factors had encountered from the Dutch West India
Company on the coast of Guinea. For a long time this opposition bade
fair to prevent the company from obtaining a share in the African
trade. In view of this situation the king dispatched Sir Robert Holmes
upon a second expedition to Africa in 1663 with orders to protect the
company's rights. As a further means of encouragement Charles II
ordered all gold imported from Africa by the Royal Company to be
coined with an elephant on one side, as a mark of distinction from the
coins then prevalent in England.[35] These coins were called
"Guineas"; they served to increase the reputation and prestige of the
company. Moreover, the king with many of his courtiers made important
additions to their stock in the third and fourth subscriptions.[36]

From September 4, 1663, to the following March there are no records
of the company, but a petition of the adventurers to the king in
March, 1664,[37] shows that notwithstanding its financial difficulties
the company had during the previous year sent to Africa forty ships
and goods to the value of L160,000.[38] To follow the company's
financial history from this time on is a difficult task in view of
inadequate sources. In the balance sheet of September 4, 1663, the
company's stock was entered as L102,000 and its debts as about
L21,000. When the news of Holmes' great success on the Gold Coast
began to arrive in England, the company increased its preparations to
open an extensive African trade. Therefore on May 10, 1664, an attempt
was made to collect the unpaid stock subscriptions, and an invitation
was extended to all members to lend one hundred pounds to the company
for each share of four hundred pounds which they held. Notwithstanding
the bright prospects which the company had at this time, its strenuous
attempt to raise the loan produced only L15,650.[39]

In September, 1664, an attempt was made to increase the stock of the
company by L30,000. Although the duke of York and many others added to
their shares on this occasion,[40] only L18,200 was subscribed.[41] By
this addition the stock of the Royal Adventurers amounted to L120,200
at about which sum it remained during the remainder of the company's
history.[42]

Although the company had not obtained as much money as had been hoped
for in the last subscription, it anticipated great success in its
trade, until vague rumors began to circulate that Admiral DeRuyter had
been sent to Afr