THE PEACE NEGOTIATIONS 437 



to the fleet, Vice- Admiral Lawson encountered the " bellicose " 

 De With oil' the north coast of Scotland. The Dutch admiral 

 with three men-of-war was convoying seventy sail bound for 

 Greenland, and he at once struck his flag and fired a salute, 

 which the English returned. He also " submitted to a search," 

 though stating that it was not customary for men-of-war to 

 do so. " De With," wrote Lawson, " begins to know his duty, 

 being very submissive, acknowledging the sovereignty of Eng- 

 land in the seas, and yielding as much as could have been 

 required of any merchant ships." 1 



In the south the Dutch were not always so compliant, and 

 disputes with the English officers sometimes arose as to whether 

 the place where the striking of the flag was demanded was or 

 was not within the British seas. Thus, Captain Cockraine, in 

 the Old Warwick, met a fleet of Holland merchantmen under 

 convoy of a man-of-war between the Lizard and Ushant. 

 The merchant vessels struck their top-sails, but the man-of-war 

 refused to strike, on the ground that he was not in the British 

 but in the Spanish seas. Cockraine refrained from firing, as 

 the ship was surrounded by others and there was "much 

 wind." Instead, he wrote to the Admiralty. "I want to 

 know," he said, "how far is intended by the British Seas, 

 and how far our power reaches, so that we may make no 

 unnecessary broils." There is nothing to show what answer 

 he got; but a week later he encountered twenty-six Dutch 

 merchant vessels bound for the Mediterranean, who refused 

 to strike, and he had to fire thirty guns among them before 

 they submitted. 2 About the same time, a States' man-of-war 

 convoying a fleet of Hollander merchantmen met Captain 

 Heaton, in the Sapphire, and did not strike until a shot 

 was fired. Heaton sent a message to the commander saying 

 that he had not fulfilled the articles of peace, and that the 

 keeping of his flag and top-sail aloft when within shot of 

 one of the ships of the State of England was a great abuse, 

 and a gross affront by the States of Holland to the Common- 

 wealth. To which the Dutch captain replied that if he had shot 

 back at the Sapphire he would have been quite justified, as, 



1 Lawson, from the Fairfax, at Aberdeen, to the Admiralty Committee, 13th 

 May 1654. Same to Blackburn, 13th May. State Papers, Dom., Ixxi. 78, 79. 



2 Cockraine to the Admiralty Committee, llth Aug. 1654. Ibid., Ixxiv. 39. 



