had sailed from Amsterdam to Greenland to kill walrus, a sea-animal,
larger than an ox, with the muzzle of a lion, the skin covered with
hair, four feet, and two large teeth in the upper jaw, flat, hard, and
so white that in colour and value they equal those of the elephant: some
even give them the preference, because, besides their exceeding
whiteness, they are not subject to grow yellow. These two vessels having
caught twenty-two walrus, were met by some English vessels bound to
Russia, who hail'd them, and demanded whether they had pasports from the
King of Great Britain to fish at Greenland? The Dutchmen answered, that
the Sea was free, and they had pasports from Count Maurice their
Stadtholder. "That is not enough, said the English[61]: and to let you
know that that sea belongs to the King our master, if you will not give
us instantly the walrus you have taken, with your boats, nets, and
instruments for killing them, we'll send you to the bottom." The two
Dutch vessels, unable to resist, were obliged to obey. Returning to
Holland, they made their complaint; and the affair being laid before the
States, it was resolved that Grotius, who had written on the subject and
was more master of it than any one, should be sent to England to demand
justice: But, says the _Mercure François_, he found the old proverb
true: The strongest are masters of the sea, and such never care to make
restitution: so that he could obtain no satisfaction.

This denial of justice from the English determined the Dutch not to go
to Greenland for the future without a force sufficient to revenge
themselves on the English, or to have nothing to fear from them.

The dispute growing serious, to prevent any acts of hostility, and to
know on what grounds they went, a conference was held in 1615 between
the Commissaries of England and Holland, in which the debate turned
chiefly on the whale-fishery. Grotius, who was one of the Commissaries