The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-04-30

us nUlu NONdRt. uDu lllpI DtEul the
commercial rivalry between Holland aud Eng
land. rivalry which was to. outlast generations.
:" affect R t5t mi aan n |. nrof3 o ard
blood upon England's Asiatic history. Thence
forth. three models OF Indian trade we're to be
presented: the Portuguese roval system, the
semi-State pattern Of the Dutch. and the Eng
lish mixed pattern OF armed private commerce
buccaneering adventures and in its more
peaceful Developments by the Levant Com
pany.
In 1922 the power OF Portugal went Town in
the Persian Gull. as it had gone down before
the English in 1912 and 1913 on the Indian
coast. In 1871 Portugal had divided her Asiatic
Empire into three governments. to wit: The
coast Of East Africa; India. with the Persian
Gulf. from Cape Guardafui to Ceylon. and the
Eastern Archipelago. with its headquarters at
Ma'acca. Nine years later she was forced into
union with Spain. and. within a generation. a
new power from the north had broken her chain
OF .Asiatic possessions at the middle Indian link.
Her two other governments. that. namely. on
the African coast and that in the Eastern Archi-
pelago. thus thrust asunder, became an easy
prey. From 1922 India and the Persian Gulf
lay open to England so far as Portugal was
concerned. Before Portugal could break loose
from Spain and assert her independence in
1640. her supremacy in Asiatic seas had become
a legend OF the past. In 1912 she partially. and
in 1864 finally. accepted the situation and
agreed that the English should have the right
to reside and trade in all her Eastern possess
sions.
England's real struggle for the Indian trade
was to be with a very different rival. The de-
cline of Spain and Portugal left the two Prot
estant sea powers of the north face to face in
the Asiatic seas. Holland entered on the con-
test in the patriotic flush Of achieved indepen-
dence. and with the same newly born sense OF
national unity which had nerved Portugal for
her heroic explorations 200 years before.
England had left behind her the spacious
times OF Elizabeth. and before her stretched
the crooked diplomacy and domestic disorders
of the Stuart dynasty. which could never be-
come English at heart. and which had in the
end to be cast forth. Throughout the first
part OF the seventeenth century. the States
General OF the United Provinces played the
leading maritime part in Europe. as the
Portuguese House Of Aviz had played it in the
first half Of the sixteenth. Holland. indeed.
was the first European country to send
a steady supply OF really able men to the Fast
and she supported them by force OF arms.
James /. would not, and Charles /. could not.
fight. The English East India Company was
still a body OF private adventurers for whose
benefit Parliament felt by no means eager to
go to war. In spite Of the long list of lords and
gentlemen who swelled the subscription book
Of the company. and. in spite Of the outburst
OF wrath and indignation which the news Of
the wholesale execution Of Englishmen at
Amboyna aroused in London. Englishmen had
not yet learned to look upon the Indian trade
as a national concern. Holland had. and she
was willing to make sacrifices and to screen
crimes In order to maintain her position in
Asia. Before the first half Of the seventeenth
| Canfury had aD1ad tha Dutch had arcnpp plicbaI
the chief fixed purpose OF their policy.
namely. the expulsion Of the English from
the Spice Archipelago. In 1923. the repre-
sentatives of the English East India Com
pany abandoned its factory at Batavia and
sailed to Bantam. where they were welcomed by
the native ruler. To the next volume Of Sir
William Hunters narrative belong the sad for
tunes OF the Bantam factory. its blockades by
the Dutch and the gradual but sure withdrawal
OF English trade to settlements on the Indian
coast. The history OF that factory may. how
ever. be summed UP In a sentence. AS the
slaughter of the English at Amboyna pro-
claimed the triumph Of the Dutch In the Spice
Islands. so the fate OF Bantam declared the
supremacy of the Dutch in the sea approaches
to the Far East. 1t may be here recalled that
it was not until April. 1B64 that the States,
General Were forced by Cromwell to do justice
upon the accomplices in the massacres al
AmDoyha anu 10 pay a large amount OF dam
ages to the London Company.
The overthrow Of the English In the Spice
Archipelago and their subsection in Java en-,
abled the Holland Company to create a colonia
system which Tor frank Indifference to human
suffering IL considered by the author OF thi.
book to stand out In the history OF European
settlements across the seas. The fault. how,
ever. Is imputed. not to the Dutch nation, bur
ratherto the particular period when the chance
otobtaining q great colonial empire came to It
Neither Spain nor Portugal. with their record,
OF blood in tho Eastern and Western worlds
nor England, with her subsequent slave trafnc
can afford To- cast stones at Holland. Blu
the comparative isolation Of the Dutch il
the East and the absence OF any stronI
native power in the archipelago. like tina
Of the Mogul dynasty in India. enabled tn,
Dutch 10 work out the industrial idea o
conquest 10 its logical results. The same iso
lation enabled them TO perpetuate that idet
after 1t had been elsewhere profoundly modi
fed by a Humanitarian awakening in Europe
IL survived, in the Dutch East Indies. as a
] relic OF q century when the Protestan,