104 CHARLES II. 
attention to the fact that in another point Mr. King was 
defrauding the company, since upon the collection of a cer- 
tain sum of £115, he was awarding himself the dispropor- 
tionate amount of £47, “ which,’ he remarks, “is after 
the rate of 8s. per pound and more.” Finally, in order 
that the whole matter of the collection might be placed 
upon a business footing, Pepys suggested that both the 
Earl of Pembroke and Mr. King should be compelled to give 
in an exact return of the money received by them, and this 
particularly with regard to the amounts collected in London, 
since no account had been rendered of a great part of the 
contributions from the metropolis.” 1 Pepys seems to have 
been much gratified by the reception of his report on this 
occasion. In his Diary for October 25th, 1664, he writes, 
“To the Committee of the Fishery, and there did make my 
report of the late public collections for the Fishery, much to 
the satisfaction of the Committee, and I think much to my 
reputation, for good notice was taken of it and much it was 
commended.” Again on November Ist of the same year his 
entry reads, ‘‘ My report in the business of the collections is 
mightily commended and will get me some reputation, and 
indeed is the only thing looks like a thing well done since 
we sat.” 
The Society, however, was too much perturbed by the 
outbreak of war with Holland to have any mind to inquire 
into the manner in which its affairs had been conducted. 
The Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, immediately upon the 
declaration of war in 1664, had acted with his customary 
energy, his first efforts being directed against the English 
possessions on the West Coast of Africa, where he was 
uniformly successful. The year thus closed with but a 
gloomy outlook for the English merchants and particularly 
for those of them who were connected with the fishing industry, 
since they knew that whether the English were ultimately 
1Cal. S.P. Dom. Car. II., vol. 103, No. 130. 
