should maintain a fleet for joint operations in furtherance of the interests of the two companies. In its earliest stage, the combination was directed against the Portuguese and Spanish settlements in the Far East, but later the venue of the struggle was changed to the Indian Ocean, where successive attempts were made by the Dutch, at first with English assistance, and later unaided, to strike a blow at the heart of the Portuguese Indian Empire.
No two powers could have been more unhappily mated than were the English and the Dutch at this juncture. Incompatibility of temper was visible from the very outset of their association, and with the progress of time the tragic events which occurred at Amboina and elsewhere served to widen the inevitable divisions. In both the English and the Dutch records there is vivacious evidence of the burning animosities which were engendered on these voyages between the commanders of the two fleets. Charges of cowardice were bandied about; reams of paper were covered with polemics over tactics and sea manners, and the atmosphere was thick with protests and counter protests, written in the strain of hot indignation which was appropriate to so profound a quarrel. "All in all," wrote the Dutch Governor-General Carpentier. in summing up a series of these controversies, "a disagreeable wife is bestowed on us, and we do not know how it is possible to keep you out of disputes and quarrels, if we at least shall properly maintain your rights." This observation not inaccurately reflects the position at the period. It was a mariage de convenance, and like most such unions it lacked the spirit of harmony absolutely indispensable to success.
Still, stern necessity kept these strange bed-fellows together for a time. The Portuguese power, though sorely
