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 such circumstances as to leave him no alternative but to comply with the mandate. David Middleton in 1610 had a like experience when he attempted to trade with Banda, one of the principal islands of the group.

At last the English Company's eyes were opened to the full significance of the claims made by the Dutch. In their indignation they appealed to the Government through the Lord Treasurer for redress of their "notorious injuries." The response came somewhat later in the appointment of Joint Commissioners by England and Holland to consider the points in dispute. The conference, which was held in London in 1613, sat for two months without result and was then dissolved on the understanding that the matters should be reconsidered later.

Meanwhile, another effort was being made to penetrate the monopolistic wall which the Dutch had raised in the Moluccas. Jourdain, whose acquaintance the reader has made in a previous chapter, early in 1613 proceeded from Bantam to the Moluccas in the Darling. The natives who had had a taste of the cruel mercies of the Dutch, everywhere he touched received him with enthusiasm, but he had not been long in the islands before he received from Steven Coteels, the Dutch Resident at Amboina, a warning not to trade with the natives in spices, on the ground that to do so would be to infringe Dutch rights. Later on this was endorsed in peremptory terms in a letter sent by Coteel's superior, the Governor of Amboina.

Jourdain, who was of the true bull-dog type of commander which the Company's service seemed to breed, forwarded a defiant message in reply, asserting that the trade of the islands was free to all men, stating that he knew of no contracts with the natives, and declaring that even if