condition of war and peace was highly artificial; and that sooner or later the old hereditary friendship and enmity would reassert itself. Peace, too, had been temporarily established between Spain and the Netherlands, but this, discerning statesmen knew too, was not a state of affairs likely to be of long duration. Spanish and Dutch ships seldom met on the high seas without glances of the old hatred flaring up in the hearts of the captains.
No one in America at this time understood the conditions in Europe better than did Augustine Herrman. He arranged his future program in conformity with his convictions, which ultimately proved to be correct. As his commerce with Europe increased, he found himself constantly in need of ships. England and Spain had set the precedent of privateering among the maritime nations of the world, and Herrman turned to this expediency to increase the size of his fleet. He found little difficulty in Holland of procuring letters patent to seize English and Spanish vessels, but Herrman determined to make use of his authority on ships belonging to Spain, regardless of the fact that his country was temporarily at peace with that nation. In 1646 articles of copartnership were signed between Herrman and Captain Blavelt of the privateer “La Garce”.[1] With Jan Jansen Damen, Jacob Van Couwenhoven and others, he operated the privateer “Harpy”.[2] On a number of occasions, “La Garce” made depredations upon Spanish shipping and when called to account for his action, the skipper of the vessel claimed that he was not aware of the fact that Holland and Spain were at peace.[3] Formerly one of Herrman’s frigates had captured a Spanish vessel, “Tobasko”, but the prize was denied
