his Majtye's return
played the devills & pirats, worse thn Argiers, taken 20 English
ships, hindered others, putt out a declaration whereby they claymed al
the coast to thmselves; & was it lawfull for thm so to demean
thmselves & only lawfull for the English to suffer, tht yet his Majty
did not intermeddle, but only the one company against the other, & no
wonder if at last the English did stirr a little; & tht Holms was the
companye's servt & tht should his Majty have given or lent thm an old
ship or two, yet he had nothing to doe in the ordering their designe."
Furthermore, he declared that if the Dutch took it upon themselves to
assist the West India Company "his Majty would find himself equally
obliged to assist his company."[104]

To every one it now seemed as if an open conflict must come. Toward
the last of July, Pepys declared that all the talk was of a Dutch
war,[105] although even Coventry, a director of the Royal Company,
admitted that there was little real cause for it and that the damage
done to the company, which had brought on Holmes' expedition, did not
exceed the paltry sum of two or three hundred pounds.[106] In Holland,
also, the disposition toward war was increased by the realization that
the next report from Holmes might bring news of the total loss of the
Gold Coast, including the main fortress of Elmina. Under these
circumstances the king's promise to punish Holmes according to the
exigency of the case meant little or nothing. The maritime provinces,
especially Holland, were determined to assist the West India Company
against English aggression in Africa.

When Downing discussed the situation with DeWitt, however, he was
surprised to hear him still express the possibility of giving
satisfaction for the seizure of the Royal Company's ships, and not "so
hott" for sending a fleet immediately to Guinea as he had been at
first.[107] Even Downing was for the time being deceived. His spy, who
was well within DeWitt's immediate circle, for once was not on duty to
give his usual faithful report to his benefactor. DeWitt was
accustomed to resort to the same trickery and deceitful diplomacy that
was so characteristic of Downing. Indeed it would be difficult to
decide which of these two men was the greater master of this
questionable art. The English had sent Holmes to Africa totally
unknown to the Dutch and had taken half the coast from them before
they were even aware of the expedition. It is little wonder