In 1681, the renewal of the charter of the company by Charles II. vested in it the power and authority to make peace or war with any nation not being Christians, and

six years later it was ordered the king's union flag should

be always used at the Fort St. George.

In 1698, a new company was established by act of Parliament, which soon, however, became incorporated with the former. Its arms were argent, a cross gules in the dexter chief quarter, an escutcheon of the arms of France and England quarterly, crest, two lions rampant, gardant or, each supporting a banner crest argent charged with a cross gules.

"The Present State of the Universe,' fourth edition, London, 1704, by J. Beaumont, Jr., gives as the East India Company's ensign a flag with thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, with a St. George's cross on a white canton, which rests upon the fourth red stripe. In the 'Dominion and Laws of the Sea,' published in London in 1705, the East India Company's flag is pictured with but ten stripes.

In a Dutch work on ship-building by Carl Allard, published in Amsterdam the same year, the East India Company's flag has but nine stripes.

In 'La Connoissance des Pavillons ou Bannières que la plupart des Nations,' published à La Haye, 1737, there are represented many striped flags, among them::

Pavillon d'escadre, de Division des Vaisseaux Ecossois, which has eleven stripes, alternate red and white, with the white canton and red cross resting on the third red stripe. Pavillon de Rotterdam, which has eleven stripes, alternate white and green.

Pavillon de Breme, which has a head of red and white squares the whole width of the flag, and nine stripes, alternate red and white.

Pavillon d'Enchase Norte Hollande, which has thirteen stripes, yellow and red.

Pavillon de Rang ou de Division d'escadre [English] has thirteen stripes, red and white, with St. George's cross in a canton argent.

The East India Company's flag has nine stripes, red and white, with the white canton and red cross resting on the third red stripe.

The East India Company's flag, in 1834, was cantoned with the union jack of the United Kingdom, and its field was composed of thirteen alternate red and white stripes, seven red and six white; the central red stripe rather wider than the others, and crossed by a perpendicular red stripe or bar, forming a St. George's cross. It was the white St. George ensign, with the addition of six red bars or stripes across its field.

THE GRAND UNION OR CONTINENTAL FLAG OF THE UNITED COLONIES.

1776-1777.

It has been suggested that the stripes on our flag, as a symbol of union, were derived from the national flag of the Netherlands, adopted as early as 1582, and which then, as now, consisted of three equal horizontal stripes, symbolic of the rise of the Dutch republic from the union at Utrecht.

ST GEORGES CROSS

X

ST. ANDREWS CROSS

UNION OR KINGS COLORS 1606

The stripes on this flag were at first orange, white, and blue, the orange in chief. In 1650, after the death of William II., a red stripe was substituted for the orange, and the flag remains without other change to this day. Hudson, the first to display a European flag on the waters of New York, and the explorer of the river bearing his name, sailed up the river in 1609, under the Dutch East India flag, which was the same as above described, with the addition of the letters 'A. O.C.,' "Algemeene Oost Indise Compagnie," in the centre of the white stripe. This was the flag of the colony of Manhattan established under the auspices of the Dutch East India Company, until 1622. When the government fell into the hands of the Dutch West India Company, the letters 'G. W. C., "Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie," were put in the white stripe in place of the letters 'A. O. C. This was the dominant flag (with the change of the orange stripe for a red one in 1650) until 1664, when, on the island's surrender to the English, the union jack of England supplanted the tricolor of Holland, and the name of New Amsterdam' was changed to 'New York.' In July, 1673, the Dutch again took possession of the city, which they occupied until Nov. 10, 1674, when, by a treaty of

UNION ENSIGN JAN.16 1707 GRAND UNION FLAG JAN. 1776

1 Valentine's Manual Common Council, New York, 1863.

peace between England and Holland, the cross of St. George was rehoisted over the city.

"From Holland," argues a writer, "came the emigrants who first planted the seeds of civil and religious liberty and popular education in the Empire State, and from Holland more than any other land came the ideas of a federal union, which binds together the American States. From Holland, whither persecution had driven them, also embarked the Pilgrim Fathers, to land upon our winter-swept and storm and rock bound coast. The rights for which Holland so long struggled, and so ably portrayed by Motley in his 'History of the Rise of the Dutch Republic,' are identical with those which the thirteen colonies so successfully maintained. What more likely, then," says this reasoner, "that in adopting a device for a union flag our fathers should derive the idea from a country to whose example they were already so much indebted."

Dutch West India Flag.

A more commonplace origin for the stripes has been suggested. The continental army of 1775 was without uniforms, and the different grades were distinguished by means of a stripe or ribbon. The daily view of these, the only distinguishing marks of rank, would naturally suggest the same device for representing the United Colonies.2

1 The United Provinces of the Netherlands on their independence devised for their standard the national lion of Flanders [rampant gu], grasping in his paws a sheaf of seven arrows or, to denote the seven provinces, and a naked sword, which had been borne by the counts from the eleventh century. The shield of the arms was azure billetée, and the whole achievement was charged upon the white of the flag.

2 Sarmiento's History of our Flag, 1864. The orders to which he refers are to be found in American Archives, 4th series, vol. ii. p. 1738, viz. :

"HEAD-QUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, July 23, 1775.

"Parole, 'Brunswick.' Countersign, 'Princeton.'

"As the continental army have, unfortunately, no uniforms, and consequently many inconveniences must arise from not being able always to distinguish the commissioned officers from the non-commissioned, and the non-commissioned from the privates, it is desired that some badges of distinction may be immediately provided; for instance, the field-officers may have red or pink cockades in their hats, the captains yellow or buff, and the subalterns green. They are to furnish themselves accordingly. The sergeants may be distinguished by an epaulette or stripe of red cloth sewed upon the right shoulder; the corporals, by one of green.

"HEAD-QUARTERS, CAMBRIDGE, July 24, 1775.

"Parole, 'Salisbury.' Countersign, Cumberland.'

"It being thought proper to distinguish the majors from brigadiers general by some particular mark, for the future major-generals will wear a broad purple ribbon."

Without far seeking for the origin of the stripes upon our flag, it is possible that the stripes on his own escutcheon suggested them to the mind of Washington. They were also one of the devices on the flag of the troop of light horse which accompanied Washington from Philadelphia to New York, when proceeding to assume command of the army at Cambridge, where they were first shown; and it may be that these lists, as they were sometimes called, were adopted as an easy expedient for converting the red ensigns of the mother country, by an economical method, into a new flag, representing the union of the American colonies against ministerial oppression, when not quite ready to give up their loyalty to the "king's colors," which they retained on the new ensign.

It required the addition of the " new constellation" to render the stripes significant, and give a poetic life and national character to the flag.

When the Virginia convention at Williamsburg instructed its delegates in Congress, May 15, 1776, three weeks before the Declaration of Independence, "to declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from all allegiance to dependence upon the crown and parliament of England, and to propose a confederation of the colonies," there was a great civil and military parade, when, according to an eye-witness, "the union flag of the American States" waved upon the Capitol during the whole ceremony. This could have been no other than the flag inaugurated by Washington at his camp at Cambridge in January.

In July, 1776, a committee, consisting of Generals Sullivan and Greene and Lord Stirling, was appointed to devise a system of signals to be hoisted on the Highlands of Neversink, to give the earliest intelligence of the enemy's approach. They proposed that, for any number of ships from one to six, and from six to twenty-two, and for any

1 Niles's American Revolution, pp. 251, 252. The toasts at the soldiers' banquet were: 1st, "The American independent States;" 2d, "The grand Congress of the United States and their respective legislatures;" 3d, "General Washington, and victory to the American arms." These toasts were accompanied by salutes of artillery and feu de joies of small-arms.