THE NEWS SPREADSTHE FORMER DUTCH CAPTIVES THAT the islanders brought with them to England listened to these plans with great interest. The Dutch, they later explained to the islander elders, had as much to gain from adopting island ways as did the British. The islanders had helped the Dutch in their capture of England. Now, more and more convinced that the islanders’ plans would help their country also, they begged the elders to come to Holland, where they would be treated as friends, and explain the plans to the government there.
So it came about that a group of elders and their Dutch friends led by Dansgaard sailed in one of their canoes to Amsterdam across the narrow channel between England and Holland. The sea was filled with fishing boats. “What a great effort it must be,” one elder
