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 them again he would hang every man of them from the yard-arm. The Dutch authorities at Jakatra as soon as they heard of the capture sent a vigorous letter of protest. When it was handed to Dale he "only scolded, stamped on the ground, swore, cursed (and asked) why the letter was written in Dutch and not in French, Spanish or any other language if we (the Dutch) didn't like to write English."

He finally told the messenger that he would take the reply to Coen himself, "swearing and cursing that he would take all he could get."

The Dutch retaliated for the capture of the Zwarte Leeuw by burning the English factory at Jakatra. Dale wanted to cap this by destroying the Dutch factory at Bantam, but the native authorities interposed and safeguarded it from attack by occupying it with a strong guard.

Dale fumed and fretted over the restraint, but he eventually reconciled himself to the situation in view of the prospect that lay before him of exacting a full measure of retaliation at Jakatra. Collecting all available forces, towards the end of December he descended like an avenging torrent on the Dutch headquarters. His arrival was awaited with extreme anxiety by the Dutch. In the days which had elapsed since they first received news of his expedition there had been frequent and earnest consultations as to the plan of defence. The Dutch weakness was that they were to a certain extent between two fires, as the moment the English attacked on one side it was practically certain that the Javanese would attack on the other. With many misgivings the council ultimately decided to withdraw most of the men from the shore to the ships and to contest the issue solely on the sea. In this way it was calculated that the conditions of the fight would