Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/126

 92 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO vember the Dutch commissioners were accredited— six on behalf of the Dutch East India Company, and four on behalf of the States-General with the Dutch ambas- sador at their head. The two questions to be settled were compensation for past injuries and a fair arrangement for the future. The Dutch commissioners proved able diplomatists, " very subtle and cunning " as they seemed to our plain city men. At the very first meeting they took up a firm stand against " reparation of damage," and by January 27, 1619, they were sending for men-of-war to carry them home. When Lord Digby patched up the breach, things again came to a stand in April, as the Hollanders, while demanding that the English Company should share the charges of the Dutch fortresses in the East, refused to allow it any share in their control. The king himself now intervened, declaring that " in a matter that so nearly and highly concerns the weal of both countries, his Majesty will neither spare any travail to effect it, nor be in anything more partial to either side than if they were both his own subjects." The king's eagerness constrained the London Com- pany to come to terms. In July, 1619, was concluded a treaty which yielded the main points to the Holland- ers and proved from the first unworkable by the Eng- lish. The London Company obtained no compensation for past injuries, reckoned at £100,000 during a single year, and no share in the control of the Dutch fortifi- cations to whose cost they were to contribute. The treaty, after granting an amnesty for all excesses on