DEMANDS OF CROMWELL ON THE COMPANY 263 cesses, he thought it should contribute to their cost. In 1649 the commissioners of the navy constrained it to lend £4000; in July, 1655, Cromwell borrowed from it £50,000; and in October of the same year another £10,000 to pay Blake's seamen. These loans were strictly applied to public purposes and faithfully re- paid. But Cromwell expected from the Company not money alone. In 1652 the Council demanded from it, without success, two ships of war " for Defence of the Eight and Honour of this Nation.' ' To secure Pularoon the Company was called, in 1656, to provide £30,000 for fortifications, guard-pinnaces, and cannon, together with a garrison of eighty Englishmen and over two hundred native soldiers. As the Dutch rooted up the spice-trees before they even pretended to deliver over the island, no speedy return could be expected. Indeed, the money had to be levied by a contribution from the shareholders of twenty per cent, on their original ven- tures. When, therefore, the Protector started, also in 1656, his project of a volunteer fleet, the Company found itself compelled to hold aloof. He ordered it to send representatives to arrange with other trading bodies and himself for the equipment of thirty-nine men-of-war as convoys. The wearied directors replied that the existing dues already amounted to ten per cent., and that they could not possibly pay more. By this time Cromwell had inquired into the affairs of the Company and knew that it could not bear fur- ther burdens. But while considerate to its distresses,
