260 APPENDIX I year the Company supplied saltpetre for the navy, and offered to equip a fleet of its own, which, with the aid of a few ships to be lent by the government, would turn the Dutch flank by carrying the war into the Indian seas. The proposal was not accepted, but compensa- tion to the East India Company figured largely among the final spoils of victory. In 1653 a Dutch fleet threat- ened our factory at Surat. The Moghul government, however, did not allow private wars between Europe- ans within its domin- ions, so the Hollanders sailed to the Persian Gulf, where they captured three English ships. The Company's trade at Bantam was also suspended during the war. By the treaty of 1654, which restored peace, Hol- land pledged herself " that justice should be done upon those who were partakers or accomplices in the massa- cre of the English at Amboyna, as the Republic of England is pleased to term that fact," and sent com- missioners to London to settle all money claims. By this time the torturers and the tortured had alike passed away; it only remained to offer some solatium to the heirs of the victims and to compensate the Com- pany for its losses. Twelve years previously the Com- pany, hopeless of action by the king, was willing to compound privately with the Dutch for a payment of A NATIVE BOAT OF THE PERSIAN GULF.
