Page:History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce (Volume 2).djvu/180

 of the Moghul, to Ferando in Japan, and to Bantam and Batana, in Java. They also carried on trading operations, to a greater or less extent, with Borneo, Banda, Malacca, Siam, Celebes, and the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel.

So prosperous had their affairs now become, that in 1617, when the stock of the Company had reached a premium of two hundred and three per cent., the Dutch East India Company were induced to suggest an amalgamation of the two companies, with a view to crush their common enemy, the Portuguese, and to exclude all other shipping from obtaining a footing in India. Though this scheme was never carried into effect, the two companies concluded, in 1619, a treaty of trade and friendship, whereby they should cease from rivalry, and apportion the profits of the different branches of commerce between them. But the treaty, like most others of a similar character, was made only to be broken, and in the course of the following year the Dutch governor-general really, though erroneously, under the impression that the English had gained undue advantages, attacked their possessions of Lantore and Pulo-Penang. A long series of hostile acts ensued, including the massacre of various Englishmen by the Dutch in Amboyna, and numerous conflicts between the merchant vessels of both countries, resulting in the exclusion of the English from the valuable trade of the Archipelago, and in losses most disastrous to the Company.