Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/204

 160 THE END OF THE STRUGGLE his first object, and of far more consequence, he de- clared, than the buying of cloths and goods. This object he proposed to accomplish by three dis- tinct methods: the enslavement of conquered islands, the purchase of slaves from the African and Asiatic continents, and the seizure of slaves on their coasts. The first method needs but the single comment, that it went much further than the subjection of the native races enforced by the Portuguese. As regards the second, orders for the buying of slaves had been given in 1614; Coen resolved to carry them out on a large scale. " Divers fleets " were now to be sent to the Coromandel coast, to Madagascar, and to the Afri- can seaboard, to purchase as many slaves, especially young people, as could be got. This buying of slaves was to go forward before any other work, to the extent of " many thousands, yea, to an infinite num- ber." The third method, by seizure, was to be conducted by a squadron on the Chinese coast. The shore-dwell- ers, especially the women and children, were to be car- ried away for the peopling of Batavia, Amboyna, and Banda. " Herein will be a great service done for the Company, and by this means will be found all the charge of the war." The Chinese slaves might be redeemed for sixty reals (£13 10s.) apiece. " But by no means you must not suffer any women to return to China, or any other part out of the Company's juris- diction, but with them to people the same." As the Dutch supremacy firmly established itself, a fourth sys-