signed a sum of money, in case the cause
should be decided against them; but the matter was still in dependence.
Cary who was intrusted by the proprietors with the management of the
lawsuit for the Bonaventure, had resolved to accept of thirty thousand
pounds, which were offered him; but was hindered by Downing, who told
him that the claim was a matter of state between the two nations, not a
concern of private persons.[*] These circumstances give us no favorable
idea of the justice of the English pretensions.

* Temple, vol. ii, p. 42.

Charles confined not himself to memorials and remonstrances. Sir Robert
Holmes was secretly despatched with a squadron of twenty-two ships to
the coast of Africa. He not only expelled the Dutch from Cape Corse,
to which the English had some pretensions; he likewise seized the Dutch
settlements of Cape Verde and the Isle of Goree, together with several
ships trading on that coast. And having sailed to America, he possessed
himself of Nova Belgia, since called New York; a territory which James
I. had given by patent to the earl of Stirling, but which had never
been planted but by the Hollanders. When the states complained of these
hostile measures, the king, unwilling to avow what he could not well
justify, pretended to be totally ignorant of Holmes's enterprise.
He likewise confined that admiral to the Tower; but some time after
released him.

The Dutch, finding that their applications for redress were likely to be
eluded, and that a ground of quarrel was industriously sought for by
the English, began to arm with diligence. They even exerted, with some
precipitation, an act of vigor which hastened on the rupture. Sir John
Lawson and De Ruyter had been sent with combined squadrons into the
Mediterranean, in order to chastise the piratical states on the coast
of Barbary; and the time of their separation and return was now
approaching. The states secretly despatched orders to De Ruyter, that
he should take in provisions at Cadiz; and sailing towards the coast of
Guinea, should retaliate on the English, and put the Dutch in possession
of those settlements whence Holmes had expelled them. De Ruyter, having
a considerable force on board, met with no opposition in Guinea.

All the new acquisitions of the English, except Cape Corse were
recovered from them. They were even dispossessed of some old
settlements. Such of their ships as fell into his hands were seized by
De Ruyter. That adm