eturn a free commerce at that place. As the Royal Company did not see
fit to follow this suggestion[82] Downing began to form other plans.
In order that Carisius might continue to worry the Dutch with his
claims Downing submitted a memorial to the States General protesting
against the Dutch treatment of the Danes in Guinea.[83] Indeed he was
so friendly toward the Danish pretensions that the king of Denmark
sent him a special letter thanking him for his services.[84]

In the main, however, Downing was persistently urging the Dutch to
make a settlement of the cases of the Royal Company's two ships, the
"Charles" and the "James," and of the right of the Dutch to blockade
the Gold Coast on the pretext of war with the natives. In December,
1663, at the instigation of the West India Company, the States General
maintained that only a few ships were necessary to blockade the small
native states on the Gold Coast, since in each case there were but one
or two outlets to the sea.[85] On February 1, 1664, Downing obtained a
conference with DeWitt and the representatives of the States General
and the West India Company. The company's representatives boldly
admitted that they had hindered the English ships from trading at
Komenda and Cape Corse, because the natives had burned their factory
at the former place and had seized their fortress at Cape Corse. This
irritating assumption of their ownership of Cape Corse aroused
Downing. So far, he had contented himself in supporting the Danish and
even the Swedish claims to Cape Corse. Now, notwithstanding the
inconsistency of his position, he remarked that, if it was a question
of the ownership of Cape Corse, the English could show more rights to
the place than any one, since they had been the first to settle it
and to trade there; and that even if the Dutch were in possession of
it, the English still had a right to trade to the Danish fort of
Fredericksburg which was located in the same harbor.[86]

When the discussion turned on the requirements of an effective
blockade the Dutch advocate stoutly maintained that "it is nott for
any other to prescribe how and in what manner the company shall
proceed to retake their places, that if they think that the riding
with a few shipps before a place and that att certaine times onely
whereby to hinder other nations from trading with it, be a sufficient
meanes for the retaking thereof, they have no reason to be att further
charge or trouble." He furt