enjoying the protection of a Crowned Head and of a Monarch for whom the Dutch Company doth protest they have the utmost Veneration be elevated above a Company who can boast of a Protection only of a Republick yet their said Company cannot make such ill use of their quality as to oppress and trample on the Company of Holland in that manner as will be so far from pleasing his Majesty that it will doubtless bring upon them his Royal Indignation As to the Answer of the Lords the States General to the Memorial of Sir John Chardin since that instead of producing the same it hath pleased the English Deputies to refer themselves only thereunto The subscribed will also refer to the same being assured that your Honours will not find there what is alledged by the English Deputies but on the contrary will see what the Subscribed have said thereof in their Answer So that there needs only the pains of reading of it to be undeceived As to what the Subscribed said in their Answer That it was a very strange thing that the English Company who had only their Residence and Factory at Bantam should now pretend to the City and Fort of Bantam The English do by their third Paper say That the Factory and Fort built with their Money were worth all the rest of the Buildings on that place As if the price and value of their Factory and the Money which they may have lent the King which is not believed no more than the value of their Factory which was only an old building could give them any right of Propriety and Lordship over the City and Fort of Bantam which is contrary to all Laws Natural and Civil which the English Gentlemen being also well aware of They add that they do not ground their pretensions thereupon but do say that the Old King of Bantam was a Lawful King and his Son only Conditional and at the will of his Father This is a new method of acting and a strange way of proceeding after the Subscribed have given themselves the pains to prove in their Answer by solemn and authentick proofs that the Old Sultan of Bantam did assign over his Kingdom to his eldest Son without reserving to himself any thing even not so much as Tartiassa the place of his retreat And that his Son having by vertue of this Assignment ascended the Throne did send his Embassadors every where and that he was acknowledged as a Lawful King not only by the Deceased King of Great Brittain of Glorious Memory but also by those of the English Company Now they come and say that the Young King was only a Conditional King and at the will of His Father without refuting the proofs of the Dutch Company and without proving such condition and dependance as is now alledged The inveighing against the Young King of Bantam is a mark of animosity as to which the Subscribed having already declared their sentiment in their Answer they will forbear to make any further mention thereof at present As to the question of cui bono the Subscribed having endeavoured in vain to cause the English Deputies to apprehend the force of their Argument They do not see cui bono and to what ends they should break their heads any further about it since it is evident by their triplique or third Paper that they apprehend no more of it than if the Subscribed had proposed Riddles to them As to what follows about the pretended Cruelties of the Hollanders their sanguinary humour and of the mild temper of the English It is a sign of animosity and self-love which seldom hearkens to Reason As to what is so much insisted on that the Subscribed should propose as to the exclusive Contracts that the Dutch Company could sufficiently prove in time and place what they have so often alledged and do still alledge as to the right of the said Contracts this is without any reason or ground and certainly if it were their business to prove that Right now the Subscribed would make it appear that there is nothing better grounded the same being all duly explained and limited The Subscribed will finish this their fourth Paper adding only that Mounsieur Van Dam is in no wise satisfied with the proceedings of the English Gentlemen as to his particular and that he could have wished as he mentions in his last Letters that instead of putting his name in the triplique or third Paper in so odious a manner they would have produced the Letter therein mentioned by which it would have appeared that all that Mr. Van Dam wrote about the conduct of the Governour Spellman in the affairs of Bantam was grounded only upon a supposition of things which he had heard and time having discovered them to be false it would not be at all generous to alledge or insist on such a Letter at present Dated at Westminster 3 Decemb. 1685. Signed G. Hooft Iacob Van Hoorne S. V. Blocquery A. Paets The next day being the 4th of December the Lords Commissioners Decisors made some Propositions verbally to the English Deputies to be considered of which Sir Josia Child c. desired their Lordships they might have in writing which was accordingly given them under Mr. Francis Gwyns hand their Lordships Secretary in the following words December the 4th 1685. At the Lord Treasurers Lodgings Present Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Earl Sunderland Earl Middleton It was proposed by their Lordships to Sir Josia Child and the rest of the East-India Company to be considered of First That the Dutch should withdraw their Forces from Bantam and demolish the Fort and leave all things there in the same condition they were before the War between the Father and the Son And that it shall be Lawful for the English to build a Fort without interruption from the Dutch. Secondly That there shall be an agreement that for the future there shall be no Treaty made with the Natives to exclude either Nation from Trading to the places they now Trade in Signed Francis Gwyn The said Proposals were duely considered by the Committee of the East-India Company who made the following Answer unto them the 9th of the said December To the Right Honourable the Lord High Treasure of England Lord Privy Seal the Earl of Sunderland and the Earl of Middleton Lords Commissioners appointed by the Kings most Excellent Majesty for determining the differences between the English and Dutch East-India Companies according to the Treaty of 1674-75 May it Please your Lordships THe Court of Committees for the East-India Company have this day seriously considered the two Propositions made to us by your Lordships the fourth instant at my Lord Treasurers Lodgings And as to the first it is our humble opinion that the Dutch have no sincere meaning that we should live in security at Bantam in Neighbourly Peace and Friendship with them unless they do consent to deliver the Fort undemolished First Because since they do agree to withdraw
after some expostulation with them their Lordships required them to re-consider of their former answer which they did very seriously and with a faithful regard to their bounden duty to His Majesty and the trust reposed in them by the Adventurers made the following address To the Right Honourable the Lord High Chancellor of England The Lord High Treasurer of England the Earl of Sunderland and the Earl of Middleton Lords Commissioners appointed by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for determining the differences between the English and Dutch East-India-Companies according to the Treaty of 1674-75 May it please Your Lordships IN Obedience to your Lordships Commands on Wednesday last We have seriously re-considered our last Paper presented to your Lordships and humbly craving your Lordships pardon for any Error or Offence in the words thereof we think we should fail of our Duty to His Majesty and your Lordships if we should not adhere to the substance of that Paper it being our unfeigned and unanimous opinion that it is more for the Honour and Interest of His Majesty and of His Kingdoms in general That the Treaty of 1674-75 should remain as it is than that any new agreement should be made concerning Bantam except the Fort there be delivered undermolished in part of the Companies great dammages And although in our former Papers presented to your Lordships for the Dutch Deputies view We have given reasons to justifie our demands of the Fort undemolished which we did not at first ask by Sir John Chardin which reasons we humbly conceive the Dutch East-India-Company have not nor can sufficiently answer But now since this Paper is to be seen only by your Lordships and not by the Dutch Commissioners We hope we shall clearly demonstrate to your Lordships that what we first demanded from the Dutch by Sir John Chardin was though not the same in words yet in Reality Effect and Consequence as much or more than we now demand of them For at that time we had a strong Fleet of Three and Twenty Ships with Souldiers in board ready to Sail for Bantam the Old King of Bantam our Friend was then at or near Bantam in the head of a great Army and he had given that City and Countrey to His late Majesty Under which Circumstances at that time if the Dutch had delivered effectual Orders to withdraw their Forces from Bantam we should with that Fleet and that Alliance have been in the possession of the Fort of Bantam immediately on our first arrival there and in a better posture than we can now be with the Fort restored to us undemolished because now the Old King is a Prisoner in the hands of the Dutch and his Army all overcome and dispersed All which is Humbly submitted to your Lordships Signed by Order of the Court of Committees of the East-India Company Rob. Blackborne Secr. East-India-House 2d of Jan. 1685. The foregoing Original papers exhibited to the Lords Commissioners Decisors by the Commissioners Instructors for both Companies we think may give sufficient satisfaction to any indifferent persons not onely of the state of the Controversie but a full justification of the English East-India-Companies Right to have Bantam so restored that they may hope to live there without having their Throats cut or being Stabbed as the English Agent formerly was or without being obnoxious to the having all taken from them in a moment at the pleasure of the Batavians Now because all Sumatra abounds with Pepper they pretend a Right to the whole Territory of that Island which is computed bigger than England full of Inhabitants whereon as they confess are many distinct Kingdoms which are governed by antient Soveraign Hereditary Princes And we dare presume to say They have not Two Hundred Dutch men upon the whole Island and we believe not Ten Dutch Women having no place that we know upon that whole Island able to resist Twenty Europeans but Padang and Pollocinco and their Forts upon them are very inconsiderable neither of them having a Garrison of above Fifty or Sixty Europeans and about the like number of black Fellows which are of no value To Bencoolen they do not now nor ever did pretend but say it belongs or owes subjection to the Young King of Bantam Which if it be true we have rightfully taken possession of it That King being our declared Enemy but we shall say more of that hereafter To Atcheen Pryaman Teco and Indrapoora they did formerly pretend and they may as the Reader will see hereafter with as much reason pretend to all India and so questionless they will in a little time if the Kings of Europe and their respective priviledged Companies will give them leave first to take the principal places and then be content to accept of a little Money for them not the Hundredth part of the true value of them But they must first dispatch this business of Pepper and make that Commodity entirely their own as they have all other Spices already and then they need neither pay nor thank any King or their priviledged Companies of Europe for letting them take all the rest because the profit of that single Commodity if it were in one hand would defray the charge of a power sufficient to defend all the Coasts of India from any new-comers and to enslave the Sea Coasts of all those great Monarchs of the East who though they have great Forces by Land have no Naval power and very little skill in taking of Fortresses being not accustomed to the use of Fire-Arms ☜ We know the World better than to expect a Confession of guilt from States-Men and we know how to distinguish between the Dutch Nation and the Dutch East-India-Company the former may be as in-offensive and Just as any other Nation but the latter doubtless have always been a most injurious people for which difference the famous John De Wit assayes to give a reason in a certain Treatise he hath set forth But our end being not to cavil or contend for mastery in words much less to promote War or dissension with which they unjustly charge the English East-India-Company We shall satisfie our selves if we can obtain a Witness or Justification in the hearts and minds of the good and peaceable men of both Nations for which purpose if any of the States or other of the Dutch Nation dis-interested in these debates doubt the truth of the English Companies Allegations we will ask no more but that to satisfie themselves throughly they would privately discourse some of the Dutch themselves that were at Bantam or Batavia Anno 1682. when Bantam was surprized or at any time since Secondly We would pray them likewise to read their own Histories and observe therein whether most of the wrongs complained of by the English in all ages were not perpetrated by the Dutch Company in time of full Peace viz. The falling upon the English and beating them out of the Trade of Japan The taking from them Lantore
which and the previous Right before mentioned which the King of England hath to that place The English after having drank His Majesty the King of England's Health with the Prince of Orange's the States General 's and the two Companies left the place peaceably telling the Chief they had no Order to make War but to leave the Right of that place to be determined elsewhere which ought to be by Commissioners on both sides in Europe according to the Treaty of 1674-75 But one Circumstance is fit to be added viz. In treating with the Oran Kayes aforesaid at Fort St. George The English President asked them seriously whether they were under any Obligation to the Dutch Which they positively denyed assuring the President c. that the Dutch had no Residence in their Country not so much as a Factory House or Lodge as was most true at that time And for further certainty of their Allegiance to His Majesty said If there were any scattering Dutchmen in their Countrey they would cut their Throats before the English came thither But the President told them That would be an abominable Act in the sight of the true God whom they Worshipped being Mahometans and that the Dutch were the Companies Friends and Christians and therefore he would have nothing to do with them if they offered any violence or hurt to any Dutchman that might be in their Countrey upon any occasion And this is the very Truth and the whole Case of Pryaman as the English do a vouch upon their Faith and Allegiance to God and His Majesty to their Knowledge or Belief And how contrary this is to the Dutch practice in all times any indifferent Reader of any Nation will easily judge But not to let this special Matter of Fact pass without some Testimony upon Oath We have added true Copies of two Affidavits relating thereunto Viz. James Jenifer's Affidavit made in London the 22th October 1686. JAmes Jenifer Second Mate and Purser of the Syam Merchant lately come from the West Coast of Sumatra makes Oath That upon their Sailing from Fort St. George they went first to Pryaman as they were ordered by the President and Council of Fort St. George expecting to find an English Garrison there but on the contrary they met with a Dutch settlement of one Factor as Chief and about Thirty Soldiers Whites and Blacks That Mr. Potts landed with about Fifty Men well Armed of which Men under Mr. Potts this Deponent had the Command That when they came up the Pallisado Gates were open which they entred with their Arms ported no Centinel checking them and that the Chief after they were entred within the Gate met them and askt whether they were Friends which they said they were and the Dutch Soldiers whispered the English in the Ear and told them they had no Bullets in their Musquets and that if the Chief contended they would shoot nothing but Powder desiring the English to do the same for that they were willing to surrender Upon which this Deponent told Mr. Potts if he would give leave they would take the Place presently which Mr. Potts denying said he had no Order to begin a War. This Deponent further saith that the Dutch near Indrapora hired several Mallay Soldiers to surprize the Sloop William and gave them for so doing ten Dollars each Mallay who accordingly did attempt it in the Night and killed two of her Men and that they were set on by the Dutch appeared by the Confession of one of the said Mallays who was seized upon who confessed and declared that they were instigated thereunto by the Dutch and had the Reward aforesaid This Deponent further sayeth That upon their departure from Fort St. George the President and Council gave them the Proclamation for Proclaiming the Succession of our Soveraign Lord the King's Majesty now Reigning in the English Factories upon the West Coast of Sumatra That accordingly he saw His Majesty Proclaimed at Indrapoura with great Solemnity all the English standing bare with their Swords drawn while the Proclamation was read and the Emperour or Sultan and Seven Kings likewise with their Creses drawn and a multitude of the best of the Native Inhabitants in the like posture after which many Volleys of Shot were discharged by the English Seamen and Soldiers on Shoar and all the Guns fired aboard the Ship Syam then in the Road. This Deponent further sayeth that the Dutch had landed near Bencoolen a great many Soldiers most Blacks in the Name of the Young King of Bantam of Four Ships from Batavia with Order to force the English from Bencoolen Upon which several of the English being sickly did retire from the place aboard the Ship but the Chief Mr. Bloom would not stir from his Charge But the said Black Soldiers did not come on to force the English as was expected whether hindred by their own Fear or their Inclination to have the English stay there which is the desire of all the Natives both Javans and Mallays this Deponent cannot resolve but heard that upon such halt of the Black Soldiers the English return'd again from their Ships and remounted all their Guns and resolved upon their Defence And further he cannot say Sworn the 22. Octob. 1686. Before Sir John Moore Signed James Jenifer Stephen Elliot's Affidavit made in London the 30th October 1686. STephen Elliot Marriner aged Twenty One Years or thereabouts maketh Oath That he was one of the Marriners in the Service of the East-India Company in their Sloop the William which was lying at Anchor near Indrapora upon the West Coast of Sumatra That this Deponent went on shoar with the Master of the Sloop in the Evening about the Month of Octob. 1685. And that the same Night as this Deponent was informed by the other Marriners that belonged to the said Sloop there came on Board them several Prowesfull of Men armed with Clubs c. Which the said Marriners perceiving immediately leapt into the Sea and swam on Shoar they being Lascars Natives of India leaving on Board only Three of their Company which were in the Cabin viz. One English-man named Clemuel Ringstead one French man named David Jennett and one Lascar which three Men were immediately murthered by those that came on Board and cut to pieces in a most inhumane manner Soon after the English East-India Companies Factor Mr. Ord who was then at Indrapoora discovered two of the Mallayes Natives of the Island of Sumatra who were of the number of those that assaulted the Sloop as aforesaid by having found some Armes on Board the Ship which belonged to them And Mr. Ord examining them with lighted Matches betwixt their Fingers They confessed that they were employed by the Chief of the Dutch Factory residing at Padang And that they were to receive Ten Dollars each Man for destroying the People in that Sloop And that there were about Fifty Men that came upon that Design These Mallays that so entred the Sloop took away some