The subsequent events in the history of English trade with Japan may as well be traced here. The relations of the English and Dutch in the East grew steadily more inimical. Perhaps this was due to the increasing rivalry in trade and navigation which prevailed between them at home. In 1617 the London East India Company fitted out an expedition of five large vessels. This fleet arrived in the East in the summer of the following year. After much hostile skirmishing in which the Dutch obtained the permanent advantage, and the English commander was about to retire, word was brought to them from Europe that a peace had been arranged between the two countries. The English and Dutch vessels accordingly sailed to Japan, where they took a hand at trade; because in those days ships always were sent to the East prepared either to fight or trade as the case required. But this amicable arrangement did not last many years. The massacre at the Spice Islands in 1623, for which Cromwell afterward exacted an indemnity, ended all attempts at co-operation in the East. Soon after this the English company withdrew entirely from the Japanese trade, having lost in the effort forty thousand pounds. The Dutch were thus left without a rival, and we shall see on what conditions and at what sacrifices they continued to maintain their monopoly. During the period of Ieyasu’s retirement, which lasted from 1605 until his death in 1616, he devoted himself, as we have seen, to the consolidation of his family dynasty and to such literary occupations as his leisure allowed. He was a patron of the art derived from Korea, which then was popular in Japan, of printing with movable types.(255) This art fell into disuse afterwards, but during Ieyasu’s retirement in Sumpu he interested himself in printing with blocks as well as by the new method. When he died he was engaged in seeing through the press an edition of an important Chinese work.