416 . DUTCH HISTOUr fall into the hands of his ally, determined at all risks to snatch the prize from him. With this view, he sent a force of two thousand men, under pretext of assisting the common cause. The bold leader who commanded these troops, presenting himself before the king of Jacatra, drew his dagger, and dictated to him with the point to his breast, in con- sequence of which his troops took possession of the town ; the Dutch retained their fort ; and the Eng- lish, allies of the king of Jacatra, unable to stem the progress of this strange revolution, unwillingly re- tired. On the 29th May 1619, the Dutch appear- ed in strength at Jacatra, and landing a military force, assaulted the town, and carried it. Some of the inhabitants saved themselves by flight ; the rest, with the exception of women and children, were put to the sword. The houses were burnt to the ground, and the walls razed, so that nothing remained of Jacatra but the name. The king and his family were among the fugitives, and the same unfortunate monarch, reduced to indigence and dis- tress, is said to have passed the rest of his life in the humble and mean occupation of a fisherman, as complete an example of fallen greatness as the his- tory of any nation or period can afford ; whether we consider the extent of the fall, or the meanness of the instrument by which it was brought about, — a band of rapacious merchants from a country of the second order in another hemisphere. The
