DOMINIUM MARIS 79 
absolutely forborne than demanded in this matter.” The 
admiral, indeed, was weary of a command where his hands 
were tied, and where, as he complained, he could “neither 
do service nor gain credit.” ‘No man,” he writes to his 
friend Sir Thomas Roe, ‘“‘ was ever more desirous of a charge 
than I am to be quit of mine.” ! 
The king himself, though still unwilling to adopt measures 
of force, was much vexed at the situation and was extremely 
anxious that the real facts of the case should not become 
public. Hence Secretary Windebank, on August 10th, writes 
to a certain Captain Fogg telling him exactly what the 
version of the case for the public is to be. “‘ There has 
been a report raised that the Hollanders have refused his 
Majesty’s licenses to fish, offered them by Captain Fielding, 
But it is utterly mistaken. Captain Fielding was sent to 
the busses to offer them protection, his Majesty having under- 
stood that the Dunkirkers had prepared a great strength 
to intercept them on their return,? which his Majesty, in 
love to them, sent Captain Fielding to give them notice of, 
and to offer them safe conduct. This you are publicly to 
avow whensoever there shall be occasion, and to cry down 
the other discourse as derogatory to his Majesty’s honour.” ® 
Similar instructions were sent to Northumberland; the 
story of the refusal of the licenses was to be cried down, 
“‘ and the other to be avowed and reported through the whole 
fleet.”’ + Fogg’s answer was brief, but showed that he had 
fully understood the full import of his instructions. In 
blunt sailor fashion he answered, ‘‘ Touching the false report 
1Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. I., vol. 365, No. 28. 
2 Fielding reported having on 2lst July, off Buchan Ness, seen one 
States man-of-war engaging thirteen Dunkirkers. Before he came within 
shot the States man-of-war sank. The States had twenty-three men- 
of-war there, ‘“‘ but no more then fifteen stood with the Dunkirkers, the 
rest kept by the busses’”’ (Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. I., vol. 364, No. 45). 
3 Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. I., vol. 365, No. 51. 
4 Ibid. vol. 365, No. 53. 
