And whereas the present statement was made up at the time of the Portuguese rebellion in Brazil, in the lowest condition of that conquest, your High Mightinesses' Commissioners also requested of the Accountants the statement of the Company's receipts and expenditure in Brazil, previous to the rebellion, in order to ascertain whether, in case of the re-establishment of Brazil, means are to be found for the support of the Military, which are needed for the preservation of that conquest, and the annexed statement No. 2, was delivered in by the Accountants. It appears therefrom, that the public expenses for the re-establishment of Brazil were not incurred in vain ; especially as that statement does not include considerable returns yet to arrive from Angola, Guinea, and St. Thomas, if these coasts are properly traded. Besides that, the Provinces have no better guarantee for the maintenance of peace with the King of Spain, than in the preservatipn of the conquests in Brazil because, from that point can ;

be invaded and ravaged the King of Spain's possessions in the West Indies and South Sea, from whence he yearly derives his greatest supplies of Gold and Silver; so that he could not have sufficient power to molest or endanger these United Provinces with a numerous army. Your High Mightinesses' Commissioners have held divers Conferences on the subject of the redress of the decline and the arrest of the farther decay, and thereunto examined the management of the Company in the matter of 1« Trade. 2""* Retrenchment. S'^ Support, or regular finance of receipts and expenses for subsistence. 4"' Government, foreign and domestic, for the establishment of a good police, and a regular force by land and water. And, hereupon, were divers good opinions brought in, as is to be seen from the report (No. 3) of the business transacted thereupon, from the 9 January to the ll"" February; the opinions of the five Chambers of Amsterdam, Zealand, Maaze, North Quarter and Groningen No. 4 :with, likewise, the general report ( No. 5 ) drawn up from the aforesaid opinions of the five Chambers, and of the delegates from Holland, with the considerations of the actual