brought to consent to accompany her husband on his return to America. Her death.She never saw her Virginian home again. Her imagination had been excited and her brain overtasked by the throng of new sights and associations which had pressed upon her. She died at Gravesend before she set foot on board the vessel which was to have carried her back. She left one child, a little boy. Sir Lewis Stukely, who was not as yet under the ban of popular disfavour, asked to be allowed to care for his education. After Stukely’s death young Thomas Rolfe was transferred to the care of an uncle. He afterwards emigrated to his mother’s country, and through <158>him many of the foremost families of Virginia have been proud to trace their lineage to the Indian Pocahontas.[273]
In England, but for her connection with the romantic adventures of Captain Smith, the name of Pocahontas would probably soon Invention of Smith’s romance.have been forgotten, along with those of so many of her race who have from time to time visited our shores. The touching story of the pardon granted to the captive Englishman through the intercession of the daughter of the Indian chief who was about to sacrifice him, won its way into all hearts, and has, for two centuries and a half, charmed readers of all ages. At one time, the criticism which has swept away so many legends seemed to have doomed the story of Smith and Pocahontas to the fate which has befallen so many legends. Later inquiry has, however, turned the scale in favour of Smith’s veracity, and it seems possible that in this case, at least, the critical historian may accept the tale which is embalmed in the popular imagination.[274]
The short administration of Yeardley, who had been left behind as Dale’s deputy in Virginia, was marked by the introduction into the colony of 1616.Introduction of the cultivation of tobacco.the cultivation of the tobacco plant, to which the whole of its subsequent prosperity was owing. Hitherto the settlers had been engaged in a struggle for existence; they had now at last before them an opportunity of acquiring wealth. Yet the change was not of unmixed advantage. Everyone was in haste to grow rich, and everyone forgot that tobacco would not prove a substitute for bread. Every inch of ground which had been cleared was devoted to tobacco. The very streets of Jamestown were dug up to make room for the precious leaf. Men had no time to speak of anything but tobacco. The church, the bridge, the palisades, were allowed to fall into decay, whilst every available hand was engaged upon the crop which was preparing for exportation.
<159>The natural result followed. Starvation once more stared the settlers in the face. There was not corn enough in Jamestown to last Yeardley’s administration.till another harvest. Yeardley, a kindly, inefficient man, had not foreseen the danger, or had been unable to make head against it; and the only remedy which he could devise was an attack upon the Chickahominies for the purpose of enforcing the payment of a corn tribute, which had been for some time in abeyance. The expedition was successful, and was, doubtless, applauded at the time. But it did not promise well for the union between the races which was to have sprung from the marriage of Rolfe and Pocahontas.
Yeardley had held office for little more than a year when he was succeeded by Argall. The new Governor was not the man to 1617.Argall arrives as Governor.imitate the remissness of his predecessor; and the colonists soon found that he was determined to be obeyed. The defences of Jamestown were repaired. Harsh remedies were applied to the recent disorders. Every act of the colonists was now to be fenced about with prohibitions. The trader was to content himself with a profit of twenty-five per cent. No intercourse was to be held with the Indians excepting through the medium of the constituted authorities. Whoever wasted his powder by firing a gun, excepting in self-defence, was to be condemned to penal servitude for a year. Whoever taught the use of firearms to an Indian was to be put to death.[275]
Even such regulations as these might have been endured if Argall had been a man of integrity. But when it came to be known that His tyranny.in the eyes of the Governor he was himself the one man in Virginia who was above the law, the whole colony broke out into open discontent. Every homeward-bound vessel carried across the Atlantic complaints of his tyrannical conduct to individuals, and of his shameless robbery of the public stores.
As soon as these complaints reached London, the Company requested Lord De la Warr 1618.Appointment and death of Lord De la Warr.to return to America, and to save the colony once more from ruin. In the spring of 1618 he left England, <160>accompanied by the best wishes of all who took an interest in Virginia; but his weakly constitution was unable to bear up against the hardships of the voyage, and he died before the passage was completed. Argall was in consequence left a little longer in possession of the authority which he had misused. With childish spite he took especial pleasure in ruining the estates which, by De la Warr’s death, had become the property of his widow. He left no stone unturned to drive Lady De la Warr’s servants from her employment, and to entice them to transfer their services to himself. Hearing that Brewster, the agent in charge of the estate, had remonstrated against his proceedings, he ordered him to be seized, and sent before a court-martial to answer for the words which he had used against the Governor. Sentence upon Brewster.Brewster was condemned to death, and this monstrous sentence would have been carried into execution if the general voice of the colony had not compelled Argall, however unwillingly, to commute it to one of banishment from Virginia.[276]
The news of these extraordinary proceedings excited no little indignation in London. The Company, warned by the Argall is recalled.failure of their attempt to substitute King Stork for King Log, restored Yeardley to the post from which they had recalled him, and ordered him to send Argall home to give an account of his conduct.
Yeardley’s appointment was fortunately something more than a mere change of governors. By the instructions which he carried out, he was directed to put an end for ever to the system of martial law which had been introduced by Dale, and which had recently been so terribly abused. He was also ordered to call together an assembly, freely elected by the colonists, before which he was to lay a code of laws which had been prepared for their use in England.
The new Governor arrived too late to secure the punishment of Argall. Timely notice 1619.His flight.had been given him, and he had made his escape from the colony. But no time was lost in laying the foundations of a more <161>prosperous future. On July 30, 1619, the first Colonial Parliament The first Colonal Parliament.gathered round Yeardley at Jamestown.[277] From henceforth Virginia was to be governed by its own laws, freely accepted by its own representatives. England had stamped her own likeness upon her creation, and the first of the free colonies of England had taken firm root by the side of the flaunting glories of the Spanish Empire.
The changes by which the colony had been distracted were not without effect upon the Company at home. At the time The Company in England.when Yeardley sailed, Sir Thomas Smith still presided over its fortunes, with the title of Treasurer. It had become the fashion in Virginia to look upon him as the source of all the evils that had befallen the colony, and though there was probably some exaggeration in this, the charges brought against him were not without foundation. His temper was easy, and he was lax in his attention to the duties of his office. It was to his relationship with Smith that Argall owed his appointment. Smith was not without influence even at Court, as his son, Sir John Smith, had married a daughter of Lord Rich, and the support of the Rich family was in consequence given to Argall.
The Company was not to be misled. It refused to re-elect Smith to the office of Treasurer. His successor was Sir Edwin Sandys, Sandys Treasurer of the Company.who had taken a leading part in the preparation of the laws which had just been sent out to Virginia, and whose services in the English Parliament had well fitted him to preside over the introduction of parliamentary institutions in America.[278]
It is owing to Sandys that the year 1619 is a date to be remembered in the history of English colonisation. The election of a leading member of the Parliamentary Opposition to the responsible office of Treasurer is an evidence that in the Virginia Company, as in the City of London, and as in every <162>body of active and intelligent men, the spirit of opposition to the Court and its minions was on the increase. The breach thus made was to grow wider every year, till the Company was swept away by the irritation of the King. But in the meanwhile Sandys had done his work. He had planted the standard of free institutions at Jamestown, and under the shadow of that standard Virginia grew and prospered when the Company which had fostered the colony in its infancy had ceased to exist.
The course of English adventure in America finds, in some respects, its parallel in the long struggle of the East India Company 1605.The English and Dutch in the East.for the establishment of commercial relations with the extreme East. There, too, English enterprise was at first attracted to those parts which were richest in the promise of a lucrative trade. As in America, it found them pre-occupied, and, after a long and fruitless struggle with its rivals, it discovered its Virginia in the peninsula of India. In many respects, indeed, there is no parallel to be drawn between the attitude of Spain towards the English in the West Indies and the attitude of the Dutch in the Eastern Seas. As far as the Continent, or even the larger islands were concerned, it would have been madness, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, for either England or the Netherlands to think of establishing an empire similar to that which had been built up by Spain in America. The native states were far too powerful, and the climate was too unsuited for permanent occupation by large bodies of the inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was enough if factories could be established at the points most suitable for commercial intercourse. That bitter jealousies should arise between the merchants of the two nations was only to be expected. Here and there a party of Englishmen would come to blows with a party of Dutchmen, and broken heads, or even the loss of some lives, would be the result. The chiefs of the rival factories would intrigue with the native princes for exclusive privileges. But, on the whole, no very great harm would be done. The peace would be kept by a strong native Government, which it would be hopeless to resist. <163>The local hatreds would be bitter enough; but they would not blaze out into internecine war, nor would they be of sufficient importance to call for more than a passing notice from the Governments of London and the Hague.
There were in part of the Indian Ocean a few islands, teeming with valuable productions, where these conditions were reversed, and The Spice Islands.where was no native state powerful enough to defy European aggression. Pepper might be shipped at any port in Java or Sumatra. It was a mere matter of convenience at what point in the Indian peninsula the trade in calicoes should be conducted. But nutmegs were, at that time, only to be found in the little group of the Banda Isles, and cloves grew nowhere in the world except on the five islands to which the name of the Moluccas had originally belonged, and on the more southerly archipelago which clustered round the noble harbour of Amboyna as its commercial centre.
It was after a long and arduous struggle that the Dutch had succeeded in driving the Portuguese, at that time counted amongst The Portuguese ejected by the Dutch.the subjects of the King of Spain, out of Amboyna and the Moluccas. They did not profess to come as conquerors. They came, as Raleigh had come to Guiana, to defend the natives from the oppression of their tyrants. All that they required in return from the grateful islanders, for whose sake, as they said, they erected forts and kept up garrisons, was that they should enter into an engagement not to sell spice to any but themselves.
From Amboyna an expedition was fitted out in 1609 to take possession of the Bandas. The fear of the Dutch 1609.The Dutch in the Bandas.compelled the inhabitants of Neira, the principal, though not the largest, island of the group, to grant to them by treaty a monopoly of their trade;[279] and this treaty was long afterwards appealed to as conferring upon the Dutch East India Company the sovereignty not merely of the island of which they were actually in possession, but of the whole surrounding group. In spite of the treaty, the <164>natives soon combined in an attempt to drive out the invaders. The next year, however, David Middleton, coming to the Bandas in search of nutmegs, found that a fort had been built by the Dutch, and that Neira was in complete subjection, although the remaining islands still maintained a precarious independence.[280]
These proceedings of the Dutch formed a strange comment upon the Mare Liberum, the celebrated treatise, published in 1609, The Mare Liberum of Grotius.by Grotius at Leyden, in which he proved, to the logical discomfiture of the Portuguese, that commercial monopolies were contrary to all laws, human and divine.
That Grotius was in the right no one in the present day will be found to question. Liberty of trade is a good thing in The commercial question preceded by the territorial.all places and at all times. But what Grotius, working out his problem with all theoretical correctness, failed to see, was that there was another question to be settled before the commercial difficulty could even be approached. It was, in fact, as impossible to agree to freedom of trade before the territorial limits of the European Powers in the newly discovered countries had been settled, as it was to allow religious liberty before the absolute independence of the national Governments was admitted. An English merchant landing at Surat in the seventeenth century, came like a French merchant landing at Sydney in the nineteenth century, merely to buy the products of the country. But an English merchant asking for freedom of trade at the harbour of Amboyna or at the mouth of the Orinoco in the reign of James I. was not unreasonably regarded with as much suspicion as a Jesuit asking for freedom of conscience in England in the reign of Elizabeth. The request was denied, not so much to the unarmed trader by whom it was preferred, as to the armed force which he was supposed to have at his back.
That the Dutch should form commercial establishments in a number of small islands without acquiring territorial <165>sovereignty was impossible. It was still more impossible to share Free trade impossible in the Spice Islands.this sovereignty with another European nation. Englishmen and Dutchmen might continue to trade amicably within the dominions of the Great Mogul, because, under the sway of that powerful monarch, both held their factories on sufferance. But the presence of Englishmen and Dutchmen together at Amboyna or the Bandas could produce nothing but anarchy. Whenever the natives had real or imaginary grounds of complaint against either factory they would appeal to the other for support, and the mutual exasperation would end in a deadly quarrel, of which the inevitable result would be the expulsion or the annihilation of one of the contending parties.
Looking back as we do from the vantage ground on which we stand, it is possible to see that in these islands the establishment of It is claimed by the English.territorial dominion must have preceded commercial freedom.[281] But it was hardly to be expected that the English in the East would acquiesce without a struggle in the sacrifice which such a concession demanded. As the weaker power, they cried out loudly for liberty of trade. They had loaded their vessels with cloves and nutmegs before the islands had been occupied by the Dutch, and why should they not do so now? The Dutch cried out no less loudly against this impertinent interference with their subjects, and complained bitterly that it was unfair that, whilst their own trade was burthened with the expense of maintaining forts and garrisons to keep out the Portuguese, the English, who were under no such obligations, should be enabled to undersell them in the European market.
In 1613, Jourdain was sent out from the English head-quarters at Bantam with 1613.Jourdain’s voyage.orders to re-open the clove trade at Amboyna and the neighbouring island of Ceram. Everywhere the natives had the same story to tell him. They would gladly sell him all the spice they <166>had, but the Dutch had threatened them with instant ruin if they permitted a single bag of cloves to find its way on board the English vessels.[282]
The next year no fresh attempt was made. But in 1615 Ball and Cokayne were despatched with instructions to open factories, if possible, 1615.both at the Bandas and at Amboyna. At Neira the complaints of the natives were terrible. “It is enough,” they said, “to make old men weep; and the child, too, that is yet unborn. God has given the country to us and ours; but He has sent the Dutch as a plague to take it from us.” Those who heard the sad tale were powerless to render assistance. The Dutch commanders ordered Cokayne to leave the island, and in the face of seven well-armed vessels lying before the fort, it was hopeless to resist. The English met with similar treatment at Amboyna and Ceram, though Skinner succeeded in leaving a pinnace to trade with the friendly natives of Puloway, an island of the Banda group as yet unoccupied by the Dutch.[283]
As soon as the Dutch at Neira heard that Englishmen had been left at Puloway they determined to make a vigorous effort to The Dutch attack upon Puloway.reduce the island before succour could arrive. The assailants were driven off by the natives,[284] and the Dutch officers, after their return to their head-quarters at Neira, complained that they had found arms of English make in the possession of those whom they chose to call rebels against their authority. The English pinnace remained at the island till August, and, when it sailed away with its cargo of nutmegs, Richard Hunt was left behind as factor for the Company.
In the following March, four English ships arrived at Puloway, under the command of Samuel Castleton. Scarcely <167>had they cast anchor when ten Dutch vessels put out from Neira to oppose them. Outnumbered by his rivals, Castleton opened a negotiation 1616.Puloway and Pularoon surrendered to Hunt.and finally consented to sail away, on the understanding that if the Dutch overpowered the natives, Englishmen on the island should be permitted to carry away their goods to a place of safety. Scarcely, however, had Castleton left when Hunt, who had remained behind as the Company’s factor, took it upon himself to accept from the natives a formal surrender of both islands to himself as the representative of the King of England. Puloway taken by the Dutch.Not long afterwards the Dutch landed on Puloway and overpowered the inhabitants, who for the most part escaped to Pularoon, whilst Hunt was himself obliged to fly from the island to save his life.[285]
News in the seventeenth century did not travel fast, and it was not till September, 1617, that the Company in London heard that 1617.Resolution of the Company.Puloway had been lost eighteen months before. There was no sign of flinching. Ever since the failure of the negotiations with the Dutch in 1615,[286] the English Company must have expected something of the kind. They at once ordered that six ships should be got ready in the spring, to defend their interests in the East. “By such strength,” they say in their Minutes, “the inhabitants of Banda and the Moluccas will be encouraged to deal with the English when they shall find them of power to resist the wrongs put on them by the Hollanders.” They did not intend to send the fleet ‘to oppose the Hollanders in hostile manner, but to countenance their business, that they be not put down or forced from their trade:— which it seems they do intend in all parts:— but to send a good strength both to the Moluccas and <168>Banda, and do it to purpose once for all, and try what the Hollanders will do, if a man of courage may be had that will not endure their wrongs. But as yet they have only given words, and no deeds.’[287]
The last sentence was evidently aimed at Castleton. It was not till after the interval of a year that the Company learned that 1616.Courthope at Pularoon.the man of courage of whom they had been in search had been found amongst their servants in the East. Late in 1616, two vessels, the ‘Swan’ and the ‘Defence’, were despatched from Bantam under the command of Nathaniel Courthope, one of those forgotten worthies by whose stern self-sacrifice in the face of the calls of duty the British Empire has been built up in every quarter of the globe. In fulfilment of his instructions,[288] he steered for Pularoon, to make good, so far as it was possible to do so, the English sovereignty over Pularoon and Puloway, which was held to have been conveyed by the natives to Hunt. His first step was to convince himself by inquiry that the surrender of the two islands on that occasion had been made in proper form. He then, having first accepted from the natives a confirmation of their previous act, hoisted the English colours, and sent to inform the Dutch Governor of Puloway that both islands were included in the dominions of the King of England.
Courthope’s message was at once treated as a challenge. On January 3, three Dutch ships sailed into Pularoon roads, and 1617.He compels the Dutch to retire.dropped anchor close to the ‘Swan’ and the ‘Defence.’ If Courthope had not taken the precaution of erecting two batteries on shore, his case would have been hopeless. As it was, he was able to take a high tone with the new-comers. He ordered them to put to sea at once. If they were not gone before midnight, they must take the consequences.
The Dutch commanders glanced at the English batteries on the shore, and at the swarms of hostile natives crowding upon the beach. They shrank from the conflict, and, before midnight <169>came, they were on their way back to Neira. A week later a Dutch pinnace, which by accident or design stood in close to the shore, was greeted with a storm of shot from the English guns.
Courthope’s difficulties were only beginning. His officers and men were insubordinate, and, against his advice, Davey, the Master of the ‘Swan,’ Capture of the ‘Swan.’carried his ship over to the Great Banda for water. Seeing that he was determined to go, Courthope directed him to visit the town of Weyre, on the Great Banda, and the Island of Rossengain, as it was understood that the inhabitants were anxious to cede their territory to the English. Davey carried out his instructions, and the cession was formally made; but on his return to Pularoon he was intercepted by a Dutch vessel of far superior strength to his own. After a severe fight, the ‘Swan’ was carried into Neira Roads with the English colours trailing over the stern in derision.
It was some time before the news of the loss of the ‘Swan’ reached Pularoon. Undismayed at his misfortune, Courthope set to work The ‘Defence’ given up to the Dutch.to complete his fortifications. But his own men were discontented. They had come to Pularoon, they told him, to trade, and not to fight. On the night of March 26, whilst the commander was on shore, the crew of the ‘Defence’ mutinied, and, carrying the vessel to Neira, delivered her up to the Dutch.[289]
To complete Courthope’s misfortunes, he had no hope of assistance till the westerly monsoon blew again at the end of the year; and as Courthope holds out.the island of Pularoon was one of the westernmost of the group, he was exposed to an attack from Neira for at least six months. He had but thirty-eight of his men on shore with him when he was deserted by the ‘Defence.’ Food, too, was running short, and, if it had not been for the opportune arrival of two junks laden with rice, starvation would have done the enemy’s work. All that he could do was to send news to his countrymen at Bantam in a <170>native boat, and to wait hopefully for the help which was sure to come at last.
The Dutch made up their minds to proceed to extremities. The ‘Speedwell,’ an English pinnace, sailing along the coast of Java, Capture of the ‘Speedwell.’was fired at by the Dutch admiral, and captured. At Bantam, a declaration of war against all who attempted to trade in the Spice Islands was fixed to the door of the English factory. The two fleets were only prevented from fighting in the roads by the interposition of the native king, who threatened that, if they did not keep the peace, he would cut the throats of every European on shore.[290]
It was high time that the Company should take some steps to send help to the brave men who were imperilling their lives in its behalf. 1618.Dale sent out from England.The winter of 1617 had been spent in preparations for the expedition which was to sail in the spring. It was not till April, 1618,[291] more than a year after the capture of Courthope’s last vessel, that the fleet destined for his relief was ready to sail. It was composed of six ships, and was placed, at Southampton’s recommendation, under the command of Sir Thomas Dale.[292] It was, perhaps, all that could be done; but the shareholders must have had great faith in Dale’s energy and talents if they thought that, with the miserably insufficient force at his disposal, he would be able to accomplish the object for which he was sent. His adversaries had at their command a fleet of thirty sail, and in case of necessity could fall back upon the twenty-two fortified posts where the four thousand soldiers of the great Dutch Company kept watch and ward over its interests in the East.[293]
Dale’s little squadron had hardly left the Thames when a distorted account of the loss of the two vessels, in which the whole blame was thrown upon Courthope, reached England through a Dutch channel.[294]
<171>The Dutch were the first to take action. The wealthy merchants who presided over the fortunes of the East India Company of the Netherlands The Dutch propose to negotiate.were far from sharing in the fierce antagonism against everything English which animated their subordinates in the Indies. All they cared for was to secure large dividends, and they were well aware that these would be seriously affected by the outbreak of a war. Caron, the Dutch Ambassador in London, was therefore at once directed to propose the renewal of the negotiations which had failed in 1615, and, at the same time, to present a complaint against the assistance rendered by the English to the Bandanese.[295]
For some time nothing was done. The Dutch Republic was in the throes of its religious revolution, and it was not till Maurice was thoroughly established in power that any serious attempt was made to open negotiations. By that time the indignation of the English Company was excited. The news which they received from their own agents in the East had told them what Courthope’s conduct had really been, and they presented a petition to the King, demanding justice for the outrages to which they had been exposed. The party of the Prince of Orange, which was now in power, had every wish to remain on good terms with England, and early in October commissioners were appointed to go over to London to discuss the matters in dispute.[296]
Just as the Commissioners were ready to start, an incident occurred which 1618.Attempted reprisals on the Dutch.threatened to interrupt the good understanding prevailing between the two Governments. News arrived in London that one of the vessels <172>which had taken part in the capture of the ‘Swan’ was in the Channel. With more zeal than discretion, the English Company applied to the Admiralty Court for a commission to arrest it. The request was at once granted, but before anything was done the vessel had passed the Straits and was safe in a Dutch port.
The Dutch Government was indignant at the insult. They suspected the King of having authorised the attempt to obtain satisfaction by force at a time when negotiations had been already commenced. James, however, assured Caron that he knew nothing about the matter, and Caron informed his masters that he had no reason to doubt the truth of the King’s assertion.[297] The commissioners were accordingly allowed to start.
On November 27, the Dutch negotiators arrived in London.[298] Their instructions authorised them to treat on the Spitzbergen whale-fishery, Arrival of the Dutch commissioners.in which the English and Dutch had lately come to blows, as well as on the East India trade. This was not enough for James, who wished the whole of his grievances to be settled once for all. There were matters relating to the cloth trade, and to the relative value of the coinages, which required adjustment; but his principal complaint was that the Dutch refused to renounce their claim to fish for herrings off the British coast.
In England and Scotland the herring-fishery had been almost totally neglected. Here and there in fine weather a few small The herring fishery.boats would put off timidly a little distance from the shore, and would bring home a supply for the temporary wants of the local market.[299] Of late years the <173>Dutch had discovered the value of the prize which Englishmen had allowed to slip out of their hands, and every season large fleets of well-built vessels put out from the ports of Holland and Zealand to fish in English waters.
James had long looked upon this disregard of his prerogative with displeasure. In 1607 he had issued a proclamation[300] forbidding foreigners Disputes with the Dutch.to fish off the English coast without a licence. But little respect had been paid to the prohibition; and when, ten years later, an attempt was made on the coast of Scotland to enforce the rights of the Crown by the demand of the old customary tax known as the size herring, the Dutch captain replied by carrying the officer of the customs a prisoner to Holland. As a matter of form, James required the offender to be sent over to England. But he treated him kindly, and contented himself with requiring that the commissioners who were shortly to negotiate on the business of the East Indies should also be empowered to settle the disputes relating to the fishery.[301]
The first thing that James learnt, after the arrival of the commissioners, was that they had no instructions on the subject. Postponement of the question.He at once sent for them to Whitehall, where they were soundly rated by Bacon for coming with insufficient powers. In their answer the commissioners spoke of their claim to fish as being an immemorial possession. By this language they added fuel to the flame, and at one time it seemed likely that they would be sent back without a hearing upon the more important matters with which they were charged. Even if the Dutch Government had been willing to prohibit the fishery, they would hardly have dared to take a step which would have brought ruin on thousands of families.
James’s anger seldom lasted long. The commissioners were allowed to explain away their words. They had no <174>intention, they said, to deny his right of regulating the fishery off his own coasts; but the struggle with the Arminians was scarcely at an end, and in the midst of these difficulties it was impossible for them to treat on so delicate a subject. In reply, James disclaimed any wish to deprive the fishermen of their bread; but if it cost him his life, his crown, and all that he had, his prerogative must be maintained. 1619.Messages were sent to and fro between London and the Hague, and James finally contented himself with an engagement that whenever the Dutch Government was sufficiently settled, the matter should be taken in hand.[302]
At last, after a delay of some weeks, the negotiations on the East India trade were allowed to commence. Five members of the Privy Council The negotiations on the East India trade.were joined with deputies of the Company to meet the commissioners. The question of the restitution of the captured vessels and their lading was the first to be discussed, and it was, after a long dispute, agreed that the captors should not be required to make good any damages sustained by the prizes whilst in their hands, unless it could be distinctly proved that the vessels had been employed in their service at the time.[303]
Scarcely was this preliminary point settled, when news arrived from the East which must have convinced everyone who was News from the East.interested in the success of the negotiations that there was no time to be lost. Through the whole of the summer of 1617, Courthope had maintained his ground at Pularoon, waiting for the westerly monsoon which was to bring him help from Bantam. At length the wind changed, and the hopes of the little garrison rose as they heard it sweeping through the nutmeg trees. But still the weeks passed wearily <175>away, and day after day they saw the sun sinking into a sailless sea. At last, 1618.Loss of the ‘Solomon’ and the ‘Assistance.’on the morning of March 25, more than fifteen months after his arrival in the island, Courthope caught sight of two vessels in the offing. They had been detained by storms, and that very morning the wind veered round to the east and hindered their approach to the shore. Then the Dutch fleet from Neira knew that its time was come, and bore down upon its prey. The English ships, the ‘Solomon’ and the ‘Assistance,’ were deeply laden with provisions for the relief of their countrymen, and were in no condition to resist the attack. Yet it was only after a combat of seven hours that they surrendered, and were carried, with every mark of the derision of the captors, into Neira Roads. The crews were put in irons, and were subjected to all possible hardships short of actual starvation.
Courthope, who had witnessed the disaster from the shore, contrived to send a letter to Bantam. He marvelled, he wrote, that Courthope holds out.so small a force had been sent. It was idle to expect justice from the Dutch. He had held Pularoon against them for more than a year. He and his men had lived on rice and water, and had thought themselves fortunate that even that was to be had. Now another twelvemonth, with its want and misery, was before them. The Dutch had eight ships at Neira, and he was in hourly expectation of an attack; yet he would do his best till the monsoon changed. If the Dutch were too strong for him, he trusted, with God’s help, to make them pay dearly for their victory.[304]
It would have been, indeed, to turn Courthope’s disasters to account, if the English Government had been led by them to consider, The negotiations in London continued.a little more deeply than before, the real nature of the problem which it was called upon to solve. The intelligence which every ship brought from the scene of strife should have carried conviction to the mind of James that the only hope of preserving peace in <176>the East lay in as strict a definition as possible of the territorial limits of the two Companies. 1619.As long as human nature remained what it was, Dutchmen and Englishmen, placed in too close contact, would fly at one another’s throats. Mercantile quarrels in the nineteenth century are easily settled. In the remotest corner of the globe in which there is any danger to be apprehended, the presence of an armed force, commanded by officers who are themselves strangers to the questions at issue, is certain to enforce upon the combatants the duty of appealing for redress to their respective Governments. But in the seventeenth century the armed force was commanded by the merchants themselves, and two years at least must elapse before a letter written from the Bandas could receive an answer from Europe.
By those who were on the spot some weight had been given to these considerations. In 1616, Courthope had carried with him Views of the merchants.instructions to avoid places already in the possession of the Dutch, and to content himself with taking possession of unoccupied islands in the name of the King of England. It was too much, however, to expect that, till they had received the confirmation of a bitter experience, such views would be favourably regarded in London, where the Company was inclined either to under-estimate the preponderance of the Dutch forces in the East, or to imagine that it would be possible to counterbalance them by the pressure which it was in the power of the King of England to put upon the States-General.
By contenting themselves with asking for the islands which had been ceded to Courthope, the Company would have gained in security, though undoubtedly they would have sacrificed the prospect of enormous gains. They had taken up the cry of liberty of commerce without the slightest idea of its real meaning. It was all very well to demand free trade if there was nothing else to be had. It was better than no trade at all. But, in the seventeenth century, no one but a madman would have denied that the smallest share in a monopoly was preferable to the freest commerce in the world. The English merchants, therefore, gave the Dutch <177>commissioners to understand that if they would in any way admit them to a share of the trade, without requiring them to merge their corporate existence in that of the Company of the Netherlands, they would be ready to meet them half-way.
On these terms the negotiators were not long in coming to an agreement. Both Companies shrank from the competition Division of the monopoly.which would be the result of the division of the Spice Islands, and it was resolved by both that the monopoly should remain intact. The cloves and nutmegs were from henceforth to be bought on a common account, and after being divided in certain fixed proportions between the Companies, were to be sold in Europe at a price determined by mutual agreement. In what proportion the spice was to be divided was more difficult to decide. The English asked for a half. The Dutch thought they ought to be content with a quarter. After much wrangling, it was determined that it should be a third. The monopoly was also to include the pepper trade of Java, but, as the Dutch could lay no claim to the possession of the island, the crop was to be equally divided between the two nations. In the other ports in the Indian Ocean commerce was to be open to both.[305]
One point remained to be settled. How were the Spice Islands to be fortified against the Portuguese? It was agreed, without difficulty, that Dispute about the fortresses.the expenses of the defence should be discharged out of a fund raised by a duty on exports, and that a fleet, composed of an equal number of English and Dutch ships, should be placed at the disposal of a council at which each of the two nations was represented by four members. It was also agreed that existing fortifications should remain in the hands of their original possessors; or, in other words, that the English garrison should be unmolested at Pularoon, and that the other islands should be left in possession of the Dutch.
<178>The demand of the English negotiators to be allowed to erect new fortifications wherever they thought fit was met by a flat refusal.[306] This question contained, in truth, the kernel of the treaty. To the Dutch it was plain that, if they gave way, the new forts would, sooner or later, be used against themselves. To the English it was equally plain that, without such protection, they would be at the mercy of the Dutch. Neither side would give way. Each felt instinctively that the treaty could not be carried out under such conditions, and neither was willing to find itself, when war broke out afresh, in the power of its antagonist.
The puzzled negotiators appealed to the King. James had taken a deep interest in the progress of the discussion, and, from time to time, Appeal to the King.had interfered to soften down the asperities which had been provoked. The problem before him, however, was not one which could be solved by a few civil words. He had to reconcile two diametrically opposite pretensions. It was not in his nature to go to the root of the difficulty, and, as usual, he chose rather to go round the obstacle than to surmount it. He contented himself His recommendation.with a recommendation that the question should be reserved for a more convenient opportunity. In two or three years, he said, experience would have shown at what points fortifications would be most needed, and the negotiations could then be resumed with a better prospect of success.[307]
The King’s award was received with indignant protests by all who had any interest in the English Company.[308] And yet it is difficult to see what more they could have asked him to do. It was notorious that their own forces in the East were far inferior to those at the <179>disposal of their rivals, and they could hardly expect, in such a cause, to embroil England in the most unpopular and impolitic of wars. The real weakness of the agreement did not arise from the King’s refusal to thrust English garrisons upon Dutch territory, but in the success of the English merchants in establishing a treaty right to share in the commerce of islands which were under the territorial sovereignty of another nation.
By the politicians who looked with jealousy upon the growing influence of Spain, the arrangement was welcomed in a very different manner. To Pembroke and Naunton, it was enough that an accommodation had been brought about, whatever its terms might be, and they trusted hopefully that the commercial union with Holland would soon be followed by a political union.[309] Yet even Pembroke and Naunton must sometimes have looked wistfully for news from the East, knowing as they did that a whole year must still elapse before an agreement made in London could be published in the Bandas.
The treaty was signed on June 2, 1619.[310] On July 15, Dutch Commissioners were Signature of the treaty.entertained at a splendid banquet in Merchant Taylors’ Hall. After dinner The Spitzbergen whale-fishery.they were informed by Digby that the King would not press them about the Spitzbergen whale fishery.[311] He would give them three years to make restitution to the English subjects whom they had wronged.
Unfortunately, whilst the commissioners were negotiating in London, the conflict between 1618.Dale defeats the Dutch.the forces of the two nations in the East had broken out into a flame. In November, 1618, Dale arrived at Bantam, and at once declared war upon the Dutch. On December 23, <180>he came up with the enemy off Jacatra, and compelled the Dutch fleet to seek refuge in flight. But he did not improve the victory. Much precious time was lost in the siege of the Dutch fort at Jacatra, and when the spring came round he dispersed his fleet over every quarter of the Indian seas in search of trade. Before the English ships could gather to their rendezvous on the coast of Sumatra, Dale died of sickness at Masulipatam.[312]
Either the Dutch Admiral was less hampered by commercial necessities, or he knew better how to make use of his opportunities. The loss of the ‘Star,’With the easterly monsoon, which had carried away Dale’s ships, he returned with reinforcements from Amboyna.[313] He reduced to ashes the native town of Jacatra, the king of which had given aid to the English, and on its ruins laid the foundations of the new Batavia, which was one day to be to the Dutch Company what Calcutta became to its rivals. In August the ‘Star’ arrived from England, bringing news of the opening of negotiations in London. As no treaty had been signed at the date of its departure, the Dutch seized the vessel, and despatched six ships to Sumatra to look out for English traders. On the coast they found four of the Company’s vessels and of four other ships.busily engaged in lading pepper. The captain of one of these, the ‘Bear,’ had met Sir Thomas Roe at the Cape on his return from India. It happened that a new Dutch admiral also had been there on his outward voyage, with whom Roe had opened communications, which had ended in an agreement that hostilities should be suspended till the result of the negotiations in London could be known. In the suddenness of the attack this agreement was either not produced, or was disregarded. One of the English ships, the ‘Dragon,’ was forced to surrender, after a combat of an hour’s duration, and the other three were too much encumbered with their lading even to attempt a defence.[314] The <181>prisoners were treated with the greatest inhumanity, and many of the wounded died from exposure to the rain upon the open deck. Amongst the prizes on board, the Dutch sailors found a handsome knife, which had been sent out as a present from the King to the native sovereign of Acheen. They carried it about the deck in uproarious procession, shouting out at the top of Further losses.their voices, “Thou hast lost thy dagger, Jemmy.”[315] A few days later two other English vessels were taken at Patani, and the captain of one of them was killed.[316]
At last, on March 8, 1620, news arrived of the actual signature of the treaty in London.[317] 1620.News of the treaty reaches the East.A conference was immediately held between the commanders of the two nations, and for the moment, at least, the most friendly disposition was evinced on both sides. A council of war was at once formed, and the united fleets were placed under its orders.
The news of the treaty had been delayed too long to save one valuable life. It was now three weary years since Courthope landed at Pularoon. Death of Courthope.He still held out alone and unsupported, and another six months must pass before the change of wind would make it possible to convey to him the intelligence that his labours were at an end. When the news of peace reached Pularoon, it was too late. Two months before, as Courthope was crossing to the Great Banda in a native boat, he was intercepted by two large vessels belonging to the Dutch garrison at Puloway. “The captain,” as we are told in the simple narrative of his successor in command, “behaved himself courageously, until divers of the Banda men were slain; and the captain also, receiving a shot in the breast, sat down, and withal his piece being cloyed, threw it overboard, and then leaped overboard himself in his clothes, the praw being too hot to stay in.”[318] When the news of the treaty at last arrived, the Dutch commander bore willing testimony to the merits of his brave adversary. “The <182>Captain Nathaniel,” he wrote, “is killed in the praw, for which, God knoweth, I am heartily sorry. We have buried him so stately and honestly as ever we could, fitting to such a man.”[319] So died, trusted by his countrymen, and honoured by enemies who seldom showed honour to any who bore the name of Englishman, one of the noblest of those by whose unflagging zeal the English empire in the East was founded. The day of the Drakes and the Raleighs was passing away. The day of the Blakes, the Rodneys, and the Nelsons was dawning.
[271] See Vol. II. p. 62.
[272] Smith’s History of Virginia, 112. Stith’s History of Virginia, 127.
[273] Smith’s History of Virginia, 121. Chamberlain to Carleton, June 22, 1616; Jan. 28; March 29, 1617, S. P. Dom. lxxxvii. 67; xc. 25, 146.
[274] Smith’s True Relation of Virginia (ed. Deane), 38, note 3; 72, note 1; Wingfield’s Discourse of Virginia (ed. Deane), 32, note 8. Mr. Deane’s arguments are strongly put against the truth of the story. Professor Arber, however, who is at present editing the various narratives of Smith’s adventures, and who has minutely examined such of his statements as are capable of verification, takes a very favourable view of Smith’s veracity.
[275] Smith’s History of Virginia, 120–123. Stith’s History of Virginia, 140–147.
[276] Stith’s History of Virginia, 149.
[277] The proceedings of this Assembly, the loss of which was regretted by Mr. Bancroft, are in the Record Office, S. P. Colonial, i. 45.
[278] Stith’s History of Virginia, 153–158.
[279] Purchas, i. 717.
[280] Purchas, i. 238.
[281] In fact, there was needed the adoption of a principle of cujus regio, ejus commercium, analogous to the principle of cujus regio, ejus religio. Both were steps of progress, yet both look mean enough in comparison with that which has been since attained.
[282] Jourdain’s Journal, Sloane MSS. 858, fol. 83.
[283] Welding to Jourdain, May 23. Farie to the Company, July 26, 1614. Instructions from Jourdain, Jan. 24. Boyle to the Company, Feb. 18. Skinner to Denton, July 12. Cokayne to Smith, July 16. Jourdain to the Company, Dec. 26, 1615, E. I. C. Orig. Corr.
[284] Valentyn, Oud en Nieuw Ost-Indien, Deel iii.; Stuk. ii. 81.
[285] Compact with the Dutch, March 16. Directions to Hunt, March (?), 1616, E. I. C. Orig. Corr., Purchas, i. 608. Jourdain’s Journal; Sloane MSS. 858, fol. 106. The information on Castleton’s voyage is, however, extremely imperfect. See also the documents published by Mr. Foster in Letters received by the East India Company, iv. 72–75, and Introduction, xx-xxii.
[286] See Vol. II. p. 314.
[287] E. I. C. Court Minutes, Sept. 25, 1617.
[288] Instructions to Courthope, Oct. 29, 1616, E. I. C. Orig. Corr.
[289] Correspondence between Courthope, and the Dutch commanders, Jan.-April, 1617, S. P. East Indies. Surrender of Pularoon and Puloway. Spurway to the Company, Purchas, i. 701, 608.
[290] Remonstrance of the state of the question, &c., Jan (?), 1619, Holland. News brought by a French vessel, 1618 (?), S. P. East Indies.
[291] Lovelace to Carleton, April 6, 1618, S. P. Dom. xcvii. 9.
[292] E. I. C. Court Minutes, Sept. 30, 1617; Feb. 3, 1618.
[293] Bell to Carleton, Sept. 12, 1618, S. P. Holland.
[294] Carleton to Chamberlain, April 25. Carleton to Lake, April 25. Carleton to Beecher, April 30, 1618, S. P. Holland.
[295] Caron to the States-General, April 28⁄May 8. May 7⁄17, June 25⁄July 5, 1618. Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 284, 289, 305.
[296] Contarini to the Doge, Sept. 25⁄Oct. 5, Venice MSS. Salvetti’s News-Letter, Sept. 25⁄Oct. 5. Naunton to Carleton, Sept. 8, S. P. Dom. civ. 62. Bell to Carleton, Sept. 12. Carleton to Naunton, Sept. 15. Naunton to Carleton, Sept. 24. Carleton to the King, Sept. 29. Resolution of the States-General, Oct. 9⁄19 Carleton to Naunton, Oct. 12, 1618, S. P. Holland.
[297] Contarini (Nov. 6⁄16 1618, Venice MSS.) speaks of the order as emanating from the King. But Caron, writing on the same day (Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 353), after giving the King’s disclaimer, adds an instance in which a similar order had been issued without any authority from the King. James was at Royston at the time, and may not have been consulted in a matter requiring such haste.
[298] Dutch Commissioners to the States-General, Nov. 28⁄Dec. 8, 1611, Add. MSS. 17,677 I., fol. 363.
[299] Burroughs, Sovereignty of the Seas, 117.
[300] Proclamation, May 7, 1607, printed in Needham’s Translation of Selden’s Mare Clausum.
[301] The Lords of the Council to Carleton, Aug. 4, 1617, Carleton Letters, 156. Salvetti’s News-Letter, May 7⁄17, June 4⁄14, 1618.
[302] Naunton to Carleton, Dec. 16, 21, 22, 29, 1618; Jan. 2, 21, 1619. Carleton to the King, Jan. 3. Carleton’s proposition, Jan. 22. Reply of the States-General, Feb. 13, 1619, S. P. Holland. The Dutch Commissioners to the States-General, Dec. 17⁄27, 1618, Dec. 24⁄Jan. 3, 1618⁄9, Jan. 3⁄13, Jan. 23⁄Feb. 2, 1619, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 367, 370, 374, 380.
[303] Dutch Commissioners to the States-General, Jan. 23⁄Feb. 2 1619, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 380. First article of the Treaty; Ordre Reglé par les Compagnies. Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, v. ii, 333, 335.
[304] Courthope’s Journal. Purchas, i. 664. Courthope to Bell, April 24, 1618. E. I. C. Orig. Corr. The news which, according to Salvetti (News-Letter, Jan. 21⁄31, 1619), reached England in January, 1619, was probably in less detail, and perhaps came through a Dutch channel.
[305] Dutch Commissioners to the States-General, Feb. 4⁄14, Feb. 21⁄Mar. 3, May 3⁄11, 1619, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 389, 392, 418. The Dutch proposed that one-third of the trade in the whole of the Indies should be assigned to the English, but this was refused.
[306] Dutch Commissioners to the States-General, April 16⁄26, 1619, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 413.
[307] Locke to Carleton, April 24, S. P. Dom. cviii. 71. Balconqual to Carleton, May 20, S. P. Holland. The Dutch Commissioners to the States-General, May 25⁄June 4, 1619, Add. MSS. 17,677 I. fol. 423.
[308] Chamberlain to Carleton, Jan. 5, S. P. Dom. cix. 75. Petition of the E. I. C., June (?), 1619, S. P. East Indies.
[309] Pembroke to Carleton, July 11. Locke to Carleton, July 17, 1619. S. P. Holland.
[310] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, v. ii. 333.
[311] Commonly known as the Greenland fishery. In the Declaration of the Dutch Commissioners, July 15, 1619, S. P. Holland, it is said to be ‘on the coast of Greenland, otherwise called King James’s Newland.’ This was Spitzbergen, supposed to be a continuation of Greenland.
[312] The details of Dale’s proceedings will be found in the E. I. C. Orig. Corr. of the date.
[313] Churchman’s relation. Undated E. I. C. Orig. Corr. News by the ‘Union’ pinnace, Aug. 5, 1619, S. P. Holland.
[314] Hore to the E. I. C. Purchas, i. 656.
[315] A brief relation of the damages lately done by the Hollanders. Undated, S. P. Holland.
[316] Purchas, i. 687.
[317] Ibid. i. 640.
[318] Journal of Hayes, ibid. i. 679.
[319] Van Anton to Hayes, Dec. 9, 1620. Purchas, i. 681.