put to sea.  It did not at first seem likely that the overtures for peace would present much difficulty, when suddenly arose the question of Poleroone.  It is amazing how few Englishmen have ever heard of Poleroone, or even of the Banda Islands, of which group it is one.  Indeed, a more insignificant speck in the ocean it would be hard to find.  To discover it on an atlas is no easy task.  Yet, but for Poleroone, the Dutch would never have taken Sheerness, or broken the chain at Gillingham, or carried away with them to the Texel the proud vessel that had brought back Charles the Second to an excited population.

Poleroone is a small nutmeg-growing island in the Indian Archipelago, not far from the eastern extremity of New Guinea.  King James the First imagined he had some right to it, and, at any rate, Oliver Cromwell, when he made peace with the Dutch, made a great point of Poleroone.  Have it he would for the East India Company.  The Dutch objected, but gave way, and by an article in the treaty with Oliver bound themselves to give up Poleroone to the Company.  All, in fact, that they did do, was to cut down the nutmeg trees, and so make the island good for nothing for many a long year.  Physical possession was never taken.  For some unaccountable reason Charles, who had sold Oliver’s Dunkirk to the French for half a million of money, stuck out for Poleroone.  What Cromwell had taken he was not going to give up!  On the other hand, neither would the Dutch give up Poleroone.  This dispute, about a barren island, delayed the settlement of the peace preliminaries; but eventually the British plenipotentiaries did get out to Breda, in May 1667.  Our sanguine king expected an immediate cessation of hostilities, and that his unpreparedness would thus be huddled up.  All of a sudden, at the beginning of June, De Ruyter led out his fleet, and with a fair wind behind him stood for the Thames.  All is fair in war.  England was caught napping.  The doleful history reads like that of a sudden piratical onslaught, and reveals the fatal inefficiency of the administration.  Sheerness was practically defenceless.  “There were a Company or two of very good soldiers there under excellent officers, but the fortifications were so weak and unfinished, and all other provisions so entirely wanting, that the Dutch Fleet no sooner approached within a distance but with their cannon they beat all the works flat and drove all the men from the ground, which, as soon as they had done with their Boats, they landed men and seemed resolved to fortify and keep it."[128:1] Capture of Sheerness by the Dutch!  No need of a halfpenny press to spread this news through a London still in ruins.  What made matters worse, the sailors were more than half-mutinous, being paid with tickets not readily convertible into cash.  Many of them actually deserted to the Dutch fleet, which made its leisurely way upstream, passing Upnor Castle, which had guns but no ammunition, till it was almost within reach of Chatham, where lay the royal