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CHAPTER VIII.

THE DUTCH TITLE CONQUEST.

The Dutch title, to such possessions as they had in Guiana in 1648, was acquired by war; is a title by conquest and was confirmed and perfected by the Treaty of Munster.

In the British Case (p. 21) it is said:

"In 1581 the Dutch had formally renounced the sovereignty of Spain, and the war then raging between the two countries continued till 1648, with an interval of partial truce from 1609 till 1621.”

The Dutch then entered Guiana while they were in a state of war with Spain, a war for independence on the part of the Dutch, and, on the part of Spain, to reduce its rebellious subjects and to re-establish its sovereignty.

If the Dutch were the victors, all Spanish territory actually held by the Dutch at the close of the war became theirs by conquest-the title to be perfected by a treaty of peace.

If Spain was victorious, the attempt to introduce a new state would fail; there could be no treaty, for there would be but one sovereignty. Spain's old title and sovereignty would be reestablished, and Essequibo would be a Spanish colony.

It may be said that to allege a Dutch title to Essequibo by conquest from Spain is to assume a prior Spanish title. We reply that the manner and circumstances of the Dutch occupancy and the cession taken from Spain were a recognition by the Dutch of Spain's prior right.

It is not necessary that Spain's title should have been a perfected title, or that the places seized by the Dutch should have been at the time in the actual occupation of Spain. It is enough that the Dutch entered in war to seize and appropriate Spain's title-whatever it was by force, and at the close of the war took by treaty a release of that title. As against Spain, the Dutch limits must be

determined by the rules applicable to a conquest, and by the terms of the treaty of peace. The Dutch entry in Guiana was an act of war, not the peaceful appropriation of lands believed to be unappropriated, and, by the treaty of peace, the Dutch asked and took a transfer to themselves of Spain's title to Essequibo, which they had seized in war and then held.

Spain's title was appropriated by conquest, and was extinguished only so far as the actual Dutch occupation extended. The Treaty of Peace runs in those terms, and implies that a title to the territory ceded was derived from Spain, and that beyond the cession the territory was Spain's. In other words, that prior claim or title in Spain, which is necessary to give the Dutch acquisition the character of a conquest, was conceded by the Dutch. They expressly set up a title to their New World possessions based upon conquest from Spain, in the New Netherland controversy, as we shall see. Spain claimed the Essequibo territory and defended that claim by arms. The Dutch, by arms, effected an appropriation of Spain's claims, and so were able to set up, as they did, the Spanish title against other claimants.

They cannot say they took nothing in Essequibo from Spain, either by conquest or cession. Spain parted with her title--deprived herself of the right to recover Essequibo - and the Dutch, while holding that title, cannot free themselves from the limitations that attach to it.

Until the treaty of peace was signed and Dutch independence recognized, Spain's right to take if she could-every foot of territory possessed by the Dutch, must be conceded. In the Treaty of Munster the Dutch distinctly recognized the fact that Spain, as sovereign of revolted Portugal, had still a title to "the places in Brazil," though they were then as much in the effective control of Portugal as Essequibo was in the control of the Dutch. By that treaty they took an absolute assignment of Spain's title to Essequibo, and a conditional assignment to "the places in Brazil,"

both at the time in the occupation of provinces of Spain that had revolted and declared their independence.

The war between Spain and the States General was waged with a bloody intenstity in the Low Countries, but it was not limited to that region. The Dutch carried it into the distant possessions of Spain; sent out their fleets to capture Spanish Colonies, to harry the coasts of Spain's distant possessions, to destroy her commerce and to seize her ships. This from Brodhead gives a comprehensive sketch of these military operations:

"The Company laid waste Bahia, which, independent of the incurred damages, cost the King of Spain over ten millions to recover it; and, also, captured, plundered, and destroyed Porto Rico, Margarita, Sancta Martha, St. Thomas, Guiana, and sundry other places;

Took and retained Pernambuco, and Tamarica, whereby the King of Spain hath lost over a million and a half of yearly revenue.

Prevented the Portuguese, by the continual cruizing of our ships on the coast of Brazil, from bringing over their sugars and other prod

uce.

Also, captured his fleet from New Spain, and thrice made prize of the rich Honduras ships; took, moreover, in divers parts of Africa and America, over a hundred of his vessels, most of which had full freights, including several of his best galleons; and burnt and destroyed nearly as many, if not more, that had ran ashore." (Brodhead, Docs., vol. i, p. 63.)

Even the truce of 1609, as the British Case admits, was "partial" and not effective. The Dutch knew that Spain claimed Guiana; that she was engaged in settling it; that she was drawing from her American colonies the wealth that enabled her to continue the war; that some of her treasure-ships rendezvoused in the Orinoco, and that in the interior of that province there was believed to be a fabulous store of gold. Guiana was a vulnerable and exposed point. The Spanish garrisons were not strong, and a "sedem belli " there offered great opportunities to harass Spain and to divert from her treasury to the Dutch treasury a great store of the precious metals. It also offered an opportunity to cripple and appropriate the trade of Spain to the

West Indies. It would seem, therefore, unduly to discredit the intelligence and strategy of the Dutch to assume that they did not carry the war thither. We should expect them to do so, and we find that they did.

In a minute made by the Estates of Zeeland, in November, 1599, we read:

"In the matter of the request of the Burgomaster of Middelburg, Adriaen ten Haeft, setting forth how that in the preceding year, 1598, at heavy cost to himself, he caused to be investigated on the continent of America many different rivers and islands, and how that in this voyage were discovered various coasts and lands where one could do notable damage to the King of Spain " (V. C., vol. ii, p. 12).

Commenting upon this, Professor Burr, in his report to the American Commission (V. C.-C., vol. ii, p. 46), says:

"What it seems safe to infer is that this was the beginning of Zeeland's dealings with these unsettled coasts of the West-that the coasts in view were conceived of as belonging to the King of Spain, and that the enterprise was one of hostile aggression."

In a note Professor Burr says:

"It should perhaps be remembered that it was in this year, 1599, that there sailed forth from the Zeeland port of Flushing the Dutch armada under Pieter van der Does, which, after taking a town in the Canaries and avenging at the Isle de Principe that unsuccessful enterprise of Balthazer de Moucheron in 1598 which Berg van Dussen Muilkerk calls the earliest attempt at colonization from out the Netherlands,' sent seven or eight of its ships across the Atlantic to ravage the coast of Brazil. They returned, with great booty of sugar, in the following year" (V. C.-C., vol. ii, p. 46).

We have the report of a Dutch expedition to Guiana-probably the very first-in 1597-8, by Cabeliau, clerk of the expedition. The States General voted aid towards the arming of the expedition, and its destination was "Guiana, in the Kingdom of Peru" (V. C.-C., vol. ii, p. 43).

By the report of Cabeliau the States General were advised that the Spaniards were established at Santo Thome, and that there was then a Spanish Governor over all the coasts to the Amazon.

He further says:

"To sum up briefly, there is up that river (Caroni) in the kingdom of Guiana certainly much gold, as we were told by the Indians from there as well as by our Indians here present, and the Spaniards themselves say so; but for our people busied with trade it is not feasible to expect any good therefrom, unless to that end considerable expeditions were equipped to attack the Spaniards. This is the only means of learning the whereabouts of any gold mines from the Indians; for whosoever are enemies, and bear enmity to the Spaniards, are friends with the Indians, and they hope steadily that they shall be delivered from the Spaniards by the Dutch and the English, as they told us " (U. S. Com. Rep., vol. ii, pp. 19–20; for a different translation see B. C., I, p. 21).

That is to say, we may get some trade to these coasts, but if we seek to enter the country-to appropriate its mines, &c.we must fight the Spaniards.

There is an anonymous petition to the States General, given in the British Case (App. I, p. 22), to which the date of 1603 is ascribed (with an interrogation) in the table of contents.

This document was found by Professor Burr in the archives at The Hague and examined by him. He believes it to be the "work of Willem Usselinx, the well-known originator of the Dutch West India Company" (V. C.-C., vol. ii, p. 49). We quote from this document:

* but the most important and principal thing that your Lordships have to observe is the suitable situation in case chance or your Lordships should in the future resolve (in imitation of the Romans) to divert this long war from these lands, and carry it thither. This province being the most suitable and best situated place in all America in which to establish an arsenal and a sedem belli, where the war could easily feed itself or be carried on and supported by all kinds of foreign nations" (B. C. App. I, p. 25).

To be sure, this writer, in the opening paragraph of his petition, speaks of the region as a country which "has now recently by some of the merchant-ships of this country been discovered situated in America and named the Province of Guiana" (B. C., I,

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