executed by Hollanders upon the English Nation in a place where both lived under Terms of partnership and great amity confirmed by a most solemn Treaty A TRUE DECLARATION Of the News that came out of the East-Indies with the Pinnace called the HARE arrived in Texel in June 1624. CONCERNING A Conspiracie discovered in the Island of Amboyna and the punishment following thereupon according to the course of Justice in March 1624. comprehended in a Letter Missive AND SENT From a Friend in the Low-Countries to a Friend of note in England for information of him in the Truth of those passages Printed Anno 1651. Right Worshipfull and Worthy SIR THe great out-cries which have been made in England upon the last News which came out of the East-Indies about a certain execution which was done in the Island of Amboyna in March 1623 because we see the great desire that your Worship hath to keep good correspondence betwixt these two Nations it hath caused me beyond my own curiosity to search and inquire after the right and true beginnings proceedings and issues of these affairs upon which this execution followed Wherein I perswade my self I have attained good success by such means as I have used and by my good acquaintance so that at the last I am come to the clear light of the matter partly by the Letters that have been sent home to the Company here and declared to the States General as also by a particular examination of the process made against them in Amboyna before their execution and sent over hither in writing which at this present hath caused me to write this unto your Worship that so the truth may be made known concerning this business in all places where your Worthiness and respect can or may bring it to pass that so your Worship and all true well-willers of our Countrey may be no otherwise thought of than we deserve A True Declaration of the News that came out of the East-Indies with the Pinnace called the HARE which arrived in Texel in June 1624. THe very causes and beginnings through which the Governour and Councel established in the name of the United Neatherlands in Amboyna came into suspicion that some thing was plotted against that Province did first flow from the great licentiousness of the Tarnatanes in Moluque and Amboyna Who contrarie to the contract of alliance 1606. made with the High and Mighty Lords the States attempted without our consent and knowledge to make peace with the King of Tidore as also truce with the Spaniards their and our ancient adversaries by which the said Tarnatanes had too much cast off all respect which they both in regard of our confederacie and manifold assistance did owe to this State The Spaniard also was master enough at Sea in the Moloque because the English Merchants there in the East-Indies were unwilling to furnish us with Ships of War toward the common defence as they were bound to do according to the Treaties 1619. to the number of ten Through which the voyages to Mannila coming to cease the Enemy traded there without any interruption and procured power to send Gallies Ships and Pinnaces to the Moloque with great succours of people and provision and that because against the same through the default of the English Merchants there were no Ships of War kept as there should have been The Subjects of the King of Tarnata begun to commit great insolencies otherwise than they were wont against our Nation having outragiously assaulted divers of us divers wayes and also slain some and we notwithstanding could not obtain any punishment upon them And as one outrage unpunished provokes many more through hope of the like impunity or other considerations so were the said Tarnatanes of Amboyna dwelling at Loho Cambello and those near adjoyning places proceeded further and have armed themselves at Sea and invaded divers Islands and places standing under the Neatherlands Governour in Amboyna spoiling them and killing our Subjects and taking others and carrying them away for Slaves And notwithstanding the instant request of the Neatherlands Gouernour no satisfaction or Justice hath followed but the said Tarnatanes are yet gone further and openly threatened to murder the Dutch Merchants and to spoil and to burn the Logie or Factorie which our people have many years there enjoyed so that our Merchants have taken out the Dutch goods to avoid dammage And the Tarnatanes at Loho did actually set on fire and ruined the said Neatherlands Factorie In the Manichels an Island being under the Province of Amboyna they have in like manner shortly after burned the Neatherlands Logie with the loss of all the goods therein The Neatherlands Governour that by his presence and Authority he might cause such Rebellions to cease and to give order for time to come and also to seek satisfaction and punishment upon the aforesaid insolencies went toward Loho with a small power of Sloops and coming thereabout was met otherwise than was wont by a Navie of Sloops of the Tarnatans of Loho stronger than his were These by their conference gave him well to know how little reverence they gave the Dutch Governour they braved him without hope of restitution of any thing to come so that nothing done he was fain to return to his Castle of Amboyna By reason of these things the said Tarnatanes became so stout and daring that they gave out openly that they would come and spoil our Subjects by a general Army with above an hundred Friggots with these they said they would come against Amboyna to make a universal spoil of our people through which there came a great fear upon the Indians standing under the Subjection of the High and Mighty Lords the States as also over the Neatherlanders In the Islands lying far Eastward of Banda it was also said and the News went currantly there That the Hollanders were sure enough quit of the Castle of Amboyna And at that time there were divers secret correspondencies between the Indians others which gave us great suspition By this means the Neatherlands Governour and Councel of Amboyna were moved to have special regard and look narrowly unto all things seeing that it might be thence clearly gathered that something might be plotted against the State in Amboyna and that the Indians of themselves durst not offer to undertake any such great design without some great help of some of Europe either of Spaniarnds Portugals or some other and also they understood that they of Loho Cambello c. had great secret correspondence with the English Merchants When things were in such a state in Amboyna there came forth and was wonderfully discovered in February 1623. a horrible conspiracie against the Castle and Person of the Dutch Governour and the whole state of Amboyna and first by the apprehension of a certain Iaponian a complice of the feat who at an unseasonable time was often seen upon the wall of the Castle where he also over-curiously enquired of the most
well Criminal as Civil to be rightly grounded Thence he concludes that the Japons being sworn servants to the Dutch and in their pay were Subject to the Jurisdiction of the Dutch Governour Then he telleth us that the Authour and complices of murther and treason are by the Laws of all Nations to be punished with death all which points may be granted him without any prejudice to the cause of the English in this question At last he comes in particular to their case and affirms that the chief of the English there might not apprehend the English complices of this conspiracie because themselves were complices of the fact All which also may be granted in this point of apprehension and safe custodie but how it may proceed also in the point of cognisance shall be anon in due place examined In the mean time this Authour to make the point of apprehension clear beyond exception saith that the English were not apprehended upon the first suspition when yet there was evidence and indicia sufficient to it but after the examination of all the Japons and their joynt confession that the English whom they specified by name and surname had moved and hired them to this treason yea not until Abel Price had also confessed as much and that all the English in the out-Factories were privy thereunto For answer hereof that must be repeated which hath been upon other occasions before alleadged that the first beginning of the process was by the Torture there being no sufficient evidence or indicium to Torture the Japon that onely sought to enform himself of the course of the Watch and of the strength of the Castle wherein himself was a Souldier and so the whole Series of the examination proceeding from the confession of one Tortured person to apprehend and Torture another without other evidence though it brought forth more confessions and those with name and surname and other circumstances according as the Interrogatories or rather directories of the Governour and Fiscal led the prisoners was wholly against the form and rule of all Laws of Tortures Scilicet in fabrica si pravae est regula prima Caetera mendose fieri atque obstipa necesse est But here must be answered an objection that may be made against this from another part of this relation that is that some of the English confessed without or before Torture yea this Price here mentioned was either not Tortured at all or very lightly Yea but he was shewed the Tortured bodies of the poor Japons martyred with fire and water and told that unless he would confess that which they told him they had first confessed he should be Tortured as ill or worse than they This fear of Torture is by their own Law equalled to the Torture it self and consequently the confession thereupon made no better indicium or evidence to bring another man to the Torture than the confession made upon the Rack it self Again it must be here remembred that the very matter of Price his confession here mentioned to wit that all the English Merchants of the out-Factories were privy to the pretended treason was resuted by the process of the Dutch themselves that found Powel Ramsey and two others of those Factories guiltless Next this Authour taketh notice of an objection made in England against the Jurisdiction of the Dutch Governour and his Councel at Amboyna over the English there because this power is by the Treatie of the year 1619. disposed of and agreed to consist in the Councel of defence of both Nations at Jaccatra For information in which point this Authour saith he hath perused over all the several Articles of the said Treatie and findeth in the 23. Article that the Fortresses were to remain in the hands of them that then possessed them and in the thirteenth fourteenth and fifteenth that the Councel of defence hath no other power but onely over the Fleet of defence over the commerce and finally to tax the charges of maintenance of the Forts But he could not see the thirtieth Article which orders that all disputes that cannot be decided by the Councel of defence should be remitted into Europe first to the two companies there and in default of their agreement to the King and States Why then was not this dispute so proceeded in There is nothing in the former Articles to limit the Councel of defence and this general Article appeareth to be added by way of ampliation to provide for that which was not particularly and expresly cared for in the former Which is most plain by the words of the explanation upon this thirtieth Article agreed upon at the first and subscribed by the Commissioners on both sides Anno 1619. where this course of proceeding is expresly directed not onely in disputes about the meaning of the Articles but also about any other matter hapning in their common aboad Since which also the Kings Majestie hath upon a smaller occasion than the life of his Subjects clearly declared himself in the point of Sovereignrie That both Nations in the Indies should wholly lay aside all pretence thereof Which Declaration was sent to the Lords States General and by them accepted before this bloudie butcherie was executed But if it were granted that the Hollanders are absolute Lords of their partners the English in those parts without respect to the Treatie yet at least the Hollanders in Amboyna are bound to observe the Laws of the united Provinces for so saith this Authour himself Do these allow to begin the process at the torture and to bring persons of honest fame to the rack upon others confession made in the torture Do their Laws allow of the leading interrogatories above mentioned to direct the prisoner what to say to avoid the torture Where in the United Provinces is that drowning with water in use or the torture with fire used to Johnson Tompsan and Clark or especially the splitting of their toes and launcing of the breast and puting in Gun-pouder and then firing the same whereby the body is not left intire neither for innocencie nor execution Clark and Tomson were both fain to be carried to their execution though they were tortured many days before Lastly their confessions were contradictorie apparently false and of things impossible to be done much less practised before by the said parties and therefore ought not by their law to have been believed nor the prisoners to have been condemned thereupon without other sufficient indicia or evidence besides In the last place this Authour handleth the excess of torture whereof he taketh notice there is much complaint in England and saith That the Lords States General take great care to inform themselves of all the passages of this business and to that end have desired to see all the Letters Pieces and Papers that concern this processe by which it appeareth not that there was any cruel torture used But suppose the Acts make no mention of them is it any marvel that the Authours
and then died Forthwith also fell a new sickness at Amboyna which swept away about a thousand people Dutch and Amboyners in the space wherein there usually died not above thirty at other seasons These signs were by the surviuing English referred to the confident prediction of Emanuel Tomson aabove-named and were by the Amboyners interpreted as a token of the wrath of God for this barbarous Tyranny of the Hollanders The next day after the execution being the eight and twentieth of February Stilo veteri was spent in Triumph for the new General of the Dutch then proclaimed and in publick rejoycing for the deliverance from this pretended treason The day following being the first of March Iohn Beomont George Sharrock Edward Collins and William Webber were brought to the Governour who told Webber Beomont and Sharrock that they were pardoned in Honour of the new General and Collins that he was to go to Jaccatra there to stand to the favour of the General So the Governour made them drink wine with him and curteously dismissed them willing them to go and consult with the rest that were saved who were fit to be placed in the several Factories Which done and their opinions reported to the Governour he accordingly commanded each to his place adding that he would thenceforth take upon him the patronage and Government of the English Companies business To which purpose he had within a few dayes past opened a Letter that came from the English President at Iaccatra directed to Captain Towerson being as he said the first English Letter that ever he intercepted further saying that he was glad that he sound by that Letter that the English at Iaccatra were innocent touching this business The Governour and Fiscal having thus made an end at Amboyna dispatched themselves for Banda where they made very diligent enquiry against Captain Welden the English Agent there yet found no colour nor shadow of guilt to lay hold on but at last entertained him with courteous speeches professing to be very glad that they found him as well as the English at Iaccatra to be without suspition of this Treason as they tearm it Captain VVelden perceiving the disorder and confusion of the English Companies affairs at Amboyna by means of this dealing of the Dutch forthwith hired a Dutch Pinnace at Banda and passed to Amboyna where instantly upon his arrival he re-called the Companies servants sent as before by the Dutch Governour to the upper-factories Having enquired of them and the rest that were left at Amboyna of the whole proceedings lately passed he found by the constant and agreeing relation of them all that there was no such Treason of the English as was pretended as also understanding what strict command the Governour had given to the surviving English not once to talk or confer with the Countrey people concerning this bloudy business although the said Countrey people every day reproched them with treason and a bloudy intention to have massacred the Natives and to have ripped up the bellies of women with child and such like stuff wherewith the Dutch have possessed the poor Vulgar to make the English odious unto them The said M. VVelden therefore finding it to sort neither with the Honour nor profit of the English Company his Masters to hold any longer residence in Amboyna he took the poor remnant of the English along with him in the said hired Pinnace for Iaccatra whither the Governour had sent Iohn Beomont and Edward Collins before as men condemned and left to the mercie of the General When this heavy news of Amboyna came to Iaccatra and the English there the President forthwith sent to the General of the Dutch to know by what Authority the Governour of Amboyna had thus proceeded against the English and how he and the rest of the Dutch there at Iaccatra did approve these proceedings The Governour returned for answer that The Governour of Amboyna's Authority was derived from that of the Lords States General of the United Neatherlands under whom he had lawfull Jurisdiction both in Criminal and civil causes within the destrict of Amboyna further that such proceeding was necessary against Traitours such as the English executed at Amboyna might appear to be by their own confessions a Copy whereof he therewith sent to the English President who sent the same back to be Authentickly certified but received it not again Hitherto hath been recited the bare and naked Narration of the Progress and passage of this action as it is taken out of the Depositions of six several English Factors whereof four were condemned and the other two acquitted in this Process of Amboyna all since their return into England examined upon their Oaths in the Admiralty Court The particular of Captain Towerson's as also of Emanuel Tomson's examinations and answers are not yet come to light by reason that these two were kept apart from all the rest and each alone by himself nor any other of the English suffered to come to speak with them except onely that short Farewell which Iohn Beomont took of Tomson the morning before the execution before mentioned The like obscurity is yet touching the examinations and answers of diverse of the rest that are executed being during their imprisonment so strictly lookt to and watched by the Dutch that they might not talk together nor mutually relate their miseries But because the Hollanders defend their own proceedings by the confessions of the parties executed acknowledging severally under their hands that they were guilty of the pretended crime it will not be amiss to recollect and recall unto this place as it were unto one sum and totall certain circumstances dispersed in several parts of this Narration whereby as well the innocencie of the English as the unlawfull proceedings against them may be manifested First therefore it is to be remembred that the Japons were apprehended examined and tortured three or four dayes before the English were attached and the fame as well of their apprehension as torture was rife and notorious in the Town of Amboyna and the parts adjoyning Tomson in this interim and the very first day of the examination of the Japon went to the Castle to ask leave of the Governour to land some Rice and brought back the news with him to the English house of the cruel handling of these poor Iapons This had been Item enough to the English if they had been guilty to shift for themselves whereto also they had ready means by the Curricurries or small Boats of the Amboyners which lie along the Strand in great number wherewith they might easily have transported themselves to Seran to Bottoom or to Maccassar out of the reach and Jurisdiction of the Dutch but in that they fled not in this case it is a very strong presumption that they were as little privy to any treason of their own as suspicious of any treachcerous tran laid for their blouds In the next place let it be considered how impossible it was for
in so great and important a point as this part of Jurisdiction is I appeal to all wise men who I desire may judge of this whether this speech of some in England to wit that the said Councel of defence should alone have judged these conspiratours be agreable to the said Treaty or contrarie to the same I find many Arguments for my Negative opinions to wit that before the Treaty of 1619. the Duch in Amboyna administred Jurisdiction and Judicature upon all and every one who dwelt in or under the Jurisdiction of the Castle as well inhabitants as strangers without difference and that in this said Treaty the Dutch with the English Merchants made onely a league in the matter of commerce and Negotiation of Nutmegs Mace Cloves and Pepper in some quarters without having any further Treaty or communication in the land so that without the bounds of this common Negotiation every one remained free and unhindered in the land by the right and possession which either Company enjoyed and exercised severally according as the same appeareth out of the 23 Article of the Treatie where it is expresly said That castles and Furts shall remain in their hands who at present do possess them And out of the 13.14.15 Articles of the Treatie all may see that this common Councel of Defence hath no more power save onely over the fellowship of the Treatie that is over the Navie of defence in the Sea to the defence of the common Merchandize and liberty of commerce and lastly to tax the charges for the provision of ammunition in the Forts neither can any other thing be sincerely collected out of the said Treaty so far as I can conceive Therefore this second point is found to be untrue and abusive being not founded upon the said Treatie which Treatie not withstanding ought to be the onely rule both of the one and the other Company Finally it is given out in England that in the examination of the Conspiratours there was excess in the Neatherlands Judges in the point of Torture I acknowledge that no argument or pretext against the Justice of this execution hath more moved me in the beginning than this pretence of excess aforesaid because this stirreth Christian compassion although I also judge that wise men will not suffer themselves to be too much transported thereby before the true reasons do fully appear which should move us thereunto For I well remember yet that in the time of former mistakings in the Indies many things were pretended on both parts upon which there were great outcries one either side which yet by due examination were found to be though fair yet false pretexts of some ill-willers and men desirous to wrangle which pretences being throughly sifted by the High and much admired wisdom of his Majesty the Lords the States were well discovered to be no such matters as they were made as it is also undoubtedly to be believed that his Majesty and the States will yet further do in this affair and so the cause of the Dutch Company may be in the carriage hereof rightly justified Of which I understand that the Lords the States have special regard and that they have been throughly informed what is the very truth of the things there past and of the Execution in Amboyna upon the English conspiratours Unto which end the Lords the States resolved to see and peruse all the Papers and Letters touching the said proceedings And now thereupon men speak far otherwise than heretofore for pretences and cavils being once detected cannot stand with truth And it doth plainly appear that there is little truth in the matter of Torture reported to be most cruelly inflicted upon these English conspiratours as in England it is said And I have ever suspected this for a slander for I know the Dutch Nation doth naturally abhor this kind of cruelty and are as much moved to commiseration as any other people But whether these evil minded men who have scattered this great slander in England and have so fowly defaced a just cause have done it by occasion of our use of Tortures in these Lands in some weighty causes according to the custom of the most Dominions of Europe I cannot Judge But is that to be censured Judged to be unjust of the whole world which is repugnant to the Laws of England or any one Nation where Torture is rarely used Nothing so but the Justice or injustice of a cause must be as aforesaid determined according to the Laws where it is done and not of other Lands If this were not so why then should not the whole World much more Judge that as a hard a thing unheard and therefore condemnable which in some causes is used in England according to the Laws there when they proceed against some guiltie persons who being once again asked of the Judge and utterly refusing to be legally tried is adjudged as dumb that is by contumacie whose condemnation then accordingly followeth that he is laid upon a table or plank and another plank upon him and so much weight of stone or lead laid upon him that his body is miserably bruised and so pressed violently to death The which according to the consession of all Nations especially because this kind of justice is not used in other Lands and by the English writers is judged to be one of the most sharp and severe kinds of death that can be invented yet cannot such an execution be called cruel and unlawfull when it is done in England because it is done according to the Laws of that Land though strangers shall judge otherwise of it And in like manner the English Nation cannot complain of the Torture which evil-willers say was used upon these English Conspiratours in Amboyna because it is done according to the Laws of this Government and is not unusual in cases of Treason neither with-us nor almost any Nation in Europe And for England it self it is well known and his most excellent Majesty doth acknowledge by his own Princely pen that the Rack and the Manicles are the onely Tortures that are exercised upon Traitors to force them to confess without concealment what they know to be dangerous to the State And to say the Truth without taking parts the English Conspiratours being affronted with the uniform written confessions of the 11 Japonians their complices which could convince them sufficiently according to the laws find them guilty of the same conspiracie consequently of death if now not withstanding this they had persisted in the stout denial of the fact were not this to speak according to the manner in England enough to judge them dumb by contumacie and so to esteem them worthy of this sore punishment of Pressing to death as is afore-said but this torture of ours if any in Amboyna were so tortured is to be judged far less than that pressing where the Malefactor doth suffer such extream miserie as cannot be imagined and which is
examinations of the English this point was not sifted and somewhat confessed of it amidst so many Tortures There is no confession thereof in all the examinations and Mr. Towerson in his expresly denied it and was pressed no further The truth is the Governour and Fiscal of Amboyna knew that what ever had been confessed in this point would not have been believed by their own People there who knew well enough that the first beginning of this breach between the Dutch and Ternatans of Lobo was about the Slave of the English and the outrages thereupon following were done upon the English as well as upon the Dutch Yet this Authour seems to hope that that may be believed here in Europe which had no colour at Amboyna Concerning the time of executing this plot it was not as the Relation saith yet prefixed but left to the next meeting of the Conspiratours which should be shortly holden when Gabriel Towerson had prepared all things c. Here was certainly a hot practice of Treason and worthy to be tearmed by this Authour An horrible conspiracie They met together on New years day and plotted as is before related and now it was the five and twentieth of February and not onely nothing done all this Interim but not so much as a new consultation But this forsooth is the body and substance of the unanimous confession of all the English by themselves severally subscribed In the next place the Authour relateth somewhat singular in M. Towerson's confession as that he said he was moved to this fact by hope and desire of honour and profit and being demanded from whom he attended this honour and for whom he meant to hold the Castle his answer was That if he could have compassed his project he would forthwith have given advertisement thereof to the rest of his Nation at Jaccatra which now they have christened Batavia and have craved their aid which if they had yielded to him then he would have held the Castle for the English Company and if not then he would have kept it for himself and have used means to have agreed with the Indians and so by one means or other would have compassed the enterprize Here first is to be observed that he would not as this Authour makes him speak have sent for aid to Jaccatra until he were first Master of the Castle and yet in the general confession before it is said he would attend the coming of some English ships or ship before he would adventure upon the Castle Next let the ambiguous and alternative resolution here said to be confessed by Master Towerson be considered in both the parts thereof and it will appear that no man in his wits would have any such conceit as is here pretended What hope could Master Towerson have that the President and English Councel at Jaccatra living under command of the Dutch Fort there and altogether Subject to the Hollanders durst join in any such action thereby to give occasion to the Hollanders to arrest torture and condemn them of Treason Master Towerson knew well enough that about six Moneths before the General of the Dutch at Jaccatra had caught at a very slight occasion to entrap the English President there who having sent out two of his people in the night to the English Cow-house to see what watch the Blacks in their service kept over their Cattel the said two English were apprehended by the Dutch Souldiers kept in prison seven dayes and charged that they had said that they went the Round and one of them being last examined was told by the Balieu the Officer of the Dutch in Criminal causes that his fellow had confessed that they had said they went the Round and that by the English Presidents Commission and if he would not confess the same he should be tortured but the fellow being constant in the truth came off at last without torture yet this was Item enough to the English President and Councel how the intent of the Dutch was to entrap them upon the least occasion and this and other dayly captious dealings of the Dutch at Jaccatra which were too long here to recite were all advertised from time to time to M. Towerson who therefore was sure he could expect no assistance from them that were themselves in in such a predicament The other part of Mr Towerson's resolution is said to have been To keep the Castle for himself and to agree with the Indians in default of help from the English This is yet more improbable than the former Were the Portugals and Indians not able to keep out the Dutch from Amboyna when they had no footing there and shall Captain Towerson with twenty or thirty English and Japons without ship or Pinnace be able with the help onely of the poor naked Indians to drive them out having already three Castles in the Islands of Amboyna and at Cambello hard by all well furnished with men and provision besides their power of shipping which makes them stile themselves Lords of the Sea And yet how could Master Towerson hope to win the Amboynezes the Hollanders sworn Subjects to his side He might rather assure himself that after he had mastered the Hollanders if yet that must be believed to be possible the Amboynezes would have surprized him and cast him out being so weakly provided to stand of himself that so they might utterly free themselve frō their servitude Here also must be remembred that this Authori himself in his preamble saith that the Indians themselves durst not undertake any such great design as he there feineth against the State of Amboyna without some great aid of some Nation of Europe either of Spaniards Portugals or some other Whereby is not onely confessed how weak the Indians of themselves are but withall it followeth how small hope Mr. Towerson might have being deserted of his own Nation as here the case is put to hold the Castle for himself by the help of those Indians if yet he could once have won it In a word they that know the power of the Hollanders in Amboyna and thereabouts and the weakenss of the poor Indians there will judge this conceit of Master Towerson's to keep the Castle for himself to be a mad plot and for which Master Towerson should rather have been sent to Bedlam or the Dullen Kist as the Dutch call it than to the Gallows But this Authour hath one voluntarie confession upon which he taketh special hold to wit that Master Towerson after his examination was finished being expostulated withall by the Dutch Governour and demanded whether this should have been the recompense of his the Governours manifold courtesies towards him answered with a deep sigh Oh! were this matter now to do it should never be done This voluntarie confession and penitent acknowledgement saith this Authour was made the ninth of March being the day when the execution was to be done but the examination of Towerson was ended the eight and twentieth of February