The plain red fighting flag of the English navy of the day was flying at the fore on the men-of-war as the signal to "engage the enemy," and the ensign red was at the stern of both men-of-war and merchantmen as the national ensign. War immediately commenced, and while the Royal Navy was battling with its guns, the merchant navy of England was cutting into the carrying trade of the Dutch, so much so that at its close the British merchant ships had captured the greater part of the foreign business of the enemy, and by thus exhausting their earnings, and reducing the fighting resources of the Dutch, contributed to the final victory almost equally with the exploits of the men-of-war. The contest, though short, was very sharp. The strife had been for the merchant carrying trade of the world, and when it was won, whole colonies were transferred with it to the victorious English. During the interval which had followed since the previous war the English had returned to the Dutch their newly-acquired possession of New York in exchange for the Dutch possessions in Guiana, the boundaries of whose territories then transferred formed the subject of the Venezuela excitement of 1896; but now they took both these countries back, while the Island of St. Helena, which, in the beginning of the war had been captured by the Dutch by an expedition sent from their colony at the Cape of Good Hope, was again recovered to the British flag. These possessions formed only a portion of the victor's spoil. Above all of these and other great money results, the old sea spirit again asserted itself, and setting into inferior position the additions to the realm, or the compensations exacted for the expenses of the war, the final treaty declares among its first clauses the lordly renewal of the centuries-old right of the respect and salute due to the nation's flag: "In due acknowledgment on their part of the King of Great Britain's right to have his flag respected in the seas hereafter mentioned, shall and do declare and agree, that whatever ship or vessels belonging to the said United Provinces, whether vessels of war or others, or whether single or in fleets, shall meet in any of the seas from Cape Finisterre to the middle point of the land Van Staten, in Norway, with any ships or vessels belonging to His Majesty of Great Britain, whether these ships be single or in great number, if they carry His Majesty's of Great Britain flag or Jack, the aforesaid Dutch vessels or ships shall strike their flag and lower their topsail in the same manner and with as much respect as hath at any time, or in any place, been formerly practised towards any ships of His Majesty of Great Britain or his predecessors, by any ships of the States General or their predecessors."[57] [57] Treaty of Westminster, Charles II. and Holland, 1674.