Barneveld's name and interests were identified with the great East India Company, which was now powerful and prosperous beyond anything ever dreamt of before in the annals of commerce.

That trading company had already founded an empire in the East.

Fifty ships of war, fortresses guarded by 4000 pieces of artillery and 10,000 soldiers and sailors, obeyed the orders of a dozen private gentlemen at home seated in a back parlour around a green table.

The profits of each trading voyage were enormous, and the shareholders were growing rich beyond their wildest imaginings.

To no individual so much as to Holland's Advocate was this unexampled success to be ascribed.