This peculiar condition was not, however, due to any flagging of interest in their American possessions on the part of the Dutch government, but was an incident of a well-considered political programme which was kept in abeyance because of the circumstances of the time, to be launched in the fullness of events. The twelve years' truce between Holland and Spain, signed in 1609, was now drawing to its close. The question of the continuance of peace or the resumption of war was still a doubtful one, contingent

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upon the ultimate disposition of Spain, for the people of the Netherlands were resolved in no case to accept anything but absolute independence. In the eventuality of war it would become a particularly important part of Dutch policy not merely to provide for the protection of the new provinces in America and their prospective inhabitants, but to cope with the formidable Spanish maritime power in American waters, and as far as possible prey upon the rich commerce of Spain with that quarter of the globe and even wrest territory from her there. To this end it was more than idle to consider the rechartering of a weak aggregation of skippers and their financial sponsors as the sole delegate and upholder of the dignity and strength of the republic in the western seas. If hostilities were to be renewed it would be indispensable to institute an organization in connection with New Netherland powerful enough to encounter the fleets of Spain on at