the west, which, more than a century long, had been open to European adventure, while the land, baptized in honour of the throned Vestal, had been already made familiar to European ears by the exploits of Raleigh.  But it was not till 1607 that Jamestown was founded, that Captain John Smith’s adventures with Powhattan, “emperor of Virginia,” and his daughter the Princess Pocahontas, became fashionable topics in England, that the English attempts to sail up the Chickahominy to the Pacific Ocean—­as abortive as those of the Netherlanders to sail across the North Pole to Cathay—­were creating scientific discussion in Europe, and that the first cargo of imaginary gold dust was exported from the James River.

With the adventurous minds of England all aflame with enthusiasm for those golden regions, with the thick-coming fancies for digging, washing, refining the precious sands of Virginia rivers, it was certain that a great rent was now to be made in the Borgian grant.  It was inevitable that the rivalry of the Netherlanders should be excited by the achievements and the marvellous tales of Englishmen beyond the Atlantic, and that they too should claim their share of traffic with that golden and magnificent Unknown which was called America.  The rivalry between England and Holland, already so conspicuous in the spicy Archipelagos of the east, was now to be extended over the silvery regions of the west.  The two leading commercial powers of the Old World were now to begin their great struggle for supremacy in the western hemisphere.

A charter for what was called a West India Company was accordingly granted by the States-General.  West India was understood to extend from the French settlements in Newfoundland or Acadia, along the American coast to the Straits of Magellan, and so around to the South Sea, including the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, besides all of Africa lying between the tropic of Cancer and the Cape of Good Hope.  At least, within those limits the West India Company was to have monopoly of trade, all other Netherlanders being warned off the precincts.  Nothing could be more magnificent, nor more vague.

The charter was for thirty-six years.  The company was to maintain armies and fleets, to build forts and cities, to carry on war, to make treaties of peace and of commerce.  It was a small peripatetic republic of merchants and mariners, evolved out of the mother republic—­which had at last established its position among the powers of Christendom—­and it was to begin its career full grown and in full armour.

The States-General were to furnish the company at starting with one million of florins and with twenty ships of war.  The company was to add twenty other ships.  The Government was to consist of four chambers of directors.  One-half the capital was to be contributed by the chamber of Amsterdam, one-quarter by that of Zeeland, one-eighth respectively by the chambers of the Meuse and of North Holland.