SPANISH TRADE CLAIMS 11

over her Indian empire. The Spanish President of the Council of the Indies told the British ambassador plainly " that in coercions and punishments to restrain access to these countries, he had an inclination rather to cruelty than to clemency," and that the case for free trade was far different there from elsewhere, because these dominions were Spanish by the rule of nations. In 1605 the Spaniards threatened with the severest pen- alties any Hollander presuming to trade in the East Indies; but the war between Spain and her revolted provinces was carried on in Asia as bitterly as in Eu- rope, and largely accelerated the downfall of the old Portuguese domination on the Indian seaboard. There was some desperate fighting in the Malacca Straits, and in the China Sea, with merciless slaughter after a de- feat. The question of the Eastern trade was the most difficult and obstinately disputed point in the negotia- tions which ended with Spain's recognition of Holland's independence. In 1607, the Spanish king offered to renounce his claim of sovereignty over the United Prov- inces if the Dutch would abandon their navigation to the East Indies. But the Dutch treated this as the most valuable property of their own State; they knew the Indian commerce to be the chief stay and subsistence of naval dominion in either country; they saw that while they would be ruined by resigning it, by retain- ing it they should keep the power of retaliating upon Spain in Asia for oppression or injuries in Europe. They insisted so firmly on their right to trade freely