14 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

pretensions which the English were beginning to assert to the same territories. The approaching termination of the Twelve Years’ Truce, moreover, was prefaced by certain insulting propositions from Spain, which warned them to gird on their armor for a renewal of their long and bloody struggle with that power. As a means, therefore, of self-protection in the maintenance of their rights as an independent nation, and of aid in carrying on the threatened war .with their ancient and powerful enemy, the States-General of the United Seven Provinces determined upon the creation of an armed mercantile association, on the plan of the celebrated East India Company, in which should be concentrated the entire strength of the numerous merchants now engaged in the American and West India trade. Thus originated the great Dutch West India Company, which, supplanting all private adventurers, proposed to itself the promotion of colonization, the suppression of piracy, the humbling of Spain, and the aggrandizement of the national wealth and independence. Its charter, which was passed under the great seal of the States-General, on the 3d of June, 1621, granted to it the exclusive right of trade to the coasts of Africa, between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope; to the West Indies; and to the coasts of America, between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. Within these limits, the company was invested with enormous powers. “In the name of the States-General, it might make contracts and alliances with the princes and natives of the countries comprehended within the limit of its charter; build forts; appoint and discharge governors, soldiers, and public officers; administer justice and promote trade. It was bound ‘to advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled parts, and do all that the service of those countries and the profit and increase of trade shall require.’ It was obliged to communicate to the StatesGeneral, from time to time, all the treaties and alliances it might make, and also detailed statements of its forts and settlements. All governors-in-chief, and the instructions proposed to be given to them, were first to be approved of by the States-General, who would then issue formal commissions; and all superior officers were held to take oaths of allegiance to their High Mightinesses, and also to the company.” The company consisted of five chambers