of the Crown and so humbly applyed to His Majesty That he would be pleased to interpose for the obtaining satisfaction in those numerous and great Complaints but as to the attacquing of this State or making War with them that there is not a word of any such matter in the said Proposition but it hereby appears what is in the Deputies sense attacquing of this State viz. Let never so many Injuries be done by the People of this Country to others if after never so many years patience and utmost Endeavours for obtaining satisfaction in an amicable way serious and real Consideration be at last had for obtaining the same This is attacquing them and becoming an Aggressour and they are pleased to add as to the Reason and Ground thereof It must necessarily be believed that this Proposition proceeded from an insatiable appetite that they had to ravish the Goods of others and from a depraved Gusto that they found in the Taking Robbing and Depraedation of the Inhabitants of these Provinces A very uncharitable construction and such a one as none but the Deputies of this State would ever have made Suppose never so much to be taken from the People of this Country What Advantage could the Parliament of England have thereby or what could they expect by a War as to their own particular Accounts but only to be Contributors largely with the rest of the Kingdome out of their own Fortunes towards the maintenance thereof as if one would take the Liberty of Retorting might it not be said and with much more Reason that the East and West-India Companies of this Country durst not presume to do as they do but because so great a part at least of the Governours thereof are concerned in them and that it ariseth from the same ground that it is so difficult and almost an impossible thing to obtaine Justice and Satisfaction for any Injury done by them be the Case never so Clear and Evident For what is further said in page 11. The said Envoy Declares possitively that he hath Order from the King His Master to assure this State that His Majesty will not permit that His Subjects do Attaque or Surprize as Sea the Ships of the Inhabitants of these Provinces And that the King would do them no hurt till he had Advertised them by a Formal and Preallable Declaration of War To this he doth Reply that he cannot but wonder that the Deputies do Affirm that he doth Declare thus much the words of his Memorial being as followeth That the King his Master did the last Spring to take away from them all Umbrage which might cause any Extraordinary Equipping at that time give him Order to Assure them as he then did in a Publique Conference with their Deputies That His Majesty would not trouble or hinder their Fleets which they then expected out of the Streights and theEast-Indies nor those then at the Fisheries upon His Coasts And was not all that made good to them to a puncto and is it not a very ill requital for so franck and seasonable a Declaration as that was at that time and which the King His Master was no way obliged to make to them and which was made good thus to misrecite his Words For the Justification of the Extraordinary Equipage in these Parts the last Summer the Deputies say page 11 and 12. They Take they stop in the Havens of England and Confiscate with their Merchandizes the Ships of this Country by Express Order of the King and yet cry out against their Equipage though but small and such as had been heretofore made So that it was impossible that the said Equipage could give any Umbrage to the King of Great Brittain Especially after they had assured His Majesty by their Letter of the Twenty fourth of July that their Reall Intention and Constant Resolution was to do no hurt to His Subjects and that it would be fitting not to suffer that the said Fleets should go off their Respective Coasts and Havens and that the King said to the Ambassadour of this State in the Audience He had about this Matter That His Majesty would let Him know His Mind concerning this Matter in Three Dayes in Writing which yet he hath not done to this day It is to be Remarked that they here Alledge the Taking Stopping and Confiscating of the Ships and Goods of this Country in these Parts for a ground to Justifie the late Extraordinary Equipage Whereas that Equipage was Ordered and Equipped in the beginning of the Summer and the Taking and Stopping of the said Ships was not till November following nor any Confiscated till February after And as to what they say that that Equipage was but very small and that they had formerly made the like Did they not resolve in the beginning of Summer to Equippe Thirty of their Capital Ships over and above their Fleet under De Ruyter and such as were fitted out for the Convoy of their East-India Ships and what for Guiny And was this a small Equipage And were not hundreds of Carpenters sent on a suddaine to work thereupon sparing as is said in his Memorial neither Holy Day nor Work a Day Moon-light nor Sun-light as if it had been upon the most Pressing and Urgent Necessity that could have fallen out and this in a time when they had no Dispute with any other Nation that could give any imaginable Occasion or Pretense for the same Nor had the King His Master at that time above Seven or Eight Men of Warr in these Seas nor any further Equipage in hand And he had Declared in His Answer to His Parliament which was well known here that He would yet Endeavour the Accommodating of Matters with this State in an Amicable way and give Orders to him His Minister to that Effect And how can it then be here said That it was impossible that this Equipage could give any Umbrage to His Majesty On the contrary how was it possible but that it should give him the utmost Umbrage it being very well known that their Lordships are too good Mesnagers to put themselves to such an Extraordinary Expence in a Frolick and without some proportionable Design and to be sure such Design could not be with Reflection upon any other then himself And as to the Letter to His Majesty above mentioned they do here Confesse page 12 and 13. as was Alledged by him in his said Memoriall That they had one Fleet Actually out and gone to His Majesties Coasts at the time of the Writing of that Letter and so would have been out of that Engagement and it was as Numerous as that of His Majesties for the keeping whereof within Doors they were so Solicitous And whereas they say That this State had no other Fleet at Sea that was Capable to Act for that those that they had at Sea were onely Destinated for the Convoy accustomed to be sent every Year for their Fleet out of the East-Indies It is not
of the West-India Company of this Country before the Treaty and saith that it is not strange that they had endeavoured to retake by force that which had been by force unjustly taken from them The Estates General had written a long Letter to the King his Master dated the 26 of January 1664. N. S. making a very long complaint to him concerning the taking of a certain Dutch ship belonging to the West-India Company of this Country called the Arms of Amsterdam Moreover they had communicated the said Complaint to him the said Envoy Extraordinary with a large deduction concerning the same making a huge noise about it which he the said Envoy Extraordinary examining narrowly and looking into the business found out that the said Ship called the Arms of Amsterdam was in truth an English ship belonging wholly to English Merchants of London and that her true Name was the Merchants Delight and that having sailed from Dover in the year 1660. upon a trading Voyage to the Coast of Guiny under the command of one C. Bonner an Englishman she had been there seized in an hostile manner by a certain ship belonging to the said Company called the Amsterdam whereof one Aaron Cousens was Commander in or about the Month of Aug. 1661. and carried by her to Jasper van Huysen then General for the said Company at Castle Delmina And although the said Bonner did declare to the said Van Huysen that himself and Company were English and that the ship with her lading belonged to one John Young and other Merchants of London and verified the same by authentick Writings and Papers yet that he kept the said ship and lading evilly treated the men altered and new named the ship calling her the Arms of Amsterdam that thereby she might be the less subject to be known wherever she should be met by the English and that he had order long before from the King his Master in Council to complain to the States General concerning the taking of that very ship from his Subjects and for which yet no satisfaction had been made Hereupon he took the liberty to inform them of the truth of the matter in his said Memorial and to tell them that the Case was not so strange and ill as they put it viz. That the English had taken a Dutch ship but only that they had by force retaken an English ship that had been by force taken from them thereby to excuse à tanto And what can now be said for the justification and defence of the sending Van Campen and De Ruyter for Guiny Was not the business of Cabo Verde and what else complained of matters hapned since the conclusion of the late Treaty and so directly within the compass of that Article And was not the resolution for the sending of Van Campen as is said in his Memorial taken within about 6 or 7 weeks after complaint made by this State to his Majesty concerning the taking of Cabo Verde and the actual sending De Ruyter within a little after and doth it not appear by the express words of Van Campen's Instructions that his being sent thither was not only upon the defensive to perserve the places and shipping of this Country in those parts but in direct and down-right terms to fall upon his Majesties Subjects and attacque them revenging themselves by force against such whom they pretended to have done them hurt Nor is it therein said that they might fall upon Holmes only who was the only person complained of but the words are general and dubious viz That those to whom the Command of the said Fleet was given in case that upon the said Coast they should find or rencounter any ships or Subjects of his Majesties that they should take care not to endammage them or to trouble or incommodate them in their Traffique provided they had not already or did not then do any dammage to this State or its good Inhabitants Whereby it is left in their construction and discretion whom they are to fall upon viz. whomever they should judge to have done or to be doing any hurt to this State or any of their Subjects And this Resolution is put into his Majesties hands by the Ambassadouâ—â— this Country and not only so but given to several other Kings of Europe his Friends and Allies And it s withall declared that this Fleet shall pass the Channel before his Ports and that under the Convoy of a numerous Fleet of Capital ships of War under the Command of the Lieutenant Admiral of this State And was it possible for his Majesty longer to sit still and to remain without doing any thing Hitherto the dispute had been only between the Subjects and Inhabitants of both sides but now this State had hereby engaged it self whereby the Dispute was come to be immediately between the King his Master and them and though while this State intermeddled not neither did the King his Master upon the other hand interpose but with patience expected justice to be done by them to his Subjects according to the terms of the Treaty but they on the other hand upon the first complaint of any injury done in those very parts to their Subjects breaking through the Rules and Bonds of the Treaty what now remained but the opposing of force to force And whereas the Deputies would have it thought no indignity or affront to his Majesty for that Fleet to have passed for that say they The Sea is open to all the World It may not be amiss to mark that however they plead so much for the the Seas being free in these parts yet that the contrary is practised where the people of this Country have the power witness the late Declaration of the Dutch East-India Company not yet disavowed by this State wherein they claim a whole great Sea to themselves And witness the usage of the West-India Company at Cape Blaneo upon the Coast of Africa where they will not suffer any Nation to fish in the open Sea without their permission and paying them the tenth fish and the Governour there within these few years seized and confiscated an English ship called the Leopard for having fished there but here in this Case there was no question about their Liberty of passing the Sea but about their passing with such a Resolution and to such an End And could a greater affront be done to a King then when he had done what was possible for the satisfaction of this State and more then requisite that notwithstanding thereof he shall be told by them that they are resolved to fall upon his Subjects and not naming whom whereby not any of them were in surety especially considering they questioned our trading even at our own Factories in those parts as hath been afore shewn and call it a hurting them Moreover it is to be considered that at the very time when this resolution was put into his Majesties hands there were just Reasons to surmise and believe that De
Majesty at liberty to have righted himself yet notwithstanding he did not do it and that though they on the other hand had as aforesaid in relation to their pretences broken in upon the said Article indeavouring to right themselves by force within the time limited contrary thereunto Nor did his Majesty intermeddle or give order for the offering the least offence to their Subjects till he certainly knew that De Ruyter had quitted that Coast and work he was sent hence about and that his Majesty had again again demanded of the Ambassadour of this State residing in his Court to be satisfied whether he was gone and upon what design which he had reason to demand and expect to be satisfied in First because the work was not then done with those of Algiers and that this State had as is above shewn engaged to his Majesty that that Fleet should continue there till an issue thereof And secondly because that being in such a manner gone away 't was not to be imagined in that conjuncture of Affairs that it could be upon any other account then to go to Guiny to fall upon his Subjects there Nor is it an answer to say That their Ambassadour did not know it He was their Ambassadour and his Majesty did demand it of him and if they did not think fit either by him or otherwise to satisfie his Majesty concerning the same and considering their Resolution that they had put into his hands concerning Van Campen and yet in which they make such Protestations to his Majesty of proceeding so frankly with him what could he then conclude but that while they were here amusing him under the notion of Van Campens going to Guiny that De Ruyter was gone thither to execute what was threatned to be done by Van Campen Moreover that themselves had actually begun the stopping of ships in those parts stopping the ship from Gottenburg bound for London and now and not till now did the King his Master intermeddle by way of Force and yet only stopping and seizing their ships and that only till such time as he should come to be satisfied concerning the designes and acting of De Ruyter as was several times declared by him to the Ambassadour of this State Nor was any disposition made of any of the said ships or their ladings or any of them declared Prize until the first of February O. S. which was long after his Majesty had certain News that De Ruyter was arrived in Guiny and had taken a whole Fleet of Merchants ships of his Subjects unladen the Goods and which were ships that had not done any thing against this Countrey and the said ships were seized upon the 13 October O. S. and upon the 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 of the same Moneth he did unlade the same into his own ships whereas his Majesties order for the seizing of the ships of this Country was not till the 9 of November following of the same stile nor any ships stopped or seized thereupon till a day or two after so that De Ruyter had actually seized and unladen a whole Fleet of English ships long before his Majesty had so much as given order for the intermedling with any ships of this Countrey or doing any thing against them Nor were any Letter of Mart granted by his Majesty till long after they had been granted by this State against his Subjects nor Trade prohibited between both Nations by him till the like first done here And whereas the Deputies do so often in this Book charge his Majesty with having done what he did without any preceeding Denunciation or Declaration he did not denounce before hand to them the doing of what was done by Holmes nor what was done in New Netherlands nor could he these being actions done without his Order but as to what was done by his Order viz. the taking and seizing of their ships in these parts to say that this was done without any preceeding Denunciation is like the rest of the Calumnies in this their Book Not to mention what passed between his Majesty and the Ambassadour of this State upon this account was not the Memorial of him the said Envoye to the States General of the 27 of July last as followeth His most Sacred Majesty of Great Britain c. being desirous to omit nothing that may in any wise contribute on his part for the prevention of any misunderstanding or breach between Him and this State hath by His last Post expresly commanded him His Envoye Extraordinary to declare to their Lordships the Estates General of the United Provinces that His Majesty hath given order to examine the Complaints that have been made unto him in their Name against one certain Captain Holmes for matters alledged to be done by him on the Coast of Guiny and will upon full information and hearing of both parties do according to Reason and Justice But if their Lordships shall not think fit to expect the doing thereof but contrary to the stile and practice of all Nations and particularly of his Majesty towards them whom yet to say no more He hath not found over-quick in the dispatch of Justice towards his Subjects and expresly against the letter of the Fourteenth Article of the late Treaty with Him having made their complaint shall think fit immediately to have recourse to Force for remedy they might as well have spared the labour of making their Complaint and the King his Master will hold himself obliged to oppose Force to Force Given at the Hague this 7th of April 1665. O. S. G. Downing FINIS
small matter Yet this is not the main but the consequence hereof which was no less then the utter overthrow of the whole English Trade in those parts For if the said Companies might upon such pretences as these are defeat such Ships as were sent thither of their Voyages without making good and just satisfaction who would adventure any more or to what purpose And what might then France expect of their new East India West India Companies but that their Ships return as these with their Empty Holds Provision spent Tackle worn out Mens wages to pay over and above and yet the most Christian King must be importun'd by this State even to break with his Majesty because of his opposing these mischievous practises And as to what they say that satisfaction was offer'd 't is true that after many Memorials long and tedious Conferences and many Months delaies seeing His Majesty and His Parliament netled and alarm'd in the highest degree with these and orher the Insolencies of the Subjects of this State they do in their Resolutions of the 5 th of June last New Stile promise that they would so direct matters as that satisfaction should be made but nothing followed thereupon And whereas they would impute the cause thereof to the want of some Body to pursue it on the behalf of the persons interessed did not he the said Envoy from day to day with all vehemence and earnestness continue to press them in their Name and on their behalf and yet what doth their Resolution of the 25 th of September say more then their former And whereas the 14 th Article of the late Treaty requires expresly that satisfaction be made within 12 months for all matters on this side the Cape de Bonesperance that should have happen'd after the conclusion of the said Treaty the said 12 Months did expire and nothing done Complaint having been made by Memorial concerning the Ships Charles and James on the 17th of September 1663. Old Stile concerning the Ships Hope-well and Leopard on November 7. following and concerning the Ship Mary on February 16. of the year 1663. Old St. and yet to this day no satisfaction given whereby the Treaty broke and in the mean while daily new Complaints the Hope-well hindred in a second Voyage to Porca the Samson Hopefull-Adventure Speed-well and Captain Bartwick's Ship and in a word every English Ship that went to trade upon the Coast of Africa that they could master in like manner defeated in their Voyage as the Charles James and Mary and not so much as Satisfaction promised for any of those and which is above all to be remarked That whereas we had been so long held in Expectation of our mony now at last instead thereof it is added in the afore-said Resolution That the Case is disputable so that we were now further off our payment then in the beginning of the Summer or if it had been given Us which it is not yet being done in this manner that is to say not as of Justice and due but only as out of particular Courtesie and Complaisance to His Majesty for that time What would it have avail'd us The Dutch East-India Company did in the year 1659. make satisfaction for the Postilion Frederick Francis and John as above-said taken upon the accompt of their having traded to Bantam then block't up by Sea by them and there was added in the Treaty concerning those Matters That the two Nations should for the future rencounter one another with all peaceableness and perfect friendship as well within the East-Indies as elsewhere Yet so great is the advantage that the said Companies have made by practices of this kind as notwithstanding the said satisfaction and promise of the State they have continued ever since to do the like as appears by the many Complaints of this kind of the English East-India Company specified in the Englist LIST of Damages for that by hindring other Nations from trading they inforce the Natives to compact with them for the whole Product of their Countries and so though they do make satisfaction for the particular Ships stopped yet they thereby become infinite Gainers and then not suffering any Nation to Trade there because they say they have agreed for the whole Nor hath their present Grandeur arisen so much from their Mesnage or any thing of that kind as from these violent and indirect Means And if these things were practised by the said Companies while disowned and discouraged by the State and promise made that the like should not be done for the future What was now to be expected from them when it was said by the State that it was disputable whether they might not do so yea in the Dutch List of Damages as above-mentioned satisfaction demanded from the English for having traded in Places block'd up by them by Sea as they call it And thus whereas this Dispute had hitherto been only between the Companies of each side it was now become a Dispute immediatly between his Majesty and this State they patrocinating and maintaining what the said Companies had done And do not the Deputies say in this Book pag. the 11 th That These Pretensions are not so clear but that they may be disputed And pag. 18. they say We do avow and We do maintain that it might be done And thereby all hopes of any quiet Trade or good Understanding in those Parts for the future utterly cut off and not only so but what Security nearer home Do not the Deputies say in pag. 17. That which is just in the Indies cannot be unjust in Europe And is not that a fair Warning to all the Kings of Christendom to let them know what they are in time to expect in these Parts also that is to say to be handled by those of this Country as their said Companies now handle the Kings of the Indies to be told that unless they will sell them the whole product of their Countries they shall sell them to no body and to have Fleets plac'd upon their Coasts for the effecting thereof And as to what is said of their having proffered a Reglement for the future he refers to what is said by him concerning this matter in his Reply to pag. 17. And as to what is said pag. 11. concerning the Parliament of England the said Envoyée Extraordinary could wish that with what ever Language the Deputies had pleased to treat him that they had been more sparing as to them They say there That the Proposition which the Parliament made to His Majesty was That He ought to attacque this State and to make War upon them The two Houses of Parliament as is known to all that understand the Government of that Kingdom are they to whom the People thereof do ordinarily in great greivances address themselves and it is their Natural way for relief and the said Houses upon such Complaints cannot transact or treat with any Forraign Prince or State that being the Prerogative
which have been committed against them had been easily justified If then by this Reply it shall appear as it will that nothing was complained of by him but what was upon good and real ground it follows by the Deputies own confession that his Majesty is justified in what hath been done against the people of this Country and that he hath had sufficient ground and reason for the doing thereof Page the 19 Concerning the Remonstrance or Declaration of Valckenburgh they say The 14 ofAugust last the said Envoy presented a Memorial concerning the same subject upon which this State made a very considerable answer the 8 of October following so that he is in the wrong to say that satisfaction hath not been given him It is therein said that Valckenburgh Director General for the West-India Company upon the coast of Guiny doth not conclude in his Declaration to cause all other Nations to be gone out of all those Quarters ' T was not said by him in his Memorial that they had given him no answer but That a Remonstrance or Declaration had been published as well in the name of theStates General as of the said Company wherein was deduced their claim and pretended right to all that whole coast to the exclusion of all other Nations And that The said Declaration was not yet disavowed nor satisfaction given thereupon And hath not such a Declaration been published And did not he the said Envoy give this State a Copy thereof at their desire And can they say that in the forementioned answer it is disavowed And could it be call'd giving us satisfaction that when we complain that a Remonstrance is issued out by a Governour-General and that not only in the name of the West-India Company but in the name and on the behalf of the Estates General themselves claiming a whole Country wherein we have considerable Forts Lodges and Factories and a considerable Trade and which Remonstrance had been formerly sent and notified by the said Valckenburgh to the chief Agent of the English African-Company at their principal Fort to tell us that he doth not therein conclude to bid the English be gone What though he had not therein bid us be gone out of any place is not such a claim and the notifying thereof a great injury and which His Majesty had just reason to complain on and to expect should be disavowed by the State whereby his Subjects might be put out of apprehension of being disturbed in their quiet and peaceable possessions and Trade But he doth in the said Remonstrance not only claim the whole but therein actually commands the English to be immediately gone out of Tacorari and Cabo Corso two places in which they had not only a constant Trade but setled Factories at the very time of the issuing out the said Remonstrance as is therein confessed and acknowledged by him the said Valckenburgh and not only commanded them out of them but upon those very grounds and arguments upon which he therein claimed the whole And the Deputies will have it thought that the State hath given them satisfaction when they say in their deduction aforesaid That it doth not conclude to cause all other Nations to be gone out of all those Quarters So far from disavowing their pretended right to the whole or the commanding the English immediately out of those two Factories and places as that they will have it to be judged abundant satisfaction to them that they have time given them to dislodge by degrees first out of those places and not at once commanded to be gone out of all those Quarters And it is to be remarked that the said Remonstrance was issued out the 7 of June 1663. and so long after the conclusion of the late Treaty whereby it appears that since the conclusion thereof His Majesties Subjects were not onely disturb'd at Sea by the Shipping of the West-India-Company under the Command and by the Orders of the said Valckenburgh their General but also the whole Country claimed from them and actually commanded to quit immediately two of their setled and principal Factories And for what they say that Captain Holmes should have sent to one Henry Williamson Cop That Captain Holmes had sent three persons of condition to one Henry Williamson Cop that commanded at Cape Verd for the West-India-Company who said to him from Holmes that he had express Order from the King his Master to let all know that the right of Trading upon the coast of Africa from Cape Verd to the Cape of Bona Esperanza belonged to him onely to the exclusion of all other Nations We shew this State a formal Writing and not discourses which may fall and which may possibly not be well remembred or mistaken or stretched beyond the intent and meaning of them that said them And so was this Case yet what a mighty business did this State make hereof writing a Letter immediately to his Majestie expresly about it and causing their Ambassadour to complain highly thereof in an Audience demanded for that effect If we should make such ado about all the high words and threats in those parts and in the East-Indies and elsewhere of those employed by the East and West-India-Companies we should be able to do little else Besides those discourses are here acknowledged to have been upon the 12 of March 1661. and so long before the conclusion of the late Treaty and so upon which the Deputies cannot justifie any thing done by them since whereas this Remonstrance of Valâ—kenburgh was as abovesaid long after the conclusion of the said Treaty and so a new Breach and above all it is to be remarked that the Deputies do here confess That whatever it was that should have been said by Holmes or his order that it was immediately upon complaint as aforesaid disavowed by his Majestie as is here acknowledged page the 20. which their Lordships having represented to the King of Great Britain as well by their Letter of the 28 of July 1662 as by word of Mouth by their Ambassadours Extraordinary which were then at London His Majestie disavowed that Action of Holmes in his Answer of the 24 of August of the same year And so suppose such words had been spoken and that since the last Treaty yet they would have been so far from being to be imputed to his Majestie or to be made use of for the justifying of any Hostilities against his Subjects as that on the contrary this State had all the reason in the world to be highly satisfied with his Majesties generous and frank proceeding therein and themselves thereby so much the more condemned that when such a Remonstrance published in their Name and which a fresh breach being since the conclusion of the late Treaty and having been pressed so often and for so long time together concerning the same that yet to this day it is not disavowed by them on the contrary we are told that we ought to take it for satisfaction that
what is therein declared was not executed at once yea the Deputies will not admit that there was therein so much as an offensive word And for what is said of Selwyn's Paper page the 21. that could not have caused Valckenburgh's Remonstrance for that it was written after and in answer thereunto putting him in minde also of many outragious hostile actions done by him against the English desiring they might quietly continue in their Trade and Factories and telling him that they had more reason to bid him quit places he possessed then he them for that he did at that very time possess several places which did of Right belong to the English mentioning the same and particularly Cabo Corso and so that if they must come to dislodging that the English had more reason to expect that the Dutch should dislodge then they the English Page the 21 22 23 24. concerning the business of the King of Fantine they say first That he the said Envoy hath never produced any proofs Secondly That he doth not adde any particularities or circumstances that can give the least colour or appearance of truth thereto What he gave them was out of an Original Examination taken in the high Court of Admiralty at London and sent him by special Order of the King his Master with command to acquaint the State therewith and how is it them they are pleased to say that he hath given them no proofs or out of a meer loose Paper Nor was what he gave them as they are pleas'd to call it pag. 23. The saying of one person onely but attested also by one Dobson a principal person in those parts and what ground then or occasion for all these most injurious and reproachful terms which they are pleased upon this occasion to lavish out withal and spend a couple of leaves of paper upon such as no man would give to his Foot-man and might they not be retorted in the highest manner if one took pleasure in sullying his Mouth or Pen And as to the Second Had there indeed been no circumstances to make good the intention of such a Designe it might have passed like the Stories written to them by their Officers in the East-Indies of the designes of the English to besiege Batavia which are ridiculous in the very imagination of them But could there be more pregnant circumstances then those suggested viz. First That the Dutch did actually pay down to the Natives a sum of money for their encouragement Secondly That they did furnish them with store of Muskets and Powder from Aga which the English having notice of sent Souldiers to a certain Village thereby who de facto did surprise a part of them and bring them to Cormantine Thirdly That the West-India-Company were to block it up by Sea while attacqued by the Natives by Land and that accordingly two of their Ships were actually upon their way and come as far as Cabo Corso in order thereunto but that hearing of the failer of the designe of the Fantiners they immediately returned Page the 24 25 26 27. concerning the business of Cabo Corso they say First That it was attacqued and taken not by any rencounter that happened in those parts and which might have provoked Captain Holmes to those violences but by express Order of the King of Great Britain according to his own Confession and Declaration Secondly That the English have not pretended that Cabo Corso did belong unto them but since that they had carried their Arms thither and since that they have taken it Concerning the first he hath express and positive Orders from the King his Master to declare That his Majestie did never avow or say that he had given Orders to Holmes for the taking of that place That in his Answer of the 5th of August last given in writing to the Ambassadour of this State there is this following Clause Concerning Captain Holmes We have with great sincerity assured the said Ambassadour that he had no Commission to take Cape Verd nor any other place belonging to the Dutch or to do any act of Hostility upon any of the Subjects of the United Provinces that was not for the defence of Our Subjects and their Trade in those parts That all he ever said to the said Ambassadour concerning Cabo Corso was that he looked upon the Case as to that place to be very much differing from that of Cabo Verd and so much as that if he had given Order for the taking thereof very much might have been said for the justification thereof And to the like effect doth he the said Envoy Extraordinary speak in his Memorial That suppose his Majestie hath permitted his Subjects to endeavour to recover the possession thereof it could not be thought strange not could this State have had any just cause of Complaint or Grievance threat for the English had not onely a bare liberty of Trading or of having a Factory at that place as at several others upon that Coast but one Thomas Crispe chief Agent for the English Guiny-Company at the earnest invitation of the King of Fetu whose Land that was went thither about the end of the year 1649. and purchased the same of the said King and paid for it And after all things were concluded the Kings Officers summon'd all the Natives thereof by the beat of Drum both men women and children to a very great number and when they were all come together publike and solemn Proclamation was then and there made That the King of Fetu with the consent of his Officers and Great Men had sold the Land of Cabo Corso to him the said Crispe Whereupon the people gave several great shouts throwing the dust up into the air and cryed that that was Crispe's Land And the said Crispe is yet alive and now at London and hath by special Order of the King his Master sent to him the said Envoy the Contents hereof under his own Hand with the Testimony of others that were then in those parts and know the same to be true And some time after a party of the Natives of that Country falling upon the English House there and robbing and plundering the same and so the English retiring for the present the Swedes came thither demolished what had been there built by them and built a Fort upon the ground which the English had purchased Afterwards the Danes drove out the Swedes during the late War between those Crowns and then the Dutch got the place from the Danes And so the Dutch deriving from the Danes can have no better Title then the Danes and the Danes deriving from the Swedes can have no better Title then that of the Swedes which was onely Possession and having built upon the Land of another without their consent and so the Question is singly Whether the Land should follow the Fort or House or the House the Land and whether a Possession of so late a date can create a Title against a clear and undoubted
1660. And it is to be remarked that the Deputies in reciting page 27 the clause of his Memorial concerning Polerone wholly omit that part thereof relating to these Orders Concerning the Treaty of 1662. they say 'T was he himself that delivered to this State a Letter from the King his Master of the 22 of January 1663. in which His Majesty saith expresly That he was intirely satisfied with their procedure in this matter By the fifteenth Article of the said Treaty it was agreed That immediately after the Ratification thereof Orders should be given by the States General and the Dutch East-India-Company for the delivery of the Island of Polerone to the English East-India-Company whereupon after the Ratification thereof His Majesty wrote to the States General demanding the said Orders which being accordingly sent hence for London as His Majesty had demanded the same by Letter so He was pleased by another Letter to acknowledge the receipt thereof and that with very civil and obliging expressions well hoping that for the future all things would have gone after another manner then before the conclusion of the said Treaty And this is the Letter here mentioned nor doth it contain any more in relation to this business nor indeed could it being written not above fourteen weeks after the conclusion of the said Treaty being dated Whitehall the 22 of January 1662. Whereas the Deputies say in this their Book That it was dated the 22 of January 1663. which is above fifteen months after the conclusion of the Treaty whereby they would have it thought that this Letter had been written upon some further procedure in relation to this business and upon some advice out of the Indies concerning the same Nor will the excuse of New stile or Old stile serve the turn for if they had meant New Stile then it must have been dated the first of February 1663. and not the 22 of January 1663. And the King his Master doth by no means understand this manner of proceeding with him And now I pray doth this Letter contradict or interfere in the least with what had been said by him in his Memorial Had he therein said That they had not given Orders for the delivery thereof or more then that Yet we do not know to this day that the said place is restored And was not that then true And what ground or occasion given for them to say Page the 28 The said Envoy doth hereby make appear the wrong he doth in forming Complaints upon a matter concerning which the King himself had thanked the State Had he complained that this State had not given Orders for the restoring that place or said more then as above-said That we did not yet know that that place was restored and can any of them say yet to this day that it is restored But if he had thought he should have been taken up so short he would have added as he then could that the said Orders together with His Majesties Commission under his Great Seal of England had been actually â—endred and delivered to the Dutch Governour-General at Batavia and that he had made sport therewith as with the Orders of the year 1660. asking how he could know that piece of Wax from another piece of wax and how he could know the King's Picture and image thereupon from another with many vaunting and insolent expressions though he did acknowledge that he knew of the conclusion of the said Treaty and that thereby the said Island was to be restored and that the Orders by them presented as from the Estates General and East-India-Company were really their Orders and that they who tendred them were the Factors and Servants of the English East-India-Company and so that there could be no question but that it ought to be delivered to them And so what though His Majesties Commission should not have been kept so perfectly clean that could raise no question but it 's a signe how exact the Deputies informations concerning this matter are and what credit is to be given thereunto for that they call it a Paper Page the 28. Presenting to them a Paper that was so foul whereas it is very well known that the Broad-Seal of England is never put to Paper but to Parchment only nor do themselves alleadge that the Orders of the Estates General or Dutch East-India-Company were sullied or those of the English East-India-Company And when they had spent much time in descanting upon the Commission and Orders then the said General would have them to give an Acquittance wherein should be inserted such a Clause as was directly repugnant to the Treaty and no way in their power to signe and wherein they must in writing give thanks for the restoring of the said Island to them as if of grace and not a thing agreed by Treaty to be done and of due and which had so many years been unjustly kept from them and now to be delivered with the trees again utterly wasted and destroyed whereas at the time of its taking it was well planted and what other or further Devices may afterwards be made either there or by the Governour and Council of the Banda-Islands Time must shew we have cause to fear the worst and if it be not delivered it will appear to have been caused upon such account and not as is here suggested upon the want of Shipping or other necessaries on the side of the English for the receiving thereof though they had no great encouragement to be over-forward in providing them considering what the like Orders had cost them in the year 1660 and to what effect And whereas they say That the aforesaid Letter of the 22th of January was delivered to this State by him the said Envoy The Deputies have very much forgot themselves the said Letter was not delivered by him nor could be for that he was at that time in England nor had been in Holland some months before nor returned thither till several months after Page the 29 and 30 concerning the business of New Netherlands they argue First from the signification of the word Octroy which say they Is onely an Advantage accorded to some particular Subjects to the general exclusion of all other Subjects of the same Soveraign but which doth not at all oblige the Subjects of other Princes and States Secondly And though the Octroy or Patent which the King of England had given to his Subjects did comprehend New Netherland yet that could not give the English any Right to the Places and Lands which the Subjects of this State had possessed peaceably for fourty or fifty years and which they had occupied whilst it was deserted and uninhabited Thirdly As to what was alleadged of their endeavouring to usurp still more upon the English and to impose their Laws and Customs upon them and to raise Contributions from them They say We judge that this is a production of his Imagination and dare say that there is nothing of truth therein Fourthly That
this matter with France he did not mention that business as intermedling betwen the French and them but if at this time they have sent a Minister into France to decry the King his Master and his Affairs and to stirre up that Crown against him and particularly upon the account of his having as they pretended given Orders for the taking Cabo Corso and New Netherlands to which His Majesties Subjects have so clear and undoubted a Title Was it from the purpose for him to say that suppose His Majesty hath given such Orders can any Prince think it strange or be surprised thereat much lesse the most Christian King as the words of his Memorial seeing it hath pleased the same King that very year to Order or suffer his Subjects to repossesse themselves in the same manner by Armes and force of a certain place called Guiana which they pretend to have been unjustly possessed and detained from them by the said West-India-Company And if that were a Digression the Deputies must give him leave to make another of the like kind and to put them in mind of the late Edict whereby all the Shipping of this Country in the Havens of that Kingdom were arrested and seized upon the single account of the having seized in this Conntry two Ships belonging to the French East-India-Company and though the said Ships were built here and but newly bought and that the pretence of seizing them was the Service of the State and payment proffered and that the dispute about them had been but of a few weeks standing Pag. 32 33. concerning the business of Cabe verd and the Ships of the West-India-Company taken by Captain Holmes on the Coast of Guiny Whereas he the said Envoy had said thereto First that His Majesty had not only disavowed his having given him any Order for the doing thereof but also disowned the Acts themselves Secondly that by the 14 th Article of the late Treaty 12 Months time is given for the doing of Justice upon what should happen either by Sea or Land upon that Coast since the conclusion of the late Treaty To the First the Deputies say that His Majesty had in like manner before disavowed the taking the Fort S t Andre by the said Holmes but yet that nothing followed thereupon This is fully answered before and thereby made appear that it is to themselves and not His Majesty to whom it is to be imputed that no further Progress had been made in that matter Yet it may not be amiss since the Deputies do so often make mention of this business and make so great Outcry concerning the same to add how little the Concern of this State is therein or in what had been done concerning it For that that Fort did not belong to the West-India Company of this Country but to the Duke of Courland and that they had but lately shufled themselves into it as they do into the Possessions of every one under one pretence or other Nor were they in it upon their own account but His and under pretence to keep it for him and so that the cause of complaint was not properly by them but the said Duke and though all possible Endeavours have been since used by them to draw him to their Party they have not been able to prevail therein but the said Duke hath applyed himself to the King his Master and His Majesty and He are come to an Agreement concerning the same and the said Agreement concluded and sealed and so neither the West-India Company nor the State have any thing to do therein And whereas they say that His Majesties answer was onely in Generall Terms but that he doth not positively promise restitution and reparation could more be said by him upon the first complaint yea as is said in his Memoriall could any further answer have been expected from the meanest of their own Courts of Justice in any Case that should come before them And were it not injustice to condemne the most criminall person before he were heard or at least a competent time given for his appearance and did not His Majesty say withall that Holmes had order to return and was expected very speedily in these parts and that so soon as he should be returned he would cause the matter to be examined Justice done and the Offendors punished And however the Deputies would insinuare as if that had been but an Elusion yet did he not return accordingly and upon his arrivall was he not immediately by his Majesties speciall Order carrito the Tower of London a place where none are put for any private disputes or for any Offences but wherein the King Himselfe is concern'd in order to his examination about these Matters But whereas the Deputies would have it be believed that the said Holmes is so Monstrous a Person and that all he had done had been without any provocation It may not be amiss to give here a touch of what he doth alleadge for his own justification And First as to the Fort S t Andre he saith that comming in the year 1661 into the River of Gambia to trade there as formerly the English had done that those of the said Fort fired at him and would not permit him to pass up the said River Whereupon he fell upon them As to the business of Cabo Verde he saith that comming again upon the Coast of Africa and going to the River of Gambia near Cabo Verde he was informed that a little before his arrivall there one that was Commander of the Ship Black Eagle and an Agent for the Dutch West-India Company in those parts had stirred up and engaged the King of Barra to make War against the English and had actually joyned himself and Ship with the said Kings Forces for the compleating of his designs and this was confessed to the said Holmes by the said King of Barra as he hath to shew under the Hands of many credible Witnesses who heard the same Moreover that the said Agent had endeavoured by summes of Mony and other Rewards to corrupt the Officers of the Royall Company to deliver into his Hands for the use of the Dutch West-Indiae Company the Places and Factories then in the possession of the English in those Parts and that hath been since made good by the Oath of some of the said Officers lately taken before the Lord Mayor of London Moreover that at a certain place called Ventam he had told Captain Manuel Vasse de Fraiula Commander in Chief for the King of Portugall in the River of Gambia and Manuel Alves de Britto and divers other Portugall Merchants that they were resolved to beat out the English That hereupon he went to Cabo Verde not with design to attaque the same or commit the least Hostility against it but onely to speake with the Governour of that place and to endeavour to compose matters for the present and untill finall Order should be taken concerning the same here in Europe but comming
it is also avowed concerning him as well as Van Campen that his sending to Guiny was not upon the defensive but also to fall upon His Majesties Subjects But whereas the words are That he should fall upon onely the Authors of these violencies And Monsieur Van Benningen in his late Paper published here in Print intituled The substance of what Monsieur Van Benningen Envoye from the States General to the most Christian King had represented to him in his Audience of September 1664. saith That the States had sent a Fleet to Guiny not to attacque reciprocally the Forts Ships and Goods of the Subjects of England but to re-take that which had been unjustly taken from them Whereas no sooner was De Ruyter come into those parts but finding there 8 Merchants ships that had not been arrived there above 7 or 8 dayes before and had no hand nor share in any thing done against the People of this Countrey yet he immediately seized them broke bulk unlading them and appropriating their Cargoes to the use of the West-India Company And in stead of declaring That they would punish De Ruyter for the doing thereof he is since the coming of that News advanced from being Vice-Admiral of Amsterdam to be one of the Lieutenant Admirals of Holland And the Deputies say here We judge that there is no body that will not praise and commend the prudent conduct of this State and that excellent design that they had to cause De Ruyter to go from the Streights to Guiny Nor is there any thing said for his being designed for the Coast of Guiny onely and so he may be designed for the attacquing of His Majesties Subjects in other parts of the World as well as there And now what occasion was there for the inserting of all those calumnies and reviling expressions in the Deputies Remarks much less for the State to have owned them and stamped their Authority upon them Is there so much as one incivil or indecent word challenged in any part thereof to have been in his Memorial and doth it not now appear that there was also nothing therein but what was according to truth And can it now be doubted by any who hath been the Aggressor and the Cause of all the present Disorders between the Nations First as to what before the Treaty to say nothing of the Bonne Esperanza and Bonne Adventure and how His Majesty hath been dealt withal in relation to them that having been already Printed and Published at large As to the Lists of Damages 't was as appears near 24 moneths after the Signing of the late Treaty ere he the said Envoye could obtain the Exchange thereof and then coming to the Examination of them according to the 15 Article Whereas the English List was so soberly Penn'd that but one Exception was made thereunto The Dutch List on the other hand was so composed as that scarce an Article thereof but liable to exception And that they had excepted against in the English List was at the next Conference expunged and so the said List agreed and ready to be proceeded upon On the contrary as to the Exceptions made against theirs to this day no answer returned whereby it remains at their doors that no farther procedure hath been for the adjusting and determining those matters And as to what hath hapned since the Treaty the Hope-well Leopard Charles and James c. had not only been stopped and defeated in their Voyages before any thing attempted by Holmes but the news thereof was come into England before he went thence nor was any thing done by him upon the Coast of Africa till it plainly appeared by the stopping of every other English Ship that came upon these Coasts that what was done was not done by accidental rencounters but out of design nor till Valkenburgh had actually commanded the English out of Cabo Corso and Tacorary two of their principal Factories under a penalty of a great sum of money for every moneth that they should remain there after the said notification and this done in a Declaration wherein he deduced the Right of this State to the rest also and so that the English could not but believe that the next News must be the commanding them to quit intirely the whole Coast Yet as he saith for himself he did not go about to take upon him the revenging thereof nor had done what he did but upon immediate Attacques and Provocations upon the respective places occasioning the same and suppose it had been otherwise yet upon complaint made by this State can they say that His Majesty did by them as they did by him in the business of De Ruyter viz. give them no answer at all or such a one as they gave him in the business of the stopping the said Ships and of the said Declaration yea did he not immediately disavow what had been done by the said Holmes and declare that he had no Orders from him for the doing thereof and that so soon as possible matters could be examined he would do therein according to Justice and Reason yet contrary to the Express Letter of the 14 Article which gives a twelve Moneths time upon complaints in those parts this State within 6 or 7 weeks after complaint resolve to send a Fleet of Men of War of their own thither and within about as many weeks more put a Resolution into his Majesties hands whereby it appears that their Orders were not to be upon the Defensive only and to convoy and protect their Subjects and shipping from further injuries but to attacque and fall upon his Majesties Subjects and not some one or more of them by Name but under such general words as from the reach whereof none of them were secure and that not upon the Coast of Africa only but even here in Europe in the Channel before his own Ports And what though there had been no other Provocation but this very Resolution was not this alone enough to have warranted his Majesty to have fallen upon them both in Europe and elsewhere If any King or State send a Declaration to another King or State letting them know that they have prepared a Fleet and have actually given orders to the Commanders thereof to fall upon their Subjects and that it appears that nothing but wind and weather hinders the execution thereof suppose the said King or State to whom such intimation hath been given shall thereupon and while God Almighty by his Providence hinders the execution of the said Orders attempt something against them or their Subjects Shall not yet the other that gave the said Denunciation be looked upon as the Aggressor Yet his Majesty remained still only upon the defensive doing nothing against them yea whereas 12 Months were now expired since the Complaints made by his Majesty concerning the Charles and James c. and nothing of satisfaction given whereby the said Article upon that account was also expresly broken by them and his