Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/143

 THE ANGLO -DUTCH ALLIANCE A FAILURE 105 The last condition was one which the English Com- pany could not fulfil. Coen knew this and foresaw that its nonfulfilment would leave him a free hand. While he therefore made fair arrangements for the joint Coun- cil of Defence on shore, for the mutual command of the fleet, and for carrying the two national flags at the mainmast every alternate fortnight, a guarded or even hostile attitude to the English was enjoined on the outlying Dutch settlements. The truth is the two Companies had widely different interests in the main business of defence. The Dutch truce with Spain was about to expire (1621), and Hol- land resolved to break the Spanish-Portuguese power in the East as a preparation for the inevitable Euro- pean war. The English were by no means so anxious to attack the Spaniards, with whom they were ostensi- bly at peace, and whom they believed they could under- sell in an open market by the fair rivalry of trade. After several joint expeditions, the English failed to supply their quota of ships, but offered to pay half the naval expenses. Then they withdrew more openly, and after bitter recriminations the Dutch declared that the English " have neither law nor justice . . . the knife of the one [alone] keeps the knife of the other in the sheath/ ' The English replied that the Dutch used the alliance for their own ends, and that the treaty was for a fleet of defence and not for conquest. In 1623 they declined to join in a third -expedition against the Spanish Manilas and their ships separated from the Dutch alike in Java and the Moluccas.