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 at this juncture by freeing their hands for the attack on their rivals gave them an additional advantage of no unimportant kind.

It is impossible that Courthope could have been ignorant of the enormous risks he was taking in declining the accommodation offered by the Dutch. His excellent secret service, supplied by the islanders whose prows enabled them to keep up communications with the inhabitants of the other islands of the group in spite of the Dutch, kept him informed of every move on the enemy's side. He had, besides, more direct sources of information in the deserters who from time to time came over to him from one or other of the Dutch ports. Knowing all he might without any reflection upon his courage have walked the golden bridge which Reaal essayed to build for him. But his heart was in this struggle which he felt he was waging for the honour of his country, and he resolutely put behind him the suggestion that he should abandon his post on any terms which would make difficult the future revival of English rights to a share in the trade. He confidently calculated that when his need was known to his superiors adequate assistance would be sent him to enable him to make good the foothold which he had secured in the islands with so much trouble and cost. In this he was not altogether wrong, as the sequel will show, but neither he nor his principals had taken adequate measure of the strength of the Dutch position and of the tenacity of their resolve to keep their monopoly intact.

Reaal, on his return to the Dutch headquarters at Jakatra, the modern Batavia, in a proclamation issued in November, 1617, fulminated in strong language against the attempts that were being made to subvert the Dutch