Mistress in 1650 of the Cape of Good Hope, which guaranteed it a stopping-place for its ships, it reigned as a sovereign in Ceylon, and upon the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel.

It had made Batavia its seat of government, and extended its traffic to China and Japan.

Meanwhile the West India Company, of more rapid rise, but less durable, had manned eight hundred ships of war and trade.

It had used them to seize the remnants of Portuguese power upon the shores of Guinea, as well as in Brazil.
The United Provinces had thus become the warehouse wherein were collected the products of all nations.
The colonies of the Dutch at this time were scattered throughout the eastern seas, in India, in Malacca, in Java, the Moluccas, and various parts of the vast archipelago lying to the northward of Australia.
They had possessions on the west coast of Africa, and as yet the colony of New Amsterdam remained in their hands.

In South America the Dutch West India Company had owned nearly three hundred leagues of coast from Bahia in Brazil northward; but much had recently escaped from their hands.
The United Provinces owed their consideration and power to their wealth and their fleets.