Page 201 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH 201

them again he would hang every man of them from the
yard-arm. The Dutch authorities at Jakatra as soon as
they heard of the capture sent a vigorous letter of protest.
When it was handed to Dale he “ only scolded, stamped on
the ground, swore, cursed (and asked) why the letter was
written in Dutch and not in French, Spanish or any other
language if we (the Dutch) didn’t like to write English.”
He finally told the messenger that he would take the reply
to Coen himself, “ swearing and cursing that he would
take all he could get.”
The Dutch retaliated for the capture of the Zivarlc
Leeuw by burning the English factory at Jakatra. Dale
wanted to cap this by destroying the Dutch factory at
Bantam, but the native authorities interposed and safe­
guarded it from attack by occupying it with a strong guard.
Dale fumed and fretted over the restraint, but he eventu­
ally reconciled himself to the situation in view of the
prospect that lay before him of exacting a full measure of
retaliation at Jakatra. Collecting all available forces,
towards the end of December he descended like an avenging
torrent on the Dutch headquarters. His arrival was
awaited with extreme anxiety by the Dutch. In the days
which had elapsed since they first received news of his
expedition there had been frequent and earnest consulta­
tions as to the plan of defence. The Dutch weakness was
that they were to a certain extent between two fires, as
the moment the English attacked on one side it was prac­
tically certain that the Javanese would attack on the
other. With many misgivings the council ultimately
decided to withdraw most of the men from the shore to the
ships and to contest the issue solely on the sea. In this
way it was calculated that the conditions of the fight would