140 THE END OF THE STRUGGLE eighteen months, and at the same time appeased the London Company by promising that if, by that time, justice were not done, he would proceed to hostilities. This is shown by the treaty of Southampton, Septem- ber 7, i625. But before the expiration of the eighteen months Charles had quarrelled with his Parliament and found a war with France oh his hands. The Dutch were mas- ters of the situation and they knew it. So far from A TYPICAL EASTERN SCENE. their giving satisfaction for Amboyna, Coen went out as governor-general for a second time in March, 1627, in spite of the protests of the English Company, who regarded his policy as the main source of their sorrows. When in April, 1627, the States-General were reminded that the eighteen months had elapsed, they dexterously got the question transferred to the law courts, and offered to proceed by way of a legal prosecution against the Amboyna judges who had sentenced the English to death. Here they were on safe ground. Preliminary dif- ficulties at once arose. The Dutch naturally insisted that the tribunal should be a Dutch one sitting in Hol- land. King Charles objected to his subjects being
