"But that the excessively increased prices of everything, which concerns the equipment of vessels, the bounties and the pay, risen to near double, which must now be given to seamen, would render an equipment of this nature so expensive, that the charges would never be repaid by the freight. That, nevertheless, without an equipment of such vessels, we should risk too much; this consideration has even determined the owners, whose vessels were loaded before the hostile attack of the English, to unload them and suspend the voyages, to the great prejudice of the Colony, of themselves, and of their freighters. That, moreover, they still find great difficulties to expedite their ships; on the one hand, from the certainty that the passage to the Colony and in the West Indies themselves, is infested with the enemy's vessels of war and privateers, who by surprise have already made themselves masters of a great number of our merchant vessels, and have even invaded the defenceless possessions of the State, such as St Eustatia, St Martins, Essequebo, and Demerara; on the other hand, in the uncertainty whether this excellent Colony, in the neighborhood of which, as they have learned, the enemy's squadrons cruise without opposition, has not undergone the same fate; in which case their valuable vessels with their rich cargoes, would fall into the power of an enemy, who from the heights of fortresses, taken by surprise, continue to display the Dutch flag, under shelter of which, and by means of a certain number of vessels of war, he seizes upon merchant ships destitute of defence, who, confiding in the public faith, go in there without fear.