[20] He came to an anchor nearer to Elmina fort, with the ship and sloop under his command, than any merchant ship ever had been, and sent an officer on shore to demand the prisoners, which the Dutch general immediately complied with, to the great joy of their countrymen residing under the British forts, at their being restored to their liberty. [21] “That such Portugueze ships as shall come to anchor in any of the English roads belonging to any of the English forts or factories, shall not be molested by any Dutch ship or ships belonging to the said company, nor be blocked up by them in the said English roads, nor attacked and seized at their going out of the said roads; neither shall they offer to seize any ship or ships, that have first put themselves under the protection of any British fort, or being in possession of any English vessel, they having one of the said royal African company’s servants on board certifying the same.” “That on the other side, none of the English forts, or company’s ships, shall attack, or seize, any Portugueze which were first in possession of any Dutch West India company’s ships; neither shall the English general, or chief director for the time being, grant passports to any Portugueze ships, going to or from Brazil, or any of the Portugueze islands.” [22] What was paid to the natives for ground-rent, or water-custom, or to the company’s slaves, which appeared by their lists, or to canoe-men, or other free Negroes, each article was particularized in the late company’s officers accounts in such manner, as that no fraud could be committed. [23] By such mode of accounting, the committee may obtain a discharge for the money granted by parliament, before the ship or ships that have the merchandize, stores, _&c._ on board said money purchased, sails out of the _river Thames_. Therefore, if said _merchandize_ or _stores_ are never landed in _Africa_ for the use of the _forts_, we presume the _committee_ are no farther _accountable_ for _them_. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Footnote [15] is referenced twice from page 29. Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book. Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.