470 THE HISTORY OF DUTCH SEA FISHERIES. 



of the Dutch were in the meantime secretly settled by 

 order of the States, stands as a proof of their anxiety at the 

 time to conciliate England as far as it might be done 

 without serious injury to Dutch interests. 



The fresh Dutch Embassy, which sailed for England on 

 December 8th, 1621, carried instructions which, as regards 

 the matter of fisheries, amounted to an order to tergiversate 

 as much as feasible. The king treated them to such 

 language as might be expected from an aged and querulous 

 invalid feeling wronged and aggrieved in one of his 

 favourite pretensions ; and in consequence of the tergiver- 

 sating policy adopted, the Greenland and the herring 

 fishery questions as well as the British claims for damages 

 were as unsettled as ever when the ambassadors left 

 England in February, 1623. 



The States, who at the time had good reasons of general 

 policy to avoid any rupture with England, towards the 

 opening of the herring season issued orders for Dutch 

 herring boats to refrain from approaching too near the 

 British coast,* as, indeed, it had been tacitly understood 

 for years that they were to keep out of sight of that 

 coast. The damages question, however, remained un- 

 settled, and the Dutch fished off Greenland and Spitzbergcn,. 

 as well as in the North Sea, by the king's tacit ac- 

 quiescence and without any agreement as to their rights to 

 either. The demise of James I. and the Anglo-Dutch 

 Alliance of 1625 made it possible to continue matters in 

 this state without any serious collision, although the 

 ancient rivalry between the nations continued, and petty 

 claims and disputes occurred even in this period, in the 

 causes of which there is reason to believe the misconduct of 

 Dutch fishermen had a fair share. The publication or 

 * Res. St. Gen. June I2th, 1623. 



