I Do hereby License this Book to be Printed and Published White-Hall March 6th 1687-88 SVNDERLAND Pr. An Impartial VINDICATION OF THE English East-India-Company FROM THE Unjust and Slanderous IMPUTATIONS Cast upon Them in a TREATISE INTITULED A Justification of the Directors of the Netherlands East-India-Company As it was delivered over unto the High and Mighty Lords the States General of the United Provinces Translated out of Dutch and Feigned to be Printed at London in the Year 1687. But Supposed to be Printed at Amsterdam as well in English as in French and Dutch. LONDON Printed by J. Richardson for Samuel Tidmarsh at the King 's Head in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange MDCLXXXVIII THE whole Treatise is such a tedious Rhapsody of Fictitious Fallacious Inferences and Arguments confusedly mixt with some distorted Truths spun out to an unnecessary prodigious length that it would be tiresome to the Reader to trace all the Prevarications Mis-Recitals and Sophistry contained in it By which the design of the Author seems to be not onely to impose a false belief upon the vulgar-well-meaning Subjects of those Provinces but even upon the Lords States General Themselves if it were possible Whether we have truly characterized the said Treatise we shall leave to the Judgment of the unbiassed Reader and have therefore caused it to be Reprinted after the Amsterdam Copy and Annexed hereunto And that we may not be guilty of framing a long Story without Coherence Verity or Proof of which we accuse the Author we shall in the first place expose to publick View and Censure true Copies of those Original Papers which passed between the Commissioners of both Companies at London Anno 1685. which will give sufficient Light and Confutation unto the Authors prolix and Erroneous History of those Transactions concerning the Affairs of Bantam And shall then proceed to detect his willful mistakes in other matters and his ill-grounded Arguments by which he endeavours to Honest many Injurious and Insolent Violations of Right done by the Dutch towards the English in India directly contrary to the Articles of Peace In all which we do profess the most Religious sincerity and to write nothing but what we know to be really true or believe in our Consciences so to be upon very sufficient Evidence without using that common Liberty which Advocates think they may innocently do viz. To put the best face they can upon their Clients Cause how bad soever it be which plea we shall be content may be admitted for the Authors Indempnity To omit Credentials and Speeches of Ceremony it was agreed that the Treaty should be managed in French and Sir John Chardin was the Interpreter The Lords Commissioners Decisors for His Majesty were For the States General of the United Provinces The Earl of Sunderland Lord Anth. Heinsius Councellor and Pensionary of the City of Delf Earl of Clarendon John Goes Lord of Absmade Consul of the City of Leyden Earl of Rochester Isaac Vanden Heuvell Councellor Earl of Middleton Adryan de Borssele Vander Hoge Senator of the Supream Court of Holland The Commissioners Instructors for the English-East-India-Company were The Commissioners Instructors for the Dutch East-India-Company Sir Joseph Ashe Baronet Governour The Heer Gerrard Hooft of the Council of Amster Sir Josia Child Baronet Deputy-Governour Jacob Van Hoorn of the Council of Flushing Sir Benj. Bathurst and Sir Jeremy Sambrook Kts Solom Van de Blocquerii and Adrian Paets of the Council of Rotterdam The First Paper of Business which the aforesaid English Commissioners Received from the said Dutch Commissioners Instructors which was Translated into English in the following words Viz. To the Honourable Seigniours Sir Joseph Ashe Barronet Governour of the English East-India Company Sir Josia Child Baronet Deputy-Governour Sir Benjamin Bathurst and Sir Jeremy Sambrooke Knights all Deputies of the said Company for Bantam Affairs WHereas the Directors of the Dutch East-India-Company do desire nothing more earnestly than a good Intelligence between them and the Royal East-India-Company of this Kingdom They also desire nothing more earnestly than to see an end of the differences which would trouble that Intelligence in case it was not from both sides endeavoured with all imaginable care to suppress in the very beginning the seeds of a quarrel of which the progress though short should be able to produce an Evil which after having taken root it would not be easie to dissipate Now forasmuch as the Late King of Great Britain of Glorious Memory and my Lords the States General of the Vnited Provinces being desirous to provide the differences that should arise between both Companies should have no bad consequences have thought fit to Order the Remedy contained in the Treaty of the Year 1674-75 Upon which ground the under-written Deputies of the said East-India-Company of the said Provinces desiring that the differences about Bantam should be determined They do desire your Lordships to concurr with them and proceed upon that Foundation and to deliver to them a Copy of all the pretensions of the English Company touching the Bantam Affairs and also of the justificative Proofs and Deeds upon which they pretend to ground their said pretensions The under-written Deputies being resolved to pursue all the Forms required by Equity and natural Right And because they have been informed that in the Conference of Munday last there were some mistakes they have thought fit to express their mind by Writing and to desire your Honours to give Answer in the same manner Dated at Westminster 27 May 1685. Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Blocquery A. Paets The English Commissioners Instructors their Answer in haec Verba To the Honourable Seigniours Gerard Hooft Jacob van Hoorn Solomon vande Blocquery and Adriaen Paets Commissioners Deputed by the Netherlands East-India-Company touching the Affairs of Bantam IN Answer to your Honours Memorial of the 27th of May it is impossible for the Commissioners of the Netherland East-India-Company to desire a more speedy end of the Affair of Bantam than the English East-India-Company who hath layen under the Oppression of the want of their Residence and Trade there now for above three years besides the great Loss and Spoil sustained at the surprize thereof And the said English Company by us their Commissioners have humbly besought the Lords Commissioners Decisors appointed by His Majesty Our Soveraign Lord the King that the matter of the Restitution of Bantam to His Majesties Subjects may be first Discoursed and Adjusted It having been already consented to by the High and Mighty Lords the States General and the Netherlands East-India-Company that Restitution should be made thereof as appears by the Answer to the Memorial presented by Sir John Chardin at the Hague the 21th of May Anno 1683. And the only difference then remaining upon that subject was the manner of the Restitution So that to enter into proof or any long Debate concerning the manner of the surprize of that Place and of His Majesties Subjects Expulsion
therefrom instead of making a short end of that difference would but retard it Which being once determined to mutual satisfaction we are ready immediately to produce to your Honours a List of our dammages incurred by reason of those Violences offered to our Trade Estate and Servants at Bantam with our Proofs to justifie our said Demands Dated at London first of June 1685. Signed Joseph Ashe Governour Josia Child Deputy Benj. Bathurst Jer. Sambrooke The Second Paper received from the Dutch Commissioners Instructors To the Honourable Sir Joseph Ashe Governour of the English East-India Company Sir Josia Child Deputie-Governour Sir Benjamin Bathurst and Sir Jeremy Sambrook Knights Deputies of the said Company for Bantam Affairs THE underwritten Deputies of the Dutch East-India Company having observed in the Answer of your Honours to their Memorial of the 27 th of the last Month that your Honours do persist in the same Opinion you did maintain in the Conference about the discussion of the business of Bantam having only altered the ground of the said Opinion They the said Deputies cannot but conjure your Honours to call seriously in to your minds all that hath been done as well in Holland as here about the said Affair they being sure that in case your Honours do reflect upon it advisedly and considering that in all the Affair nothing is concluded nor settled your Honours will agree that all the Articles debated and questioned about which Sir John Chardin did demand two Years ago in Holland in the Name of the English Company though without any ground Justice and Satisfaction ought now without any difference or distinction to be judged and determined by the Lords Commissioners Decisors according to the Treaty of the Year 1674-75 which in this present Affair is a Rule and a Law to both Companies Dated at Westminster 5th June 1685. Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Blocquery A. Paets The English Commissioners Instructors their Answer to the Paper last beforegoing To the Honourable Seigniours Gerard Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne Solomon Van Blocquery and Adriaen Paets Deputies for the Honourable Netherlands East-India Company in the Affair of Bantam THE underwritten Deputies for the English East-India Company having well considered your Honours Replication of the 5 th Instant to their Answer of the 27 th May last say That they cannot now require less of your Honours than what was upon very good and justifiable grounds demanded by Sir John Chardin two Years since at the Hague in the Name of our Soveraign Lord the King then Reigning as well as in the Name of His Majesties East-India Company and which was then consented to by the High and Mighty Lords the States General of the Vnited Netherlands viz. The entire withdrawing of all the Dutch Forces from all the Ports and Territories of both or either of the late Kings of Bantam and Restitution of that Place unto His Maiesty it â—eing of more important concern to His Majesty and His Kingdoms in General than it is to His Majesties East-India Company We have lately and for a long time past humbly supplicated His Deceased Majesty of Glorious Memory and Our Soveraign the King now Reigning that the withdrawing the Dutch Forces and Restitution of Bantam as aforesaid may be first finally adjusted before any Treaty be entred into concerning the English East-India Company 's Dammages which we shall alwayes insist upon And in regard the Netherlands East-India Companies Commissaries and Servants in India not satiated with the late Violences they did at Bantam and formerly at Macassar are at this time by the very same injurious Methods as they deprived us of our Factories and Trade of Macassar and Bantam endeavouring to deprive us of the Trade of all places on the Coast of Malabarr to engross to the Netherland's East-India Company the sole and entire Trade of Pepper which would be intolerable to the interested Great Kings of Europe We must therefore further demand of your Honours That the Fort of Bantam which was built with the English East-India Companies Money may be surrendred to His Majesty undemolished The recent Injuries and Hostilities of the Netherland's East-India Companies Commissaries and Servants upon the Coast of Malabar having created to His Majesty an absolute necessity of securing part of the Pepper Trade to his Subjects which we apprehend cannot be done without a strong English Garrison in the South Seas and at no place so well as at Bantam aforesaid Signed Joseph Ashe Governour Josia Child Deputy Benjamin Bathurst Jer. Sambrooke Dated at London June 10th 1685. The Third Paper received from the Dutch Commissioners Instructors To the Honourable Sir Joseph Ashe Governour of the English East-India Company Sir Josia Child Deputy-Governour Sir Benjamin Bathurst and Sir Jeremy Sambrooke Knights Deputies of the said Company for Bantam Affairs WHereas the underwritten Deputies from the Dutch East-India Company in all that hath passed between them and your Honours about the Bantam business since their arrival in London have had no other Scope but to agree with your Honours in the Method of discussing the said Affair They did expect that in regard of sparing time and saving to the Lords Commissioners Decisors the trouble and tediousness of hearing Debates about the Method of proceeding abovesaid your Honours would have consented to it without any further mention of the Affair in it self But since your Honours proceeding and chiefly your last Paper does give to the said Deputies a just Subject to fear it should be the design to treat the said Affair as Negotiators rather than Instructors of a Cause though the last Quality be the only proper to both and that only conform to their Commission They the underwritten must declare to your Honours That since their Power is only to bring the Differences to an Issue by the Method of the Treaty of the Year 1674-75 they likewise will not go from that way in any manner whatsoever as they will more fully expose it in the presence of the Lords Commissioners Decisors Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Blockquery A. Paets Dated at Westminster June 11th 1685. The English Commissioners Instructors their Answer to the foregoing To the Honourable Gerard Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne Solomon Van Blocquery and Adriaen Paets Commissioners deputed by the Netherland East-India Company touching the Affairs of Bantam THE underwritten Deputies of the English East-India Company understand not what ground your Honours can find in their last Memorial or otherwise to suspect they design to avoid the Method of the Treaty of the Year 1673-75 or that they pretend to be Commissioners Decisors which the said Deputies do not but only to be Advisers in this great Affair professing to pursue with all sincerity the Method of that Treaty desiring nothing more than to be the happy Instruments of procuring a right Understanding between the two Companies although considering the constant Inclination and late Proceedings of the Netherland East-India Companyes Commissaries and Servants in India to
Answer That that is so false a suggestion that we cannot think the Dutch themselves believe it And that it is as manifest as the Sun at noon day That the Dutch having beguiled the young King into their power to compass to themselves the entire Trade of that place compelled him to force the English out of his Dominions Otherwise why did he at the same time force away the French Danes Portuguez Moguls Gentues and other Nations against whom no such pretence was or could be made On the whole matter and out of a true and real sence of our bounden Duty and Allegiance to His Majesty and the vast Concernment Bantam is not to us but to His Majesties Honour and Interest We humbly propose that this Affair of the Restitution may be fully adjusted before any Treaty be entred upon concerning the Dammages sustained by His Majesties East-India Company of which notwithstanding we herewith present your Lordships the best Accompt we can until we receive Copies of those Batavia Books which were lost in the Ship Surrat Merchant Signed Josia Child Deputy Govern. Benjamin Bathurst Jeremy Sambrook Dated 24th June 1685. The English East-India Companies Demands from and upon the Dutch East-India Company for Damages sustained by them by reason of the surprize of Bantam 1 THE English East-India Company have thereby lost their Factory and all the buildings thereon depending which they value at l. 25000. 2 They have lost all their Priviledges purchased by many great Presents given to the Kings and the Great Men which they value at l. 20000.  l. 45000 3 The Trade of that place is invaluable to the King and Kingdom though we estimate it here for the Five Years we have been out of possession but at 80000. 4 For Loss upon the Sale of several Ships used and appropriated to the Trade of Bantam VIZ. Pieces of Eight On the Return 8000 Formosa 4000 Tywan 2600 Bantam Pink 3000 Pieces of Eight 17600 at 5s 4400. 5 For Losses on our Slaves being forced to give away several of them their Diet at Batavia their Passage to and Dyet at Surrat Pieces of Eight 1500 375. 6 For our Factors Charge at Batavia after they were forced from Bantam when they could not manage the Companyes Trade Pieces of Eight 16000 4000. 7 For several Goods lost in our Removal from Bantam to Batavia and loss on several sent from thence We estimate at 10000. 8 For several Debts owing to us by both the Kings and other Grat Men the Principal 50000.  l. 193775 9 For Demorage of several Ships kept at Batavia as the Emoy Merchant Kempthorne Return Formosa and Tywan which otherwise would have been loaden from Bantam 10000. 10 The Loss of the Ship Surrat Merchant being detained so long at Batavia that she was forced to go to Sillebar for Pepper being kept so long in the Country that she was never heard of 40000. 11 The Charge of our Removal from Bantam to Batavia and thence to Surrat and Loss of Goods of which we have no Accompt for want of our Books not yet received we cannot be exact in but estimate at 12000. The Loss of Bantam for the Pepper Trade there for England and the China and South Seas Trade driven from thence is to the King and Kingdom invaluable  The Charge of a Fleet of 23 Sail of great Ships prepared for the Recovery of Bantam and after they were ready to Sail were diverted by His late Majesties Command upon the Dutch Embassadors sollicitation to the Company 's Damage at least 100000.  Total 355775. When the Company shall return to the Possession of Bantam it will cost them in Ships Soldiers Ammunition and Fortifications before they are fully settled above 100000 Pounds Signed Josia Child Deputy Govern. Benjamin Bathurst Jeremy Sambrook Dated 24th June 1685. Another Paper presented in French by the English Commissioners Instructers to the Lords Commissioners Decisors with the Copies of the several Vouchers making good our Demands To the Most Honourable the Lords Commissioners appointed by the King 's Most Excellent Majestie 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 Deputies for the Netherlands East-India-Company having on the 10 th of this Instant September requested before your Lordships to have Copies of what the English East-India Company do complain against them and sight of the Proofs The said East-India Company do herewith humbly present your Lordships with the Companies just complaints and the Proofs thereof put into French by Sir John Chardin which most of the Witnesses are in Town ready to confirm The said Company do insist upon that Memorial that was first presented to His Majesty of which the Copy is hereunto annexed and that with His Majesties leave the matter of the Restitution of Bantam to His Majesties Subjects may be first discussed and adjusted It having been already consented to by the High and Mighty Lords the States General and the Netherlands East-India Company that Restitution should be made thereof as appears by their Answer to the Memorial presented by Sir John Chardin at the Hague the 21. May 1683. And although His late Majesty upon the humble Petition of His Majesties East-India Company did formerly only demand from the Dutch the withdrawing of all their Forces from Bantam and the Territories thereunto belonging or which did belong to both or either of the late Kings of Bantam on the 14 th day of March 1681-82 And the satisfying the East-India Company for the Damages sustained by reason of the unjust surprizal thereof Our later advices from India have given us sufficient reason to justify our further demand of surrendring the Fort of Bantam undemolished before any Treaty be entred upon concerning the particular Damages sustained by the Company For which increase of our Demands we humbly offer to your Lordships the following Reasons Eight of these Reasons were the same as in the foregoing Paper of the 24 th of June with this Addition 9ly We are well assured and hope to produce convincing proofs to your Lordships that the Dutch of Batavia since they betrayed the young King of Bantam into their Power have compelled him to sign Articles in prejudice of the English Nation and agreeable to those in print which they made with the King of Macassar the business of Bantam being but exactly the same Game played over again iutirely which they formerly acted at Macassar and may do as many times more as they please And we have reason to believe will till they are possessed of all the East-India Trade exclusive to the other European Nations if they be not forced by his Majesty out of that Plea by compelling them to make a just Restitution of Bantam And although we humbly conceive the notoriety of the Fact at Bantam is sufficient to convince all indifferent Judges of the Justice of our Complaint and Demands and that to add any further proofs to
the Invasion of Bantam have not only Obstructed but Hostilely Invaded our Trade and shot at our Servants with Bullets on the Coast of Malabar to deterr and beat them off from that little Remainder we had there of the Pepper Trade To which the Subscribers Answer That the Dutch Company having taken from the Portugals when they had War with them the Towns and Forts which they possest on the Coast of Malabar It was not unjust for the said Company to enjoy the Advantages of their Victory with excluding of all those who without having shared with them in the Charges and Dangers of the War pretend to a share in their Conquest although they have the Trade of all the North part of Malabar free and open where is a great deal of Pepper and where the Dutch Company hath very little or no Trade and which produce much greater profit to the English Company without being at any Charge of keeping Towns and Forts That the Hollanders assaulted the English fireing upon them as it is said in this Article The Subscribers protest they knew nothing of it and that they do not even believe any thing of it since the Letters from Batavia make no mention of it The second Article speaking of the Money which the English Company had lent to the Young King of Bantam and with which the Fort was built is a thing does not in the least concern the Dutch Company and of which they know nothing Besides That when they make up their Accompts with the King of Bantam he will discharge himself of his Debts by a just Compensation The third Paragraph making mention of an Assassination which the Dutch Company abhors shews a great inclination to Suspition and Jealousie which ought to be banisht from the Mind to re-establish a good Understanding between the two Companyes The fourth Article is a Dilemma couched in these Terms Because if the Old King of Bantam had a Right to Bantam and to the Territories thereof they are now His Majesties by his Donation of them to the late King of ever blessed Memory If the Right thereof lyes as the Dutch say in the Young King He hath been so inhumane and ungrateful and bloody an Enemy to His Majesties Subjects confessedly without the least Cause or Provocation on their Parts that we humbly conceive His Majesties Honour cannot be repaired without invading his City and Country and the rather because though he be called a King he is in Truth none but a perfect Slave to the Batavians and an Executioner of their Will and Pleasure As to the first fork of this Argument because it is evident that the Old King of Bantam having resigned His Kingdom to his eldest Son could not give it afterwards to any other so that the inference which ought to be made from it is against the English Company As for the second part of the Dilemma viz. If this Right belongs to the Young King and that it be true that he hath been so inhumane ingrateful and bloody an Enemy to His Majesties Subjects without the least provocation One may indeed inferr a great deal from it but nothing which can support the demand of the English Company from That of Holland As there can be nothing inferred from it against the Young King of Bantam if for good Reason as he maintains he has he shewed his resentment against the English But it must be observed here by the by that when they are to reproach the Young King they say he has been an inhumane ungrateful and bloody Enemy to His Majesties Subjects without the least cause or provocation But when the Hollanders are to be charged and to make them pass for the Authors of the expulsion of the English from Bantam the language is changed and it is said that there could not be observed either in the Kings looks or words the least thing which shewed any resentment against or that he had any design of turning them out of his Countrey The Fifth Sixth and Ninth Articles have been examined before Of the Seventh The Gentlemen of the Dutch Company never knew nor believe any thing To the Eighth it is answered That the Young King was perswaded as it appears by Tack's Relation marked O. and that of Heinsius marked N. that all those which he had drove out of his Countrey had assisted his Enemies Thus is the Apology of the Dutch Company finished and the English Companies Demands destroyed There remains now nothing more but to relate in a word the Demands of the Dutch Company for the Hire of their Ships of which the Gentlemen of the English Company at Bantam promising to pay the Freight made use of to Transport their persons and Effects from thence to Batavia and which afterwards were made use of instead of Magazines to the great dammage of the Dutch Company who had desired them to be returned to them to carry their own Merchandize The Ships which the Gentlemen of the English Company used are these following The Europe of 1200 Tuns which was at the disposal of the English from the 16th of April 1682. until the 13th of August of the same year and by consequence four Months each Month at 1000 l. Sterling for four Months l. 4000 New Middleburgh of 1000 Tuns was delivered to the English the 22th of April 1682. and was not unladen and discharged until the 22th of November of the same Year and therefore seven Months each Month at 900 l. Sterling 6300 Â l. 10300 T. Wont of Burthen 200 Tuns was used from the first of May until the first of July being two months each at 200 l. sterling amounts to for the two Months 400 Delfshaven Burthen 900 Tons was from the 13th of April until the 13th of August that is to say four Months each Month at 800 l. sterling amounts for the four Months to 3200 The whole Freight of the Ships together amounts to l. 13900 And the Subscribers relying entirely upon the Justice and Right of the Dutch Company as well in Relation to their Defence as to their Re-convention they hope your Excellencies will acquit them from the English Companies Demands and that you will condemn the English Company to pay to the Dutch Company for the Freights of the said Ships the said sum of 13900 l. sterling besides Dammages and Interest Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Bloquery A. Paets Dated at Westminster 13th Octob. 1685. The Reply of the English Commissioners Instructors to the last foregoing Paper humbly presented to the Lords Commissioners Decisors To the Most Honourable the Lords Commissioners appointed by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for determinig the differences between the English and Dutch East India-Companies according to the Treaty of 1674-75 Right Honourable 1. WE should admire at the Voluminousness of the Deputies for the Dutch East-India-Companies Answer especially considering how valuable Your Lordships time is But that looking back for many years past we find it is one of the Old
the story of it could be invented by the English Deputies who refer themselves to the memory of one of your Excellencies but believe that time may have obliterated the traces of remembrance of it it not being at all credible that a man so circumspect as Monsieur Van Dam should think fit to reprove in a Letter the behaviour of Governour Spillman in relation to the Affairs of Bantam without having cleared to the bottom the proceedings of the said Government which is incompatible with that which the said Monsieur Van Dam has since judged and still judges concerning the Affairs of Bantam being so fully perswaded of the right of the Dutch Companies pretensions and the wrong of that of England in these Affairs that all the Letters which the under-written have received from them concerning the matter of Bantam during their stay in England are markes full of this perswasion So that it cannot be doubted without doing great injustice to Monsieur Van Dam but that the said Letter was only conditional that is to say that he condemned the behaviour of Spillman only in case that the news which his friend might have sent him were true The English Deputies have also very well understood the sence of the under-written who as they in the same Eighth Paragraph had bestowed on them the gift of prophecy For it is evident that the under-written deducing in their answer the Argument of Cui Bono as the English Deputies calls it to prove that it was morally impossible for those at Batavia to make a difference between the Old and Young King of Bantam with the prospect of taking advantage of the success of this War unless that by the gift of Prophecy they could be able to penetrate into the secrets of futurity which is remote from the sense which the English Deputies wrest from these words As the under-written confessed frankly that they do not very well understand the true sense of the last words of the same paragraph by reason of the frequent parenthesis are a little puzled they will make no answer to it But yet if the English Deputies do there offer to prove by irrefragable Arguments that the Dutch have driven the English from Bantam the under written will be very glad to be present at this proof not only that they may be able to destroy it but also to learn by what new sort of Logick they can prove by irrefragable arguments Facts which are proved by no deposition of any Witness without which notwithstanding Facts cannot be proved which depend on the testimony of the senses The Ninth Article of the said Reply shews also the little heed which the English Deputies have given to the Answer of the under-written as to the accusation which they talk of viz. the Dutch Deputies that the English should plunder their house at Bantam 't is equally ridiculous false and impossible in the posture wherein things were then for the English to do for so soon as the Dutch Landed there was a Report spread abroad that all the English were to be Massacred that night it is onely to read the answer of the under-written to be satisfyed that it has not pleased the English Deputies to give themselves the trouble of reading with the least application the Dutch Companies Apology wherein upon the matter of the plundering of the Dutch Factory these following words will be found It ought not to be wondred at that the King having re-taken the Town of Bantam from his Enemies wherewith he was encompassed should cause the motions of the English to be watched as well as the entry and going out of the Ships in the apprehension wherein he was some ill design might be carried on against his person estate And that in the confusion wherein the Affairs were then the goods of other Men were taken away which the Directors of the English Company themselves could no more have prevented than they could have hindred in the time when the Old King made himself Master of the Town of Bantam and that the Dutch Resident Caeff was forced to take flight to shelter himself from the violence of the Bantamers some English probably without the knowledge of their Masters from plundering the Dutch Factory There is no cause to doubt at present that after the reading of these words but that the English Deputies will themselves perceive their Error and the little care which they have taken to understand the sense of the under-written since it appears evidently in the said passage the time is not spoken of in which the Dutch Landed at Bantam as the English Deputies have understood it but the time when the old King made himself Master of Bantam and that the Dutch Resident Caess was forced to take flight There is certainly nothing more troublesome or tiresome than to see ones self forced to clear passages so very evident But as this without doubt ought to be attributed to the great Affairs the English Deputies have on their hands The under-written easily perswade themselves that in this negligence there is neither design nor mystery The Objections which the English Deputies make to themselves in the Tenth paragraph of their Reply and the Solution which they give to it shews that they have difficulty enough to reconcile the encroachments of the Dutch with the flourishing condition of the English Company As the under-written Deputies confess that the credit of the Dutch Company is engaged to His Majesty of Great Brittain as the English Deputies say in the Eleventh paragraph of their Reply The under-written deny expresly that That Faith ought to be violated in acquitting themselves of that which the Dutch Company owed to the King of Bantam by vertue of the Leagues which they have made with this Prince The Twelfth paragraph is injurious to the Dutch Company which far from not keeping their Faith makes a constant profession of acquitting themselves of it every where and towards all The under-written not observing any thing more in the following Articles which deserves any reflection we will persist to desire that Your Excellencies by your sentence will acquit the Dutch Company from the demands of that of England and that you will adjudge to the Dutch Company what they demand in Re-convention Dated at Westminster Nov. 19th 1685. Signed by G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Blockquery A. Paets The Fourth Paper presented by the English Commissioners Instructors to the Lords Commissioners Decisors being in further Answer to the Papers presented by the Dutch Deputies Viz. To the Most Honourable the 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 Right Honourable WE are sorry and ashamed that we are necessitated to waste Your Lordships time but if the Dutch Deputies will persist injuriously to charge us with calumniating them because we are forced very gently and argumentatively only to touch some of their too
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
Samuel Potts his Letter of 23 d. September 1686. from Indrapoura and his Protest of the 31 th of July But if the Dutch had no manner of Contract for the Pepper at Batam Capasse How vile will it appear to all men indued with the least Tincture of Honesty The Extract of Mr. Potts his Letter before mentioned AND as for my proceeding thither the 16 th July departed hence with what Soldiers and Servants I thought convenient to carry along with me to the Number of Forty with whom I went down to the Qualla of Indrapoura where I found Orran Caq Lillam Rajah with the Mandareenes and People of Mauduta to the Number of about Four Hundred who were then going to pay their Respects to the Manumcabbo his two Sons Ampitwan Doa Sella and so accompanied me to Batan Capass and having then three Sloops in the Road did order them to meet me and make the best of their way thither for betrer carrying on of our settlement there My self setting forward by Land towards the Emperours Sons who waited our coming at Pangason and from thence we proceeded to Batan Capass with the Princes and Mandareenes c. of Banda Sapeula to the Number of above Two Thousand And in Five Dayes time arrived with me at Batan Capass and ordered me to settle where I thought most convenient notwithstanding the Dutch were come to settle there and had pitched themselves on the other side the River three Dayes before upon a small Rock and were very busie to fence themselves against any Enemy that should oppose them Notwithstanding the Emperour and Mandereenes ordered them to withdraw declaring to them that the Countrey was given by them to His Majesty the King of England for the use of the Honourable English East-India Company and that the Dutch never had had any such grant from the Emperour of Mamuncabbo for their Residence there The same day we arrived the Dutch sent us a Protest the Contents whereof was to advise us to be careful of the Mallayans and if they did cut us off or otherwise do us any harm we must not impute it to them seeing we were good Friends and at Peace one with another alledging also that we did them great injustice by settling at Bencoolen and Indrapoura which as they said was formerly given to them In answer to which in two dayes after I returned them another Protest as appears by a Copy of the same Dated the 31 st July 1686. Next having resolved on a place which we thought most convenient and commodious We first brought our Guns and Ammunition on shoar and planted them round our House which we found ready put up in the place and the next day the Emperour his two Sons c. Mandareens did hoist up His Majesties Flag with their own Hands and then we all fell to work for a Pallasado our selves in which accordingly we did finish in few dayes time The Dutch in the mean time continually using their utmost endeavours both by Night and Day to fortifie themselves so strong as they could to which end they brought two Sloops into the River just before the place where we were setled and in the largest Sloop the Chief of them did most commonly reside having on Board and on shoar with him near One Hundred and Fifty Dutchmen and Mustezees besides Mallayans and other Nations In this posture of Defence we both lay almost Three Weeks All which time neither side did molest each other Notwithstanding all the while the Dutch were urgent with their Mallayans to set upon us but seeing they would not effect their designed ends by such perswasions as they had used withdrew all their Mallayans and most part of their Dutchmen about Three Leagues distance to the Northward intending as the Emperour and his People thought to go further into the Country and to destroy it and the Houses thereof but especially the Town of Battan Capass To prevent the same the Manumcabbo and his two Sons withdrew themselves and their force from me excepting about Sixty or Seventy Mallayans they left to keep their Works The next day after the Emperour and his force had withdrew themselves it being Fryday the 20 th August which is constantly their Market day several of the Countrey People having brought Provisions to sell there being a very considerable number together Buyers and Sellers with others fighting of Cocks the Dutch took that opportunity in hopes of making a great slaughter to terrifie the people and to discourage them from coming near us or to bring any Provisions for us they fired one of the biggest Guns they had which was loaden with a double headed shot but missing the mark which I suppose they aimed at luckily instead of hitting the people it struck against a Tree very near to our Palisadoes and there broke in two one piece whereof was kept to shew the Emperour the other for me when I returned at Night being gone that day to accompany the Emperour at Battan Capass with whom at his request I left two Englishmen and a Moorman with the English Colours whom they promised to protect and that nothing should be wanting to them at which the said Englishmen were well satisfied and continued with them The next Morning I sent Mr. Samuel Worley Serjeant to know the Reasons why they fired over our Factory and at our People and withal to tell the Chief that I should send the piece to His Majesty the King of England and acquaint His Majesty how they abused His Subjects here The Chief not being there told his Message to an Ensign that was left there as Chief until the other returned who answered as followeth I wonder you should take so much notice of one or two Shots and pointing with his Finger to a parcel that lay near him said he We have a great many more of them And accordingly to make his Words good the same Afternoon Saturday the 21 th did fire two shots more in the same Nature as the others by which means our Mallayans were so terrified that the greater part of those which were left went away from us and they perceiving of it that few were left with us the same Night by Boats and Prows brought back all their Mallayans c. landed them by day light the next Morning at their own settlement and presently afterwards embarqued themselves in the said Boats with a considerable quantity of Dutchmen along with them carrying what force they could make and so landed them on our side with fireing of several great Guns from their Sloop beside small shot running with all the force and fury they could upon those few Mallayans we had left us who were standing by Three small Guns without our Pallasadoes which they fired and so run away the Dutch pursuing of them for a short time then stood and drew up all their Mallayans together and returning came upon us standing at the entrance of our Pallasadoes at which time Mr. Mackalon their Chief
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
pieces and spiked them had killed about sixty might have easily killed many more as the Officers gave in their Report had they not been called off upon this occasion viz. towards the Evening of that day the fight began came a Gentleman from the Dutch Factory of the quality of a Second well known to the Agent he addrest himself in Portugueez and the Agent and he carryed on the discourse in Portugueez and Dutch which this Deponent not being acquainted with desired the Agent to tell it him in English which he did to this Effect This Gentleman says the Agent comes from Dutch Commissary to congratulate the English for the good success they have had against their Enemies And says that they themselves had begun but now the English have taken that honour out of their hands Withal he told the Agent that many of the Natives and I think the Phousdar a great Officer in that place entreated the Commissary to interceed with the English Agent for Mercy for that there were divers houses then on fire that unless the English Soldiers were stayed they would burn down the Town and kill all the People And that the Agent would be entreated to forbear till they the Natives could write to the Nabob at Decca for Orders to satisfie the English Demands The Agent on this the Dutch Intercession stayed the Souldiers from further killing or plunder that night though he caused two or three of the English Vessels to ply the Town with shooting to prevent new recruits in the night and to awe the place There was great care taken by the Agent that in this broyl the Dutch should not suffer in their persons or affairs but should be used with respect and the Dutch desiring it an Order was given that no Merchant Banyan or other Native being in the Dutch service should be molested and where their Servants the Natives goods were seized upon assurance from the Dutch that they did belong to their service they were presently restored And whereas the English kept a Guard upon the River to command it yet all such Boats and Vessels which did belong to the Dutch or did wear their colours did freely pass without stop or interruption though the Rowers and such who sailed them were Natives and at that time Enemies to the English And this Deponent saith that in all that fight and conflict with the Natives the English lost but one man and no more Thomas Ley. Septimo die Martii 1687. Jurat coram me John Shorter Major The Pages of the aforesaid Treatise beginning again about the middle of the Book which is of two parts the Reader will observe that the lower number of Pages we are now at are in the second part of the Amsterdam Copy Where in Page the 14 and 15. They say and what concerns Bencoolen it is true the English some years past came with their Forces and possessed themselves thereof under pretext that the old King of Bantam had during the Civil Wars in which he was taken prisoner granted to them free Trading and Habitation at Syllabar but being driven out of the last place by the forces of the King that now reigneth in Bantam they retired to Bencoolen and built a Fortress there where they yet keep their abode and from thence did transport and Wrest out of our hands a very considerable part of Pepper We say Wrested Forasmuch as it was by Contract with Bantam made over to us whereby although they have intruded into what belonged unto us to our great detriment yet we will pass that by as not being ignorant that such manner of Contracts and Obligations made with Princes in Those Countreys where we have only Lodges or Factories do give us no full Right actually to hinder other Nations for to buy and transport their Commodities but must leave it to the disposal of him that is Lord and Master of those Countries This Confession comes near to the truth but is not the whole Truth as has been before and will hereafter be further demonstrated and yet by this confession they must own not only our Right at Bencoolen but themselves in the wrong intirely at Indrapoura where they had neither Factory Lodge nor Dutchman and where the English had settled and fortified themselves not only with the consent but to the great joy of seven Soveraign Kings And this confession will by consequence convict them of doing injury and unjustly seating themselves at Pryaman and more especially at Batan Capass after those Kings had surrendred their Countrey to His Majesty and came in person to avow their doing it to the Dutch-Men themselves and the Dutch Chief then present did not so much as urge for his excuse any previous Contract with those Kings or any defect of Title those Kings had so to Convey their Countrey unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors for the use of His Majesty's East-India-Company which doubtless he would have done if he had known of any such Right or pretences which have been since invented to excuse that villanous act Besides supposing the pretences to excuse that act which are now made in the aforesaid Treatise were not inventions but realities such real grounds or pretences of Contracts can never justifie the Dutch for using force and arms against the English in a time of peace for matters which it s confessed ought by the Treaty of 1674-75 to have been amicably determined by Commissioners on both sides in Europe And it is very well known to the Kings Majesty now reigning and all the Honourable Lords then of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Council that when the English Company had been at the cost of about One Hundred Thousand pounds for fitting out a Fleet of three and twenty Sail of great Ships with about one thousand Land Souldiers and some of the said Fleet were departed and others advanced on their Voyage as far as the Downs The Dutch Embassadors prevailed with his late Majesty and the Lords then Ministers to command the English Company to forbear recovering Bantam by Arms upon this very ground That by Treaty aforesaid of 1674-75 such matters and differences in India ought not to be determined by Arms but by Commissioners as aforesaid and the distinction which the Dutch would make between the Maliayans and their own people in doing that mischief at Batan Capass every one knowes is a distinction without a difference those Mallayans being their hyred Servants as appears by the Protest and Affidavit aforesaid relating to that business For if the Dutch should be accountable onely for what they do by Native Dutchmen there would be found very few of them in India to be accompted with besides Merchants Nine Tenth parts of their force in India such as it is being by Computation of Forreigners or a mixture of all European Nations as well as Natives Macassars Buggesses Ballees Turnatteens Javans Mallayans Madagascar Slaves Topasses or black Portugueez which will serve any Nation for Money Page 26. Of
engross the whole Trade of Pepper which if attained will consequently destroy the English Navigation and carry with it the Universal Trade of India in all other Commodities as well as Pepper The said Deputies therefore have been obliged in duty to inform His Most Sacred Majesty and the Lords Commissioners Decisors as they intimated to Your Honours in their last Paper what they judged to be the only means to preserve any part of the English Trade in India and to lay the foundation of an Everlasting Peace between the two Companies Which opinion the said Deputies are ready not only to Defend and Submit to the Lords Commissioners Decisors according to the Treaty of the Year 1674-75 but to demonstrate to their Lordships that all other tedious circumstantial discourses tend only to protract time Signed Joseph Ashe Governour Josia Child Deputy Benj. Bathurst Jer. Sambrooke Dated at London 17 June 1685. The Fourth Paper Received from the Dutch Commissioners Instructors To the Honorable Gentlemen Sir Joseph Ashe Baronet Governour of English East-India-Company Sir Josia Child Baronet Deputy-Governour Sir Benjamin Bathurst and Sir Jeremy Sambrooke Knights Deputies of the said Company for the Affairs of Bantam ALthough the under-written Deputies of the East-India-Company of the United Provinces cannot assure themselves well to understand the true sense of the Memorial that they received from your Honours yet they find themselves obliged to Witness how much they are satisfied with the protestation they have made not long to defer the discussion of the Controversies about Bantam in the form prescribed by the meeting in the Year 1674-75 To which seeing the under-written Deputies have been a long time conformable they shall be very glad that the said controversies may be debated as soon as possible according to the same Form before the Lords Commissioners that must decide it Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Bloquery A. Paets Dated at Westminster 19th June 1685. Whereupon the English Commissioners Instructors did present unto the Lords Commissioners Decisors the following Paper Together with their Demands for Dammages sustained by the surprize of Bantam To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for determination of Differences between the English and Dutch East-India-Companies occasioned by the late surprize of Bantam 1. IN Obedience to Your Lordships commands intimated to us in the Robes Chamber at White-Hall the 17th Instant We do humbly present your Lordships with Copies of all Papers that have passed between the Dutch Commissioners Instructors and our Selves since their Arrival in England We do humbly offer it to your Lordships as our Opinion and the Opinion of all English Men that have any knowledge of the Affairs of India That nothing less than the withdrawing of all the Dutch Forces from Bantam and the Territories thereof belonging to both or either of the late Kings of Bantam on the 14th day of March 1681-82 and the surrender of the Fort of Bantam unto His Majesty undemolished can prevent the Dutch from being immediately Masters of the entire Trade of Pepper And what fatal consequences to His Majesty and His Kingdoms do depend upon such their Engrossing of that Trade we have Demonstrated in Writing to His late Majesty of Blessed Memory And the Memorial relating thereunto now remains in the hands of the Clerks of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council And although His late Majesty did only demand from the Dutch the withdrawing of all their Forces from Bantam c. and the satisfying the East-India-Company for the dammages sustained by reason of the unjust surprisal thereof Our later advices from India have given us sufficient Reasons to justifie our further Demand of having the Fort of Bantam delivered to His Majesty undemolished for the following Reasons 1. Because as we foresaw when we humbly presented our Memorial aforesaid to His late Majestie The Dutch have since not only obstructed but Hostilely invaded our Trade and shot at our Servants with Bullets on the Coast of Mallabar to deter and beat them off from that little remainder we had there of the Pepper Trade 2. We since understand that the Dutch have so miserably enthralled and improverished both the late Kings of Bantam that they are not now both able to pay us 5 l. of that vast Debt they owe us otherwise than by that Fort of Bantam which was built with the Money the young King owed us and the Guns mounted on the said Fort are our own Guns for which we were never paid 3. Because the Young King as we have been credibly informed and do believe assassinated formerly our Agent and Factors though for what Cause or who instigated them thereunto we know not And now the Dutch say it was He the said Young King and not They that commanded us away from Bantam And therefore we dare not without a strong Garrison to defend us trust our Servants and Estates in his Dominions neither will any go thither that are worth sending without such security be provided for their Lives 4. Because if the Old King of Bantam had a right to Bantam and to the Territories thereof They are now His Majesties by His Donation of them to the late King of ever Blessed Memory If the Right thereof lyes as the Dutch say in the Young King He hath been so inhumane ungrateful and bloody an Enemy to His Majesties Subjects confessedly without the least Cause or Provocation on their part that we humbly conceive His Majesties Honour cannot be repaired without invading his City and Countrey And the rather because though he be called a King he is in truth none but a perfect Slave to the Batavians and an Executioner of their will and pleasure 5. If the Dutch say the Young King is their Allie and they are bound in honour to protect him We say by that Rule there can never be Peace between the English and the Dutch in India And they may be as good Right easily make a Quarrel between any other Indian Princes and their Neighbours or their own Sons or Brothers and then take a side and condition with the prevailing side to turn us and all other Europeans out of their Countries and we must not revenge our Selves because they will protect such injured and injurious Princes as their Allies Whereas by the Articles of Peace the English and Dutch ought mutually to assist and help each other 6. This is an old practice of the Dutch So they made a quarrel with the Macassars and when the differing Princes were equally matched they assisted one side which turned the ballance and they conditioned with the prevailing side to turn the English Nominatim and all other Europeans out of their Countrey 7. The Dutch were doing the same thing again between two Kings or Rajas on the Coast of Mallabar when our last Letters came from that Coast 8. If the Dutch say the old King was assisted by the English against his Son the Young King and therefore he turned the English out of his Countrey We
Deputies of the Company of the said Provinces who have the honour to defend before your Excellencies the Right and the Innocency of their Company to spare your Excellencies the trouble of an obscure and perplext discourse will endeavour as much as it is possible for them to unfold the matter and to govern their Defence by the order of nature which enlightens with its clearness the subject proposed to be treated of and deviding for this reason their answer into two principal parts they will consider in the first place the nature of the demand of the English Company in its proper scope and will afterwards examine upon what it is founded As to the first point since the demand ought to be the Basis and foundation of a Judicial Decision the underwritten Deputies could have wished that the Commissioners of the English Company in relation to the point of their Re-establishment in Bantam would have explained with more clearness than they have done in their Memorial which they exhibit instead of a demand for although there be there mentioned the Restitution of Bantam and the delivery of the Fort of the said Town and lastly the recalling of the Dutch forces from Bantam and out of all the Territories which depend upon the said Town and that whole Kingdom almost in the same terms with the Memorial of the said Commissioners of the English Company of the Tenth and of the Seventeenth of June wherein besides the re-calling of the Hollanders Forces they pretend that the Town of Bantam should be restored as they word it into the hands of His Majesty The under-written Deputies could never without difficulty nor can yet believe that the expression concerning the Restitution of Bantam could be expected to be understood literally For since before the last War of Bantam the English Company had in the Capital City but a house and Residence without having had there or pretended to any Right or Territory it 's unconceivable with what appearance of Justice it can pretend to that which it never possest and to what it hath never had any real pretence founded upon propriety Dominion which not only according to the Civil Law but also according to that of Nature ought to be the ground of a real action Rei vindicatio besides that it is not to be comprehended to demand more than it hath lost viz. The City and Fort of Bantam instead of a House which the Company there possest and of which the King of Bantam hath driven the English out of Bantam and from whom doth the English Company demand the City and Fort of Bantam From the Company of Holland which enjoys there only a bare Residence without any Right of Territory or Authority which is intirely inherent in the person of the King. But how should they dispose of the City of Bantam And in what manner shall they put it into the Hands of the English shall they drive away the King of Bantam from it Whom notwithstanding the Honour which the late King of Great Brittain of glorious Memory did him by the Reception of his Ambassadors and the great respects which the English Company shewed to him in the Letter they Writ to him in the Year 1682 They would now make pass for a pitiful fellow and a slave to Batavia But it may be they would have the Dutch Company make the King of Bantam yeild up the said Town to the English But in what manner Probably by threatning the Indian Prince to leave him to the mercy of his Enemies by withdrawing the Dutch. Troops from Bantam But if the government of Batavia be obliged to maintain and protect the King against his Enemies as it is really and effectually engaged to do must they break their word and falsifie their faith to accommodate the English Company in Bantam This would be unjust and by consequence morally impossible as are all things which cannot be compassed with Justice and publick Faith which there is as much obligation to keep with an Indian Prince as there is with the most considerable and most potent King of the whole Earth Against which the politick remark of the Commissioners of the English Company in the 5th Paragraph of their demand signifies nothing where the say That to alledge the obligation of protecting an Allye is but a politick artifice to Banish for ever peace between the English and the Dutch in India because there will be nothing more easie than to make War by these means between any other Princes and their Neighbours or their Sons or Brothers and then take a side and condition with the prevailing side to exclude the English and all other Europeans For although it would be a very base and Criminal action to make quarrels between Indian Princes especially with an intention to make advantage of them against the Europeans yet no man in his Right senses can doubt but that according to the Law of Nations it is Lawful for any Europeans to make Treaties and Alliances with Indian Princes which make a very considerable part of man-kind and that the abuse which may be made of this is no more able to take away this liberty than evil usage which European Princes may make and do very often of their Alliances can deprive them of their Right of making them when they think fit That the Artifice of which the English Commissioners speak viz. of making a War between the Indian Princes to exclude the English from the Trade as they say in the Sixth and Seventh Paragraphs of their demands is an old and discovered trick of the Dutch they will never prove But it will be seen on the contrary in the sequel of this Answer that the Government of Batavia cannot be accused to having either kindled or fomented the War of Bantam of which is now treated or perfidiously drawing the young King under their Yoke but by want of Charity and a passionate Spirit which discovers it self in the End of their Demands wherein they seem to wish His Majesty would decide by force of Armes an Affair upon which on each part we ought with a Spirit of Submission and Acquiescency to wait for the judgment of your Excellencies As to the second point viz. The Justice of the Demand and the Ground upon which it is founded which ought to be the truth of the Complaints of the English Company against that of Holland upon the matter of Bantam the underwritten Persons can't doubt but that your Excellencies will think fit and proper before the matter be entred into that it be examined if it be true that on the parts of the High and Mighty Lords the States-General and on that of the Dutch Company it hath been agreed as the Commissioners of the English Company do alledge that Restitution should be made of Bantam the discussion of which Affair as a preliminary Questio prejudicialis ought to precede the examination of the truth of the Complaints in which consists the principal cause for in Effect
the English Commissioners would have reason if the Affair concerning the Restitution of Bantam were determined by their High and Mightinesses and the Company of Holland not to ingage themselves in a long Suit being able to make an end of the Affair without breaking their Heads with so many Disputes but as these Gentlemen have been mistaken in writing of a few Lines as it appears by their Answer of 27 th July to the Memorial of us the underwritten of the 19 th of the same Month where the word of Decisors at which they are so angry is not to be found but that of Negotiators is used 't is not much to be wondred at that they should be mistaken in the Explication of the Answer of the States General to the Memorial of Sir John Chardin to which they refer in their Demand Their High and Mightinesses love justice too much to have been willing to dispose of a Town that did not belong to them and to which they had no right It is true that they offered not only not to hinder the resettlement of the English in Bantam from being obstructed either by the Dutch Company or any of their Subjects but also to further it themselves and to make the said Company to assist them in it which is far from that which the Deputies of the English Company say in their Demands But it being important to prove here that the English Company cannot at this time take hold of the Answer of their High and Mightinesses no more than of the advances which the Company of Holland made in the year 1683 towards the accommodating the Differences which the War of Bantam had made to arise between the two Companies who must have recourse to what passed between Sir John Chardin and the Deputies of the Dutch Company on the subject of the said Differences It is certain that at that time it was not known in what condition the Affairs of Bantam were Whether the War between the King of Bantam yet lasted or whether it was ended and if it were determined whether it were done by a treaty or by force of Arms if by Arms which of the two the Father or the Son remained Conqueror and Master of the Kingdom It being also less known whether the Son in case that by the Auxiliary Arms he was resettled in his Throne had not granted to the Company of Holland in recompence of their Assistance some right in Bantam by virtue of which they might have been able to dispose of the reestablishment of the English in their former Residence Besides that the Dutch Company might reasonably promise themselves that the King of Bantam who owed his Deliverance from the Oppression in which he was to the Auxiliary Arms of the Company would not be displeased that to be assured that the English would never assist his Father against him they had engaged to cause the English to be resettled in their former Habitation which Consideration would not have place any more after that the Father was reduced under the Power of his Son. In these uncertainties the Dutch Company made some Advances and Sir John Chardin drew up a project of Accommodation between the two Companyes wherein it is spoken of the withdrawing the Dutch Forces from Bantam and of what each of the Companyes should be obliged to do in the Cases therein specifyed But it having pleased Mr. Chudleigh and Sir John Chardin to break up somewhat abruptly the Negotiation which was already very far advanced and that it pleased the English Company to refuse all the Offers as well of the States General as those which the Embassador Citters made here in London in the Name and on the behalf of the Company of the United Provinces after the return of the said Sir John Chardin the last Company did not think it proper to follow the Negotiation with which my Lord Embassador Citters was charged upon the foot of those offers which had been despised and by which they were by consequence no more tyed especially when in the latter end of the year 1683 they understood by Letters from India that the War of Bantam was ended with advantage to the Son who remained in possession of the Kingdom of Bantam the Father being made Prisoner and the Rebels Power overcome without however having granted to the Dutch Company any Right by virtue of which they might be able to settle the English again in Bantam To what purpose is it then to alledge at this time the Answer of the States General to the Memorial of Sir John Chardin after that they have publickly refused their offers and proposed new Conditions which appeared to their High and Mightinesses so much out of all reason that they would not so much as allow them to give so much as an Ear to them as it appears by the Resolution of their High and Mightinesses quoted B. How can the English Company then imagine that excepting at present the offers which they refused two years ago the Dutch Company should think themselves obliged to it after the change of Affairs which hath happened at Bantam Have not they declared that after the said change the Treaty could not continue any longer upon the foot of the Offers which they had rejected with so much disdain And although they had not declared it was it not a thing visible and evident of it self to conclude a project which supposing a perfect uncertainty of the Affairs of Bantam contain causes which at present cannot happen Besides it is not to be conceived how the English Company after having chosen themselves the way of decision in pursuance of the year 1674 and 1675 and prest for this Effect the Nomination of the deciding Commissioners can at present make use of the offers and projects of Accommodation which they themselves caused to be broken off and which besides has nothing of Common with a judicial discussion in which the two Companyes are at present engag'd and from which they can't dismiss themselves to return to the Treaty but by a Common Consent the underwritten Deputies of the Company of Holland having proved at present that neither from the offers of their High and Mightinesses nor those of the said Company of Holland the English Company can infer any thing which is capable of making good their Demands we will now pass to the second point which is that of the justice of the Complaints of the English Company and will Examine in them first their Nature and in what they consist and will consider in the second place the strength of the proofes which have been delivered to the underwritten to make them good As to the first point the English Company had represented to the King of Great Brittain of Glorious Memory as it appears by the Letter his Majesty wrote to the aforesaid Lords the States General dated the 23th April 1683 that the Sieur St. Martin Commander in Chief of the Dutch Forces and Ships which the Government of Battavia
had sent to the assistance of the King of Bantam had committed great violences upon the Factors Servants and Effects of the English Company at Bantam even to the dispossessing them of and driving them from their antient residence and Mr. Chudleigh then Envoy from his said Majesty to the States General says in the Memorial which he presented to them in the Month of May of the said Year 1683 that the King of Great Brittain his Master having understood by the complaints of his Company of Merchants Trading into the East-Indies in what an extraordinary manner those of Battavia had affronted and drove away from Bantam all those of the English Nation which had been setled there for so many years his Majesty could not avoid being sensible of such a proceeding without the Companies ever troubling themselves with verifying so black an accusation with which they have filled all Europe to prepossess it to the disadvantage of the Company of the United Provinces Sir John Chardin who in the year 1683 was deputed in the behalf of the English Company into Holland for the Affair of Bantam endeavouring to risco the said Company from the plunge into which the want of proofes had cast them thought of changeing the Byafs and instead of accusing the Government of Batavia for having drove the English from Bantam contented himself with imputing their going out of the Town to the suggestion and advice of the said Sieur St. Martin who 't is said had inclined the King of Bantam to turn the English out of his Country making use for proof of an Affirmative so ill founded but on a bare conjecture grounded only upon want of Charity which we shall prove upon the Examination of the principal cause it being enough to observe here by the by that the Circumstances upon which Sir John Chardin grounded his suspition are so little considerable that there is reason to wonder a Man of Parts should pretend to make use of them in a publick manner The Deputies of the English Company holding at present the same Language say in their Memorial which they have annexed to their demand that the Hollanders at Batavia have made and fomented the quarrels between the Old and the Young King of Bantam and in their demand that those of Batavia having made the young King fall into their Snares and drawn him perfidiously under their Yoke to compass to themselves the entire Trade of that Place exclusive to all others compell'd him to put the English out of his Dominions These Complaints are very terrible and at the same time very just if they are true but they are very black Calumnies and very unjust reproaches if they are false as they will be proved to be in the sequel of this Answer 'T is not that the Subscribers think that the Directors of the English Company are the Inventers of it God forbid but that they have only too easily suffered themselves to be led away by Reports ill grounded and sown every where with a design to blacken the Dutch Company and to render it odious But these Reports although they have no other Grounds but Lyes and Scandals have insinuated themselves into the minds of several Persons and especially of the Parties concerned by the means of Credulity Jealousie and Mistrust The Subscribers although they might intrench themselves in a bare Negative and keep solely upon the Defensive without advancing of any Affirmative which may oblige them to Justification and Proofes have notwithstanding proposed to themselves before the discussion of the Justificative Papers of the English Company be entred into to give your Excellencies a true Idea of the Affair of Bantam but not intending to leave their hold which is the Negative but only with a prospect of making their Defence the stronger as it will appear supported by the truth of Facts which are indisputable and which destroy and overthrow from top to bottom all that the Commissioners of the English Company have advanced Sultan Agan King of Bantam and Father to the present King finding himself too weak by reason of his great Age to continue to bear the weight of the Government yielded up the Kingdom of Bantam to his Eldest Son retiring to Turchaser a charming and delightful place about six Leagues from the Town of Bantam and about a League from the Sea to enjoy there an agreeable Repose and to finish there the remainder of his Life in quiet and out of the troubles of the Affairs of the Kingdom The Son having ascended the Throne sent Embassadors to those of Batavia as to his nearest Neighbours to signifie to them his accession to the Empire as he also dispatched others afterwards to the late King of Great Brittain of Glorious Memory who acknowledging their Character gave them such a Reception that the Gentlemen of the English Company themselves exaggerating the Honours which were turned to the said Embassadors here at London saying in the Letter which they wrot to the King of Bantam in the Month of June in the Year 1682 and by consequence two years after his coming to the Crown that they had treated his Embassadors in as magnificent a manner as if they had come from the greatest Prince of the Earth adding in the same Letter that they had heard that God with the consent of his Father had established and settled him on the Throne of the Kingdom of Surosoan that is to say Bantam But the People being accustomed under the Reign of the old King to a looser Government then that of the young King who kept them in subjection they began to murmur and at length took up Arms to throw off the Yoke having engaged in their Party by evil Impressions and Importunities the old King of Bantam whom they had taken out of his Retirement and prevailed with him to make himself Master of the Town and afterwards to besiege the Fort into which the young King had retired to save his Life who seeing himself upon the brink of the Precipice and within two fingers breadth of his Ruine dispatched Letters and Servants to those of the Government of Batavia to represent to them the sad Condition of his Affairs and to pray their Succours But the Gentlemen of the Government of Batavia being too prudent and too circumspect to embarque themselves in an Affair of this importance they thought it fit before they resolved upon any thing upon the sollicitations and instances of the Indian Prince to inform themselves of the Condition of his Affairs and even after having found that they were very bad and almost desperate would not resolve upon any thing notwithstanding in his Favour until they had interposed their good Offices for Peace which being despised by the Father who made no Answer to them they at length took up their Resolution of assisting the Son against the Rebels and to deliver him from the Oppression wherein he was which they had the happiness to Effect and to Re-establish him upon his Throne whereon
being settled he made the English go from Bantam being satisfyed as he was that they had assisted his Enemies This is the true History of the last War of Bantam and of what passed there from the beginning of it to the end in which the government of Batavia had no other share then the bare assisting of a Prince against his Rebellious subjects wherewith the Gentlemen of the English Company cannot be dis-satisfied if they are pleased to devest themselves of their proposition and to make a serious reflection upon the following considerations I. That the Old King of Bantam having resigned his Empire to his Eldest son he by this concession became lawful King and that he was acknowledged as such by the late King of Great Brittain of glorious Memory and by those of the English Company as it may be proved as well by His said Majesties Letter to the Young King of Bantam as by those of the English Company to the said King. II. That he being lawful King His subjects taking up arms to dethrone him are Rebels III. That according to the Law of Nature and that of Nations it is not only lawful to assist a King oppressed by his subjects but that this assistance ought also to be looked upon as a work of Charity IV. That it is also contrary to the same Law to impute the unhappy consequences of an allowed and just occasion to the person who is Author of the action and not of the consequences V. And by consequence that there is nothing more contrary to Reason then to charge the Government of Batavia and their Auxiliary Arms with their expelling the English from Bantam since it is evident that the sending away the English from Bantam was not a necessary consequence of it but only a consequence by accident the Indian Prince having sent them away not because he was victorious for he had suffered them to enjoy their Habitation peaceably from his coming to the crown until the War that is to say almost two years together but only because he was perswaded that they had assisted His Enemies The under-signed Deputies of the Dutch Company having by what they have urged hitherto cleared the way to a true understanding of the controversie which is now under consideration between the two Companies do not at all doubt but that the Gentlemen of the English Company themselves comparing the state of the question and that which they ought to prove will perceive the weakness of their own proofs which in effect do either prove nothing at all or at least that which is in dispute and from which can be inferred that which they inferre from it The subscribers therefore now passing to the Examination of the proofs of the English Company which is the second point of this discussion will separate the Facts of importance from those that are not so and which signifie nothing or which are of no other use at most but to blacken and encrease Distrust Jealousie and Suspition The Important Facts are these viz. That those of Batavia have made and fomented the quarrels between the Old and Young Kings of Bantam And that having beguiled the Young King into their power to appropriate to themselves the entire Trade of that place exclusive from all others compelled him to force the English out of his Dominions These are the Facts which the Commissioners of the English Company set down in their Memorial and in their demand after having represented two years ago to the late King of great Brittain of glorious Memory what can be immagined of blackest that the Sieur St. Martin Commander in Chief of the forces and Ships which the Goverment of Batavia had sent to the King of Bantam had used and committed great violences upon the Factors servants and effects of the English Company at Bantam to the having deposed and forced them from their antient residence The under-written after having given themselves the trouble of Reading over and over examining and studying with great application all the proofs of the English Company do protest sincerely that they can't find in them any thing which is capable of directly or indirectly by consequences to make good the enormity of the said Facts and although that by consequence they might excuse themselves from saying any more of it they not being any way obliged to prove a Negative which is not always possible and can never be done but indirectly since it is against reason to prove in a direct manner that which is not But yet to make appear the innocency of the Goverment of Batavia in the affair of Bantam and place them in a right light they will shew the moral impossibility of the said Facts viz. That the government of Batavia compelled the Young King to force the English from Bantam As to the first Fact it is certain that every rational man that doth not do any thing hand over head proposes to himself naturally always some end in his actions at least in those which are important or may have considerable consequences from hence comes it that in an inquisition when a man is accused of any crime for Example of Murther the author of which being undiscovered though he be really guilty it is always inquired cui bono that is why he should have done it and when the reason of it can't be discovered the Judges are naturally enclined to believe that the accusation is void of all likelihood of Truth especially if the accused person can make it appear that it was his interest to preserve the Life of the person Murthered The under-written to apply this maxime to the government of Batavia which they accuse for having made and fomented the quarrel between the Old and the Young King of Bantam desire the Commissioners of the English Company to explain to them cui bono and with what design those of Batavia should give themselves the trouble to put the Father at odds with the Son and to animate the one against the other What good could this do to them and what advantage could they reap from it The Son had by his Ambassadors to the government of Batavia which he sent so soon as he was ascended on the Throne signified to them that he desired to live well with them and desired to keep a good correspondence with them and to use them more favourably then his Father had done in his Reign and in Effect those of Batavia had no reason to complain of His behaviour towards them And why should they then be willing to engage him in a War against his Father and his own subjects and expose him to the danger and hazard of losing his Crown and of seeing his Father re-ascend the Throne or his Younger Brother made King and although the War should end to his advantage what could he hope from it he who was already upon the Throne and who could not become greater and what likelyhood was there that a man in his right senses should give ear
Artifices of that Company to hide or confound the truth by a multitude of eloquent but vain words as Your Lordships may have observed in the Records of all former Transactions and Complaints of the same Nature as this is now of Bantam in most whereof they have been judged formerly to pay great sums of Money to the East-India-Company which they did pay accordingly But we could never hear or read that the Dutch Company restored to the English any place of Trade that ever they deprived them of by fraud or violence 2. We affirm to Your Lordships that we never gave any Order or Liberty to Sir John Chardin before or at his late being in Holland but enjoyned him always to keep strictly to the Demands of His late Majesty of glorious memory in his said Majesties letter memorial For the proof of which assertion we here will present Your Lordships Copies of all our Letters and Orders to him And if Sir John entered upon any discourse or Articles other then what was contained in His Majesties said Memorial and Letter through the perswasion of the Dutch Bewinthebers or otherwise he is now here and must make his own justification we being perfectly unconcerned in any thing he did contrary to His late Majesties or our own instructions 3dly For the Negotiation that was afterward concerning this affair with the late Lord Ambassador Monsieur Van Citters we referre our selves to the said Ambassadors Long Memorial and our Answer herewith presented Your Lordships by which the truth Regularity and Justice of His Majesties East-India-Company will appear to Your Lordships above all contradiction 4thly To the Dutch Deputies question cui bono what profit the Dutch could make by exciting the Young King to quarrel with his Father and the consequences that might happen thereupon We say we cannot but think it very strange that such experienced learned Gentlemen should propound so slight a question to such a wise Tribunal as Your Lordships which the simplest Sailer either English or Dutch that ever was in India can resolve Extempore Bantam was a Port to which all European Nations Trading in India and most of the Natives did resort with Ships richly loaden to the number of above forty yearly And the Batavians by causing that poor simple man they yet call King whom they will not trust with a Knife to expell all those Nations from his Port have thereby engrossed to themselves in effect the whole Trade of the South-Seas and had thereby fair hopes of Engrossing the whole Trade of Pepper as their people in India have often boasted they would And it is most apparent they designed it by the hostilities they have since perpetrated against the English and other Nations of India upon the Coast of Mallabar which Engrossement if they accomplish as by like arts they have the other Spices Cloves Mace Cinamon and Nutmegs they might gain sufficient by that sole Commodity to maintain constantly a Navy in Europe strong enough to fight any Royal Navy Fifthly Their next question How it can be imagined the Young King of Bantam should be so simple as to enslave himself and his posterity We shall resolve when they tell us by what slights the Batavians with pitiful inconsiderable Forces have enslaved and held in slavery above Fifty such Kings within Eighty years past in those Eastern parts of the World. It will be enough at present to tell Your Lordships The Princes and people of those parts are a naked people unused to fire-Arms that live in the innocent primitive estate of Nature without understanding the guiles of the Dutch East-India-Company until they have built a Fort and then the Princes themselves as well as their subjects must immediately become down-right Slaves to the Dutch and it s too late to repent without the hazard of being all cut off Man Woman and Child which was lately the Fate of one of the Javan Princes in the Eastern parts of that Island and of his people wherein an English Fugitive Captain Cooper was said to be employed by them in the execution Sixthly We herewith present Your Lordships the Articles Printed at Batavia made at Macassar for the Exclusion of the English and other Nations from the Trade of that place for which never any satisfaction was made the English Company Our end therein is not to make the breach wider between the two Nations of which they seem groundlesly to accuse us but to shew Your Lordships the same Tragedy that was acted at Bantam with little alteration except changing the Scene wherein such an Ocean of humane blood was spilt and in such a manner with a little fighting and after submission as we are not willing to mention and is not to be parallel'd in any History we have Read of which there are living Witnesses that were present at the action which we can produce to Your Lordships but that we are not willing to irritate or trouble Your Lordships with what is not pertinent to the present case of Bantam Yet this use we must beg Your Lordships leave to make of that instance of Macassar that since no satisfaction has been made to the English for that important place Your Lordships would be pleased to take and keep a strong hold of our just claim to Bantam that we may not be totally deprived of a place of rest and security in the South-Seas where the Dutch have above Thirty Forts to the irreparable shame and reproach of our Nation Seventhly The proofs we have exhibited to your Lordships are so express to the matter of our complaint that most of them do prove in terminis the things complained of and the Witnesses are not only fide digni but Men of good Fortunes and approved exemplary Veracity and we do not only believe what all of them have sworn and particularly Mr. Moody but much more which they have told us concerning the many years contrivances and horrible wicked methods that were used by the Batavians to create those unnatural quarrels between the Father and the Son which we have omitted to trouble your Lordships with because they could not attest them upon their own knowledge as we have likewise omitted for the same reason some Letters of the Old King of Bantam wherein he wrote to his late Majesty long before the surprize of Bantam that the Dutch were contriving to enslave him and his Country as they had done all his Neighbour Princes but that he would be slave to none but to his late Majesty of Glorious Memory Eighthly What the said Dutch Deputies say in extenuation of the Hostilities committed by their people upon the Coast of Malabarr is so wide from any excuse of that crime and breach of the peace between the two Nations that it seems to us to be a plain confession of what they have been so often and so justly accused of viz. that they design not only by their old arts of setting Indian Princes at War and making themselves partakers in the
well known methods of managing their Affairs in India If likewise the said Gentlemen after so full an answer as we gave though brief and pertinent to their voluminous papers do yet tell Your Lordships we have said nothing to several weighty points as they do in a late paper presented Your Lordships We hope we shall obtain your Lordships pardon for this Rejoynder which shall be as short as the nature of their paper and of their practices in India will admit First As to the Restitution of Bantam we say All the late King of glorious Memory demanded was the withdrawing of the Dutch Forces from Bantam and satisfaction for our dammages and we ask no more now But that the Fort built with the English Money may be left undemolished that we may be able to defend our Factors and Servants and preserve the Trade we design there which as the present Affairs of Bantam are can be no otherwise secured to us And it is certain that the Lords States General consented to the withdrawing their Forces as aforesaid by their answer to Sir John Chardins Memorial Whether we speak truly in this or not we are in Your Lordships Judgment upon view of the authentick Copies of the said Memorial and Reply lodged with Sir John Chardin and with your Lordships Secretary And for the Gentlemen to say the Lords States Concessions then to Sir John Chardin are not to be urged now because they have since made Articles with that poor Young King which the Batavians have so much abused and enslaved and who is so ignorant and so miserable that he would set his Chop or Mark to a Hundred blanks if they would have him And we appeal not only to your Lordships Wisdom but to all Men of common sense whether any thing since done with such a poor Creature now and then in durance can make any new Case since the transactions at the Hague Secondly The Gentlemen say they affirmed we had only a Factory and a Residence in the Capital City of Bantam and can found no dominion upon that and that we have replyed nothing thereunto wherein we humbly conceive your Lordships will find the Gentlemen under a great mistake For though our Factory and the Fort Built with our Money were more worth than all the rest of the Buildings in Bantam which they call the Capital City We claim no Territory by vertue thereof but we say the Old King of Bantam was King of Right and his Son only Probationary with his Fathers leave to see how he would behave himself and as such a King and the Son of a Father alwayes Obsequious to His late Majesty of Glorious Memory His Embassadours were here received with Respect And that the Old King his Father before the Articles the Dutch Gentlemen pretend to have made with his Son gave that City and Territory to His said late Majesty And if the Dutch Deputies will yet contend That the Young King was King not only Probationary but de jure and that the Father was subject to the Son which was not so of Right by the Laws of that Country nor can ever be proved but the contrary most certainly if it were worth the contesting Then we say that Young King hath violated his publick Faith by his Assassinating our Agent and other publick Persons Resident as Chiefs of the English Nation by Commission from His late Majesty of Glorious Memory And if it be true as the Dutch Deputies themselves have constantly affirmed That it was not the Batavians but that Young King of Bantam that rifled our Houses tore our King's Colours drove us from our Ancient Great and Costly Habitations and Trade while at the same time his own Embassadors were treated here by His Majesty and His Majesties East-India Company with the greatest Kindness and Respect If this be the Case do not the Dutch Deputies themselves in Effect confess That that Young King deserves no longer to be corresponded with by them And that it is most reasonable for us that are and desire to be their Friends to request them to depart thence and leave us the Fort which our Money paid for which is all we ask of them with respect to the pretended Restitution of that place and we may say to the Restitution of the Majesty and Honour of our English Name and Nation which hath been intolerably affronted and abused at that place of Bantam in sight of many Eastern Nations 3. As to that weak Question cui bono we cannot but wonder the Gentlemen should expose themselves again to the censure not only of your Lordships but of all Mankind that have the least knowledge of India They argue thus They had favour at Bantam a Factory there their Friend King why should they adventure a War if compassion to their Ally had not moved them when they could not better their Condition Our Answer was full to this before but in regard the Gentlemen will have more of it Your Lordships we hope will pardon our telling them that their Factory at Bantam was used mostly for buying Rice Hens and Provisions and it may be to inspect the English Proceedings for where the English are Trade runs generally at so low profit that the Dutch care not for medling with it in such places But if by the Artifices they have used they can keep the English French Danes Portugueez Moores Gentues and Mallayes and all other Nations from bringing Callicoes to Bantam which Callicoes are the principal Clothing of the Javans and many Nations thereabout to the Eastward they may then sell one piece of Callico for the price that two would sell for when the Trade of Bantam was open and buy two Baharrs of Pepper for the price they paid for one formerly which may alter the Dutch Companies Affairs for the better Two or Three Hundred Thousand Pounds per annum besides the much greater Advantage they would make by having the whole Trade of Pepper in Europe if they can keep Bantam as now it is by any means right or wrong Besides the design which it is manifest they have in prospect of obstructing all other Europeans from the China and Japan Trade having by preventing all Nations from the Trade of Bantam secured as they think the two great Passages viz. the Streights of Sunda and the Streights of Malacca If this be not a full Answer to their cui bono let the World judge as we doubt not but your Lordships will uprightly although the Gentlemen with as little reason as they did before should call the most clear Truth and undenyable Arguments by the same insignificant Term Gallimatias The next Question they discourse of viz. How it can be imagined that the Young King should be so simple c. We dare not say any more to it now lest your Lordships should apprehend it to be an abuse of your Lordships Patience after we have so fully and clearly answered that before We must own our selves obliged to the Gentlemen for
Companies inheritance bought with their money As also our Concerns to a considerable amount and therefore you had best act with discretion and justice for we must take notice of your proceedings in any thing to our prejudice and advise thereof to His Royal Majesty of Great Britain who undoubtedly will take due satisfaction In the mean time we shall endeavour to follow our Trade and we shall not want them that are appointed to give us an account of the least obstruction therein which we advise you not to do because of the ill consequences that may be to your own interest for we would in all things preserve a good Friendship with you provided 't is not to the dishonour and prejudice of our King Countrey and Company We send these by Captain James Lesly with order to deliver it to your Honours desiring it may be Freindly Received as our answer to your aforesaid Declaration and so we remain Your Honours Friends and Servants William Gyfford Elihu Yate c. 1686. The Time they did this was while the King of Gulcondah in whose Dominions Metchlepatam is was engaged in a dangerous War with the Great Mogul and they took that Advantage to fall out with him and after they had got from him the value of about Sixty Thousand Pound Sterling with enlargement of their Priviledges at Pollicatt they quitted the place having no further use of it And indeed the English Company at the time they presented the aforesaid Transcript humbly acquainted His Majesty with their Opinion that the Dutch would not hold that place it being not worth their Charge to defend it having Pollicat so near that would do their business as well But that which the English complain of is the insolent injury of commanding them from their own Possession which they had enjoy'd about Eighty Years which is the very same thing they did at Bantam but intending to keep that place for ever as they did not Metchlepetam they used the Name of the Young King in the former Case that it might look like his Act and not theirs And whether the Dutch did well in that or the English had cause to complain We would have any honest peaceable Dutchman tell us after we have asked them How they would like it If the French now they have as is supposed command of the Forts at Syam should forbid them to Trade to the House they have built there Or How they would have liked it if our Soldiers after they had surprized the Fort at Hughly in Bengall should have forbid them Trading any more at their own House in Hughly or from bringing any Goods thither after Six or Eight Weeks as they did the English at Metchlepatam The Dutch Company talk much of Natural Right and Equity but there is one short Rule if they would observe it would soon end all our differences That is Of doing as they would be done unto But that the English Company affirm they never did yet to them which they may have time to repent when they find the same measure meted to themselves As to the Case of Batam Capass which is a most Egregious Case as the Reader will observe hereafter The Dutch Company would extenuate the Hostilities executed upon the English there in so contemptuous a manner by pretending a Title to all the Trade of the West Coast of Sumatra by virtue of private Contracts made with the respective Soveraign Kings or Rajahs for all the Gold and Pepper within their Respective Dominions An old Claim which they long since made as well in the time of Cromwell's Usurpation as since His late Majesties Happy Restauration but with how little Justice the Reader may partly observe by Doctor Turner and Sir William Thomson's Certificate Two of the Arbitrators that determined the Differences between the two Companies at concluding the peace that was made between the two Nations in the aforesaid Usurpers time a true Copy whereof followeth We whose Names are subscribed being with others chosen in the Year 1654 by the English East-India Company to join with the Arbitrators chosen by the Dutch East-India Company to end all matters in difference between the said Companies Do certifie That the English East-India Company did Demand of the Dutch East-India Company satisfaction for a quantity of Pepper taken out of the Ship Endymion by the Dutch East-India Company at Padognae on the West Coast of Sumatra in the Year 1649. And that the said Arbitrators on behalf of the Dutch Company did declare that it was one of the clearest Demands that the English had against the Dutch Company And that in the Eighty Five Thousand Pound awarded by us and the other Arbitrators to be paid by the Dutch Company unto the English It was amongst other things for satisfaction for the Pepper taken out of the said Ship Endymion and for Dammages sustained thereby And farther That the Arbitrators on behalf of the Dutch Company did then propose a Clause in the Draught of the award then drawn up for excluding the English from Trade and Commerce on the West Coast of Sumatra for the time to come The which was wholly rejected by the Arbitrators for the English Company and was thereupon left out of the said Award for that it was insisted upon by the Arbitrators for the English East-India Company That they were as free to Trade with all the Governments and Natives of India as the Dutch all which is very well known to the Worthy Dutch Arbitrators that are yet alive In Testimony whereof we have hereunto set our Hands this 26 th of March 1670. William Thomson William Turner Subscribed in the Presence of Robert Blackborne Notary Publick So much for the Fact now for the Reasons I. IS it not most ridiculous that the Dutch having but Two or Three inconsiderable Forts as is before-mentioned should pretend to the Trade of a vast Island upon which it may reasonably be concluded there are about One Hundred Sovereign Kings one half whereof in probability scarce ever spoke with any Dutchman II. If they have made any such Contracts they are of no force to the English Company who are no Parties to the said Contracts whatever they may be to the Princes themselves but by Natural Right the English Company is alwayes at Liberty when ever such Contracted Princes grow weary of the Dutch by their bad or non-performance with them and if the English Company do make another Contract and by consent of the Soveraign Prince of the place build a Fort in his Dominions where the Dutch have no occupancy and the Dutch do after that hire the Mallayes to murther the English or do destroy or rob them or destroy their Fort themselves We appeal to all Nations Whether such Acts of Hostility are not a notorious willful breach of the Peace between the two Nations and a pregnant Violation of Common Right And whether this be the true State of the Case let the Reader judge by the following Extract of Mr.
Countreys of that vast Extent that all which the Netherlandish Company doth possess in East-India is not to be compared thereunto To which we Reply First It 's confessed by all Nations That all Soveraigns within their own Dominions where they have Subjects and Exercise Soveraign Rights may make what Laws they please Secondly It is acknowledged before in this Answer and must be confessed by all Nations that whatever is just between Nations in Amity in Europe is equally just in both Indies and whatever is unjust in Europe is equally unjust in India But it is confessed the King of England hath a Multitude of His Native Subjects in Carolina Virginia New-England Jamaica Barbadoes Mevis and other Islands in the West-Indies in all which His Majesty justly exercises plenary Soveraign Power and therefore may make what Laws he thinks fit for the Government of those places and so may the Dutch do likewise in Batavia Malacca Cochin and in other places but in those and so far only as they have the full Exercise of Soveraign Power not the pretence of a Right to the Soveraign Power where they have neither Habitation nor Subjects but peradventure a piece of Paper signed by some body that calls himself an Orankay or a Raja a dozen or more of which may be had from abundance of those poor Men for a small Reward with what words the Purchaser pleaseth to put into those Writings Thirdly We say that by the Laws of Nations and Natural Right and consent of Nations no Fort upon a Pass or upon part of an Island where some part of the said Island remains under the Soveraignty of the same Prince can hinder any Nation in Amity with the Soveraign of that part of the Island where the Fort is built from Trading with the People on the other part of the Island or with the Subjects of another Prince on the same Island For Instance St. Christopher's Island in the West-Indies is possest partly by the English and partly by the French each in subjection to their Respective Sovereigns Now we say while His Majesty and the French King are engaged in League of Amity if His Majesty pleaseth to admit the Dutch or any other Foreign Nation in Amity with His Majesty to Trade to His part of the Island of St. Christophers the French King cannot by Jus Gentium hinder the Dutch from Trading with his Subjects and the like vice versa By which Rule it will evidently appear the English Settlements were justly made according to unexceptionable Natural Right and the Laws of all Nations at Bencoolen and Indrapoura and if the Dutch Company do or cause to be done any hurt or dammage to the English in those places it will be an Injurious and Hostile Action as is likewise the Dutch Companies hindring the English Ships from watering and refreshing at Bantam which they have done ever since the surprize thereof Notwithstanding they have ever since pretended that place is none of theirs but belongs to the Young King of Bantam Page 31. They say They suffered us to refresh our Seamen at Batavia and to repair our Ships which is very true and the English Company will alwayes acknowledge their Justice in that respect and as they never did so they never will fail to requite them with the same kindness where ever the English Company have to do But that which follows in the same Page is as extreamly unkind as we believe it is untrue viz. That in Case the Subjects of that State should come to request such a thing in the Caribees Barbadoes Virginia or Jamaica they should not be admitted but rather seized and confiscated Towards the Conclusion of their Treatise they mention some little disorders committed in Batavia by the Herbert's Sailers and the Master of a free English Ship called the Madrass at Cochin and of Captain Andrews his searching a Moore 's Ship in that Road of which we never heard a Word before we saw it in print in the said Treatise nor give any Credit to until we hear from the said Captain Andrews who is a discreet sober experienced Man and whom we have reason to believe neither did or would do any thing but what did consist with Justice or his Duty to His Majesty whose Commission he had to take all Moore 's Ships though it seems by the Relation they give of it themselves he was so civil at their perswasion to leave that Ship behind him We have now concluded our Reply and Animadversions upon the said Treatise and we think made it appear beyond Contradiction that the Dutch have done many and great Hostile Injuries to the English Company especially since the time that with Interloping the Rebellion of Bombay broke forth which they thought a proper season being expert in that kind of Wisdom of knowing the times and seasons But they ought to remember there is a double Accompt to be given for Injuries and Oppression of the Innocent The one to God by Repentance the other to Men by Restitution without which they may not improbably bring a greater Judgment upon themselves than we wish or their sagacity can foresee Until they do which and abandon those false Notions of Right which their unbounded Avarice hath framed to themselves and which we have proved contrary to Natural Right and the Laws of all Nations They may for ever impunè Rob Kill and Destroy the English notwithstanding the Peace between the Two Nations by the Treaty in force which we think are as equal and just as can possibly be made or provided if they were duly observed and obeyed by the Dutch Company as we affirm they have ever most exactly been by the English Company SVPPLEMENT THough we have owned before as we can never disown what is just in it self that it is lawful for any Nation in India to make Exclusive Contracts with any Prince or People there and to secure the performance of those Contracts by settling Factories or Forts in such Contracting Indian Princes Dominions Yet so Just and Generous are the English East-India Company that they do not only allow Refreshments of all kinds to the French Dutch Danes Portugueez and all Nations in Amity with our Soveraign Lord the King as well Natives as Europeans But also do allow them free liberty of all manner of Trade and Commerce and in all kind of Commodities from and to any Port or Place in India whatsoever as freely as the Companies own Servants or any English Free-man can or may And also to reside at Bombay or Fort St. George and to Rent or Purchase Houses or Lands there and in all Respects to have the same Liberty and Freedom for Landing or Shipping of Goods and selling or disposing of them to whom they please as the English themselves have and to be in the like Capacity of being Aldermen or Burgesses of the Corporation at Fort St. George and Bombay whatever Faith or Religion they are or may be of as the Native English of those places are And this we have Authority from the said Company to publish and avow in their Names to the whole World To the intent that Merchants of all Nations may know with what Liberty Security and Freedom they may resort to both or either of those places FINIS