Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/108

 78 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO serted, saw her hoped-for peace with Spain dwindle to the Twelve Years' Truce of 1609, leaving the menace of a Spanish war on its expiration, and a resentment against England for a century to come. The Dutch in the East took prompt measures to deal with the situation. If England proved so faint a friend in Europe, the Archipelago was to become a place of little ease for the English Company. Scarcely had the Spanish truce of 1609 given Holland a breathing- pause than she resolved to consolidate her Asiatic settlements A GUN FROM THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. under a firm local control. The Council of Seventeen nominated Pieter Both, a man of great ability, to the charge of the Company's factories, and in November, 1609, the States-General commissioned him with exten- sive powers as the first governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Pieter Both justified their confidence. He had proved his capacity as admiral of the Brabant Company's expedition in 1599 - 1601, and his initial duty in his new high office was to take an oath of fidel- ity of the Dutch servants in the East to the States-Gen- eral and the United Company. He sailed as governor-general with a fleet of eight ships in January, 1610, and after months of storm ar-