56 The West India Company and the Walloons. 



sovereign power given by the different sections of the charter, may well 

 lead us to believe that trade and commerce were not the sole objects 

 in view in the formation of the company; and this belief is strength- 

 ened by one of the sections of the charter, which provides for a strong 

 and well-armed fleet of vessels — partly furnished by the States General 

 and partly furnished by the company — which would be very much 

 more than adequate for the simple protection of commerce and trade; 

 and by another section, which enacts the disposition to be made of 

 prizes taken from enemies and pirates, which were to be under the 

 control of the managers of the company, and of which the account was 

 to be kept separate and apart from the account of trade and commerce. 

 It is very true that the section was ordained to apply only in case of a 

 war; but if war was likely to follow, or rather if peace should be de- 

 layed because of the formation of the company, then it must be con- 

 ceded that the States General had put themselves on a first-class war 

 footing, and were in position to reap all the benefits that could be de- 

 rived from an armed naval force patrolling the seas. 



And that was just exactly one of the objects in forming the company, 

 if not the sole object; at least all others were incidental and subject to 

 this. And Spain, the old enemy of the Netherlands, was the country 

 to be made to suffer, and the riches she carried in her vessels were to 

 be forcibly seized and appropriated; for their long study of the weak 

 points of the Spanish empire had taught the Dutch that on the seas, 

 they were more than her equal, and that by destroying her commerce 

 they might compel her to submit to their conditions of peace. The 

 scheme to form such a company, was first broached to the States Gen- 

 eral in 1592, by William Usselinx, a native of Belgium and a merchant 

 of Antwerp, who was compelled by religious troubles, for which Spain 

 was responsible, to leave his native country and seek refuge in Holland. 

 His hatred of Spain was most intense; he never seems to forget how 

 much he had to suffer through her; and in all his writings in the fur- 

 therance of this scheme, he is continually pressing the point of the 

 great importance to Holland of the West India commerce, and that if 

 peace negotiations were entered into with Spain, the States General 

 must by all means preserve their freedom of trading to America. 



But it was more than twenty-five years before this scheme could be 

 consummated. Holland had plans of union to effect, and the proposi- 

 tion met with most determined opposers. Alva had been defeated; 

 and after the negotiations with Philip had dragged along to no purpose, 

 Holland and Zealand drew up articles of union and an ordinance for 

 their joint government, under William, Prince of Orange. But with- 



