Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/94

 64 THE STRUGGLE FOR THE EASTERN ARCHIPELAGO of the Tagus itself. They shut up that river by a great expedition, to which the Dutch East India Company largely contributed, and in April, 1607, they totally destroyed the Spanish fleet in Gibraltar Bay. In the furthermost East, the Dutch wrenched the fairest isles of the Moluccas from the Portuguese, and although partially expelled for a time, they returned in force, A BIBD'S-EYE VIEW OF BANTAM. gradually completed the conquest, and ousted the Por- tuguese trade even in Japan. The exclusive possession of the Spice Islands be- came a fixed point in the Dutch policy. The instruc- tions to their first governor-general, Pieter Both (1609 - 1614), were that " the commerce of the Moluccas, Am- boyna, and Banda should belong to the Company, and that no other nation in the world should have the least part." Throughout their long negotiations with Eng- land, they never yielded their sovereign rights in the Spice Islands. Having thus struck at Spain at the two extremities