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
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
Dutch being landed at Tancoratt the Javans all left Terrytyassy except the Sultan two Pengrans and two English men which were employed as Gunners at sight whereof the King being troubled set fire to the Palace himself and fled up the Hills and about a Month after the young King sent to his Father and promised him his Freedom and Liberty if he would come and live with him in the Fort who consented to it upon the following terms viz. as he was informed That the English French and Danes might have the same liberty that they had formerly and that the Dutch Renegado should be turned out of the Fort and that when he came in no Dutch-man should stir from his Quarters which was consented to But three dayes after he was in the Castle the Dutch desired the Son to demand his Father's Treasure who told him that he had given it all to his Son Pengran Probaya who is gone up the Hills with Four Thousand Macassars and Mallayans The 18 th July 1683 all the English being going from Batavia for Surrat the Dutch Council in Bantam sent for the aforesaid Ambrose Moody and after Examination discharged him and ordered him to take his passage to Batavia in a Dutch Ship. When the two English Men which had been with the old King came down the Hills the Javans carryed them before the Chief of the Dutch who ordered them to go before the young King who when he saw them gave them their liberty to go where they pleased But three dayes after the Dutch sent to the Pengran who lives in the English Factory and ordered him to keep the English Gunners close Prisoners All which was told and affirmed to him by the Brother of the said Pengran The 22th of August 1683. The Agent and Council of the English Nation set sail from Batavia for Surat at which time the Dutch had Wars with the King of Jambee and the King of Jehore and on the West Coast of Sumatra and with Rogia Pelatta the King of Macassar who formerly served the Dutch but is now fled from them with his Forces and dayly Mallayans and Macassars go from Batavia and Bantam to his assistance The Dutch at Ambonia sent this year as he hath heard several of them confess Fifty Dutchmen to Batavia in Irons because they began to Revolt Sometime before the English left Batavia the Dutch had been a fitting of nine ships and a Fleet of Prowes to go against Macassar but finding they had not men sufficient to man them were forced to forbear till next year Now they suffer no Java to wear either Launce or Crease or any other Weapon and the best Java that is in Bantam must pull off his Cap to any Dutchman Although the Dutch have not above Three or Four Hundred Men in Bantam yet the Young King hath not power to act any Thing and all Javans pay to the Dutch at their Marriage Ten Rs. 8 / 8 and Two Rs. 8 / 8 per month for each Fishing Prow and Two Ditto a year Head-money and several other Taxes which makes the Javans daily run from Bantam to Pengran Probaya So that now he hath about Ten Thousand Men in the Field and is in expectation that the English will send to His assistance The Dutch Received the Letters which were sent by the Ambassadors and interpreted them as they pleased And would not suffer the Ambassadors nor no Java to speak to the Young King but by their Linguester The Young King with his own Hands did crease his Uncle Pengran Coloone and keeps his Brothers which came in fast in irons Pengran Keedull did come in with the Old King but finding how severe the Young King was made his escape with several other great Men. The Dutch could not perswade the Young King to sign to their Articles at which they are much troubled The Dutch have perswaded the Young King to turn out of Bantam all Europeans the Moors Banyans and the Chineses In January 168 2 / 3 Ambrose Moody did see in Bantam the Two great brass Guns which came from Tonqueen which he thinks the Company have not charged to accompt The Young King of Bantam must pay to the Dutch for every White Man that they lose in the Wars or by sickness Thirty Rs. 8 / 8 and Twenty for each Black. They have lost already by their own confession Fifteen Hundred Europeans by sickness and by the Warrs since the 18th of July 1683. the Chief of the Dutch was poisoned in Bantam and very oft as the soldiers go to Market they are killed with Clubs The Young King by instigation of the Dutch keeps His Father close prisoner and suffers onely one slave-Woman to bring him Victuals which she puts in at a Window and keeps Centinel always at the door In the time of the aforesaid Moody's imprisonment there was sent to him in Bantam from Mr. Gurney which did belong to the Kempthorne a Letter by the Hands of Nicholas Dios which he did ask leave of the Dutch to deliver and had consent but within two days after the Dutch put the said Dios in prison and would not discharge him before the English came from Batavia which was about five months time after his first imprisonment Signed Ambrose Moody I Ambrose Moody above-named do own the foregoing Relation or Narrative to which my name is subscribed to be drawn by my self and of my own Hand-Writing And I do make Oath that all and every particular therein is true according to what I have heard from very credible persons or been my self an Eye-witness of as the same is exprest by me in the said Narrative Sworn the 25th of June 1684. before Sir John Moore Signed Ambrose Moody The Dutch Commissioners Instructors their First Paper presented to the Lords Commissioners Decisors To the most Honourable Lords my Lords the Commissioners appointed by the King of Great Brittain and the Gentlemen appointed Commissioners by the Lords the States General of the United Provinces for the Decision of Differences arisen between the East-India-Company of England and that of the said Provinces upon the Subject-matter of Bantam Most Honourable Lords AS the Directors of the East-India-Company of the United Provinces have been very sensibly moved to see that the differences of Bantam have been able to cause a difference between the two Companies whose interest is so much never to be dis-united so they have been very glad to understand that it hath pleased his Majesty to name four Lords as Illustrious by the Qualities of their minds as of their birth and office to labour jointly with the Deputies of the Lords the States General of the United Provinces in the decision of the said differences and to prevent by the wayes of Justice and Equity this coldness from ever being capable of sowing seeds of bitterness which might be able to destroy the remainder of this brotherly love which ought to be the Bond of Union and good Intelligence between the two Companies The under-written
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
be compleatly finished This my Lords is our Case and must be our Fortune if we must see our selves destroyed the noblest Navigation of England ruined and consequently our King and Country dishonoured with our hands tyed behind us so as not to be permitted to right our selves without being unjustly charged as the Lyon did the Lamb in the Fable as if we were Men affecting Wars and promoting Dissension between the two Nations An imputation that we disown and abhor having been in all times more averse to Armes than did consist with our Interest and Duty out of the too great inclination we had to Peace and Quietness Eleventhly And whereas the Gentlemen are pleased to insinuate that though the pretended young King of Bantam be never so mean their Faith ought to be kept with him as much as if he were the greatest King upon Earth which we deny not but say they had first plighted their Faith to our Deceased Sovereign of Glorious Memory in the last Treaty of Peace which they have violated by those injurious Articles they have made with the enslaved King of Bantam Twelfthly If the Batavians have kept their terms with that enslaved Prince of Bantam which we have reason not to believe they have it is the first time that ever we heard they have kept their Faith with any of those poor ignorant Natives Thirteenthly If they have made any Articles with that poor King they were made while he was a Prisouer within the Fort in a most abject Thraldom to the Dutch in which condition the poor man would as readily set his hand to any thing the Batavians would have him as our servants subscribed the Letter before mentioned And such is certainly his condition that the poor Creature if Bantam be delivered to the English will be so far from upbraiding the Batavians with breach of Faith for that cause that he will look upon it as the only good turn that ever they did him in his life for then he may be sure of his Liberty and hope to be a little King upon the Hills or in the Woods and at worst see his Subjects flourish under the mild Government of the English whereas in his present condition with the total loss of his little Dominion he must live in durance under the anxiety of seeing his Country ruinated and depopulated Fourteenthly For the justification of our Demands of Dammages or to lessen or invalidate what is demanded of us by the Gentlemen Subscribers we shall trouble your Lordships with no Discourse at present because we desire not to enter upon that Argument till Bantam be restored to us neither shall we trouble your Lordships with any Paraphrase upon the Dutch Papers offered for Evidence upon the Netherlands East-India Companies part because few of them are upon Oath and none of them as we apprehend to any purpose Fifteenthly There are some few particulars in the said Deputies answer that we have not replyed unto being in our judgments to use their own phrase meer trifles but if your Lordships shall think any thing of moment unanswered upon your Lordships command we shall make a farther and particular answer thereunto Sixteenthly What the Gentlemen mean by their triumphant conclusion that they have overthrown our pretensions and justified that wicked act of Bantam we understand not except it be a form of concluding litigious Papers in Holland Our Conclusion shall be no more but to assure your Lordships that we have a perfect confidence in your Lordships Justice and therefore we cannot doubt but our present Sovereigns most auspicious Reign shall be signaliz'd by having one place of importance in India that his Subjects were unjustly deprived of restored again to them in his time which never was done in the time of any of his Noble Progenitors We are Dated at the East-India-House 22th Octob. 1685. My Lords Your Lordships most Dutiful and most Obedient Servants Joseph Ashe Governour Josia Child Deputy Jeremy Sambrook Benj. Bathurst The Rejoynder of the Dutch Commissioners Instructors to the foregoing Reply being the second Paper presented by the said Commissioners to the Lords Commissioners Decisors Viz. To the Most Honourable Lords my Lords the Commissioners appointed by the King of Great Brittain and the Gentlemen appointed Commissioners by the Lords the States General of the Vnited Provinces for the decision of Differences arisen between the East-India Company of England and that of the said Provinces upon the subject matter of Bantam Most Honourable Lords THe underwritten Deputies of the Dutch East-India Company being desirous not to engage in a fight of Calumnies from which the Conquerour can reap nothing but shame and confusion instead of returning the like to the Gentlemen of the English Company will apply themselves solely to demonstrate in this replication that the Reply far from having undermined the foundation of the Answer has not so much as touched it The English Commissioners having highly maintained in their demand that on the behalf of the High and Mighty Lords the States General and of that of the Dutch Company It was agreed that restitution as they call it of Bantam should be made into His Majesties hands The underwritten before they entered into the discussion of the principal cause in relation of this preliminary point quaestio pre judicialis had proved two things I. That touching the Restitution of Bantam there was nothing concluded nor setled between the two Companies and that their High and Mightinesses were far from disposing of Towns that did not belong to them and to which they had no manner of Right II. And in the second place That the English Company after the change which happened at Bantam could not take hold of the Answer return'd by their High and Mightinesses to Sir John Chardin's Memorial no more than of the Advances which the Dutch Company made in the Year 1683 towards the Accommodating the Differences which the War at Bantam had been the cause of between the two Companies What do the Gentlemen of the English Company reply to this Nothing at all but only bring Sir John Chardin upon the Stage very improperly The question not being what Sir John Chardin acted at the Hague upon the matter of Bantam but only whether the two Companies with the consent of the States did agree to the Restitution of Bantam into the Hands of His Majesty which the underwritten have expresly denyed which was enough to prove that there was nothing concluded between the said Companies Wherefore it may be inferred since the Gentlemen of the English Company pass all this under silence speaking there only of Sir John Chardin that these Gentletlemen do indirectly detract from what they advanced in their Demand touching the Conclusion of the Restitution of Bantam The English Company having had in the Capital City only a Factory and their residence without having made any pretence there to the least Right of Territory it was demanded of the English Deputies with what appearance of Justice the