an expedition under Admiral Van Caerden, who had distinguished himself in the East India service, but who had recently been sent to the east coasts of South America, should have been heard from.1

Another circumstance, too, made public men in Holland hesitate to entertain schemes of conquest in American waters. In

the year 1599 Admiral Peter Van der Does, son of the illustrious defender of Leyden and first curator of her University, was despatched with a powerful fleet of over seventy ships of war to make a descent upon the Spanish possessions in South America and the West Indies. The Admiral resolved to pause on his way and harass or conquer whatever other of Spain's islands or colonies he might meet with. Thus

the Canaries were attacked and various towns taken or burned. On reaching the island of St. Thomas, off the coast of Guinea, and exactly on the equator, he made an attack on it, which was entirely successful. But in an evil hour he decided that it would be to the advantage

1 Professor Otto van Rees, in "Geschiedenis der Staathuishoudkunde in Nederland" (2 vols., Utrecht, 1865-68), 2: 77, mentions that great quantities of brick and lime were shipped with

this expedition for the purpose of building a fort in Brazil! Towards the end of 1605 it returned without accomplishing this, or anything else.

of his enterprise to tarry here for a while, in order to refit, thus to be in a better condition to undertake a descent on Brazil. The excessive heat brought on the yellow fever, to which the Admiral himself succumbed. A hasty departure did not meet with the expected result, for the pestilence continued to rage on board the ships, and more than a thousand men perished while they were in mid-ocean. Under these circumstances the design against Brazil was abandoned, and but a feeble demonstration was made against one or two islands in the Caribbean Sea. In February, 1600, the disheartened remnant of the fleet returned to the fatherland, and the incident is only of importance to us because for many years it served the opponents of the West India Company as a potent argument, and contributed largely to delay its erection.1

Notwithstanding this powerful weapon wielded against him, and the fact that the Van Caerden expedition proved equally unsuccessful, Usselinx went on urging his project, now fairly launched, upon the magistrates and merchants of the Dutch metropolis. He was enthusiastically seconded in these endeavors by those "learned and keensighted patriots" of whom Van Meteren wrote, and whom he now mentions by name. Among these was none other than the Rev. Petrus Plancius, who was largely instrumental in furthering the voyages to the North Pole, and who later became the counselor of Henry Hudson. Another efficient co-laborer was François Francken, a member of the High Council of State. Through the influence at the command of these personages, such a pressure was brought to bear upon the Amsterdam Municipality as to secure their favorable attention to the scheme of Usselinx. Their deputies were accordingly directed to introduce the matter before the States of Holland, and in the summer of 1606 it was first discussed there.

But Usselinx had not confined his efforts to Amsterdam alone; Zeeland, the "Sea-Beggar" Province, was a fair and promising field for his purposes, and while he left Plancius and Francken to carry on the work in the commercial capital of Holland, he himself succeeded in interesting influential men in Middelburg. As a consequence, the States of Zeeland appointed a committee of three, of whom Usselinx himself was one, to meet a number of gentlemen from various cities of Holland, who had evidently been appointed a committee on the subject by the States of Holland, after their discussion of it. There were eight representatives from Amsterdam; Dordrecht, Delft, and Rotterdam were each represented by three; Haarlem and Leyden, each by two; and seven other cities, each by one; these with the three from Zeeland constituted, therefore, the rather large committee of thirty-one members. They were charged with the duty of

1 Van Kampen, Nederl. b. Eur., 1: 170, 171.

drafting a patent, or "license," -vergunning, Van Meteren calls it, which is the Dutch for license,—or charter, for a West India Company, and they assembled and addressed themselves to this task in October, 1606. The committee proved to be prompt, for, as we are told by Usselinx himself, he furnished as a basis for its labors a draft previously prepared, which only needed to be modified, and on November 1st its report was recorded on the minutes of the States of Holland. The members of the legislature were thereupon directed to communicate for instructions with the magistrates of their respective cities. This having been done, from the 5th to the 21st of December the subject was again under debate in the assembly; the discussion was resumed in March, 1607, and was then continued into July.

A comparison of this original draft with the charter as actually granted in 1621 reveals the interesting circumstance that the latter document was almost identical with it. The two varied only in these particulars: the draft proposed that the privileges of exclusive trade to America and Africa be extended for a period of thirty-six years; the charter made the term twenty-four years;-the draft arranged for four chambers of direction, with a division in the amount of capital to be managed by each, proportioned to such number; the charter provided for five chambers, one being given to the Province of Friesland, the people of that section of the Republic having bitterly resented not having a share in the government of the East India Company; — the draft proposed a central or executive board of seventeen members; the charter, as is well known, called for a board of nineteen, who became historic under the title of the "Assembly of the XIX." These variations, it will be seen, are really trivial in view of the fact that all the more important and essential provisions in the two documents 2 are practically identical.

The members of the provincial legislature of Holland had thus before them in 1606 and 1607 substantially the same points for discussion-that is, the same questions regarding the privileges to be conceded to the proposed West India Company-that were finally laid before the States-General. It was highly important that the measure should pass this lower body; for, as has been intimated above, such a project would not to much purpose come before the general legislature unless it had the indorsement of the States of Holland. The wealth and population of this province were so preponderating as compared with the other six of the United Netherlands, that she

1 Asher's Bib. and Hist. Essay, etc., p. 46. “1606 -Nov. 1. The draft-patent (concept octroy) is presented to the assembly of the States."

2 Even this draft must have been the result of a serious modification of the one which Usselinx laid before the committee in October, 1606, for he

claims that his own propositions were materially different, not only from those contained in the Charter of 1621, but even from those of the draft of 1606. (Prof. Jameson, Amer. Hist. Ass. Papers, 2:209; also Van Rees, Staathuishoudkunde, 2:79.)

practically determined the course of legislation in affairs of great import, and especially where they affected the commerce of the country. Before her "States," all the proposed charters for mercantile associations naturally came, or certainly as a matter of fact did come first, because very nearly all the capital for these proceeded from the merchants living within her bounds. And now, assembled in their spacious hall, they had before them a measure that rivaled in importance the formation of the great East India Company. The place where a discussion occurred that was to affect so vitally our portion of the globe cannot be without interest to us. The Hall of the "States

of Holland and West Friesland" was situated upon the famous Binnenhof at the Hague, constituting a part of the continuous line of buildings on its northern side. Those which contained the Departments of the General Government, already described, were east of it; the Stadholder's residence adjoined it immediately to the west. While the States-General ordinarily met in a small room, with only three windows obtaining an imperfect light in a somewhat narrow

1 This was the full title, but it designated only the then province of Holland, now divided into two, South Holland and North Holland. The latter before the fourteenth century formed part of the country of the Frisians; but when the inundation of 1347 created the great gulf of the Zuyder

Zee, the western part of Friesland became the northern of Holland. While the whole of Holland was one homogeneous province at the time of the Republic, the political title retained a reference to the original condition of the northern portion.

angle of the historic square, the lofty, vaulted Hall of the States of Holland opened with five high and broad windows upon the "Vyver,"1 and there hung around its four walls a gorgeous tapestry, representing persons in the costumes of different nations apparently listening to the debates and leaning over a balustrade.

2

The project of the West India Company halted at its second stage as it had at its first before the municipality of Amsterdam. The approval or indorsement of the States of Holland could not be secured for it. In the first place the monopoly of the salt-trade, which it was proposed to reserve to the chartered Company, proved a subject for sharp contention. The cities of Hoorn and Enkhuysen, the principal headquarters of the great Dutch herring-fishery, objected to interference with the freedom of this trade, as immense quantities of salt were used here for preserving the herring. Then, again, the commercial rivalry between the various cities of the province, "who each wished to secure for itself the fitting out of the fleets, was so great," Wagenaar plainly but quaintly asserts, "that all too readily a spoke was put in the wheel." Thus the progress of the work was interfered with; in fact, for the present the scheme was practically defeated and the charter left in abeyance. It had passed, however, by a majority of the legislature; but in the legislative assemblies of the United Netherlands, where no action could be taken except with unanimous consent, minorities were more powerful, if they were obstinate, than majorities. The next year renewed endeavors were made to bring the recalcitrant cities into harmony with the majority. But now a greater affair than even the charter for a colossal trading association was in the birth. The peace negotiations, resulting in the Twelve Years' Truce of 1609, were fairly under way, putting an entirely dif ferent aspect upon the expediency of the aims and purposes which had commended the erection of the West India Company. All discussion of the "concept-octroy" in the legislature of Holland Province ceased, and the matter failed to be referred to the States-General.

There now intervenes that period of twelve years of outward peace, when the contentions of hostile armies had come to a pause, but when instead an internecine political conflict arose, equally sharp and bitter, and stained finally with the blood of the Republic's best and ablest statesman, the friend of William the Silent, the only man who could rise to the height and compass the breadth of that patriot's conceptions. This disheartening episode has been treated more in detail above; it is alluded to here only to say that no small part in the agitations of this period was borne by the advocates of the West India Company.

1 See illustration, page 87. To-day this Hall is occupied by the "First Chamber," or Upper House, of the States-General of the Kingdom.

2 Vaderl. Hist., 9: 230; Asher, Bibl. and Hist. Essay, p. 46.