English to debar them of trade to free places and for attempting such trade to take their ships and goods Touching which when a good order was set by the said treaty of the year 1619. yet they saw they could not make their reckoning to any purpose unless they utterly drave the English out of the trade of those parts thereby to have the whole and sole traffick of the commodities of the Indies in these parts of Europe in their own hands and so to make the price at their pleasure sufficient to maintain and promote their conquests and withall to yield them an ample benefit of their tradeing Which unless they can by this and the like worrying and wearying of the English bring to pass it is easie to be judged by those that understand any thing of the course and state of the trade of those parts that albeit their returns hereafter should prove as great continually as of late extraordinarily they have happened to be yet the main stock and Estate of the Company must needs abate and decay by some hundred thousands of pounds yearly Thus Reader thou seest what hath made us unprovided against such accidents and what now enforceth the Dutch East-India Company or their servants in the Indies against the common Genius of their Nation and the wonted firm affection between these two Nations mutually thus to degenerate and break out into such strange and incredible outrages against their nearest allies and best deserving friends Farewell A TRUE RELATION Of the late Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Neatherlanders there upon a forged pretence of a conspiracie of the said English AFter the fruitless issue of two several Treaties the first Anno 1613. in London and the other An. 1615. at the Hague in Holland touching the differences between the English and Dutch in the East-Indies at last by a third Treaty Anno 1619. in London there was a full and solemn composition made of all the said differences and a fair order set for the future proceeding of the Supposts of both Companies in the Indies as well in the course of their Trade and commerce as otherwise Amongst sundry other points it was agreed That in regard of the great bloud-shed and cost pretended to be bestowed by the Hollanders in winning of the Trade of the Isles of the Molluccos Banda and Amboyna from the Spaniards and Portugals and in building of Forts for the continual securing of the same the said Hollanders therefore should enjoy two third parts of that Trade and the English the other third and the charge of the Forts to be maintained by Taxes and Impositions to be levied upon the Merchandize Wherefore in consequence of this agreement the English East-India Company planted certain Factories for their share of this Trade some at the Molluccos some at Banda and some at Amboyna Of the two former of these there will be at this present small occasion to speak further but the last will prove the Scene of a sad Tragedy This Amboyna is an Island lying near Seran of the circuit of forty leagues and giveth name also to some other small Islands adjacent It beareth Cloves for gathering and buying in whereof the English Company for their part had planted five several Factories the head and Rendevouz of all at the Town of Amboyna and therein first Master George Muschamp and afterward Master Gabriel Towerson their Agents with directions over the smaller Factories at Hitte and Larica upon the same Island and at Loho and Cambello upon a point of their neighbouring Island of Seran Upon these Islands of Amboyna and the point of Seran the Hollanders have four Forts the chief of all is at the said Town of Amboyna and is very strong having four Points or Bulwarks with their Curtains and upon each of these Points six great pieces of Ordinance mounted most of them of brass The one side of this Castle is washed by the Sea and the other is divided from the land with a Ditch of four or five fathom broad very deep and ever filled with the Sea The garrison of this Castle consisteth of about 200 Dutch Souldiers and a Company of free Burgers Besides these there is always a matter of three or four hundred mardikers for so they usually call the free Natives in the Town ready to serve the Castle at an hours warning There lie also in the road for the most part diverse good Ships of the Hollanders as well for the guard of the place by Sea as for the occasions of Traffick this being the chief Rendevouz as well for the Island of Banda as for the rest of Amboyna Here the English lived not in the Castle but under protection thereof in a house of their own in the Town holding themselves safe as well in respect of the ancient bonds of amity between both Nations as of the strict conjunction made by the late Treaty before mentioned They continued here some two years conversing and trading together with the Hollanders by vertue of the said Treaty In which time there fell out sundry differences and debates between them The English complaining that the Hollanders did not onely lavish away much money in building and unnecessary expences upon the Forts and otherwise and bring large and unreasonable reckonings thereof to the common account but also did for their part pay the Garrisons with victuals and cloath of Coromondell which they put off to the Souldiers at three or four times the value it cost them yet would not allow of the English Companies part of the same charge but onely in ready mony thereby drawing from the English which ought to pay but one third part more than two thirds of the whole true charge Hereupon and upon the like occasions grew some discontents and disputes and the complaints were sent to Jaccatra in the Island of Java Major to the Councel of defence of both Nations there residing who also not agreeing upon the points in difference sent the same hither over into Europe to be decided by both Companies here or in default of their agreement by the Kings Majesty and the Lords the States General according to an Article of the Treatie of the year 1619. on this behalf In the mean time the discontent between the English and the Dutch about these and other differences continued and dayly encreased untill at last there was a sword found to cut in sunder that knot at once which the tedious disputes of Amboyna and Jaccatra could not untie And this was used in manner as followeth About the eleventh of February 1622. Stilo veteri a Japoner Souldier of the Dutch in their Castle of Amboyna walking in the night upon the wall came to the Sentinel being a Hollander and there amongst other talk asked him some questions touching the strength of the Castle and the people that were therein It is here to be noted that those Japoners of whom there is not thirty in
the English to atchieve this pretended enterprise The Castle of Amboyna is of a very great strength as is before declared the Garrison therein two or three hundred men besides as many more of their free Burgers in the Town What their care and circumspection in all their Forts is may appear not onely by the quick Alarm they now took at the foolish question of the poor Japon made to the Sentinel above-recited but also by that which a little before happened at Jaccatra where one of their Souldiers was shot to death for sleeping in the watch Durst ten English men whereof not one a Souldier attempt any thing upon such a strength and vigilancie As for the assistance of the Japons they were but ten neither and all un-armed as well as the English For as at the seizure of the English house all the provision therein found was but three swords two Muskets and half a pound of powder so the Japons except when they are in service of the Castle and there armed by the Dutch are allowed to have no Arms but onely a Catan a kind of short sword and it is forbidden to all the Dutch upon great penaltie to sell any hand-gun powder or bullets to the Japons or Amboyners But let it be imagined that these 20 persons English Japons were so desperate as to adventure the exploit how should they be able to master the Dutch in the Castle or to keep possession when they had gotten it what second had they There was neither Ship nor Pinnace of the English in the harbor All the rest of the Japons in the Island were not twenty persons and not one English more The nearest of the rest of the English were at Banda forty leagues from Amboyna and those but nine persons all afterwards cleared by the Governour and Fiscal themselves from all suspition of this pretended crime as were also the rest of the English at Jaccatra On the other side besides the strength of the Castle and Town of Amboyna the Hollanders have three other strong Castles well furnished with Souldiers in the same Island and at Cambello near adjoyning They had then also in the road of Amboyna eight Ships and Vessels namely the Rotterdam of 1200 Tun the Unicorn of 300 Tun the Free-mans Vessel of 100 Tun the Calck of 60 Tun Captain Gamals Junck of 40 Tun the Flute of 300 Tun the Amsterdam of 1400 Tun and a small Pinnace of about 60 Tun and all these well furnished with men and Ammunition It is true that the Stories do record sundry valiant and hardy enterprises of the English Nation and Holland is witness of some of them yea hath reaped the fruit of the English resolution yet no Storie no Legend scarcely reporteth any such hardiness either of the English or others That so few persons so naked of all provisions supplies should undertake such an adventure upon a counter-party so well and abundantly fitted at all points But let it be further granted that they might possibly have overcome all these difficulties yet to what end and purpose should they put themselves into such a jeopardie They knew well enough that it was agreed between both companies at home That the Forts in the Indies should remain respectively in the hands of such as had possession of them at the date of the Treaty Anno 1619. and that the same was ratified by the Kings Majestie and the Lords States General They knew likewise and all the world takes knowledge of his Majesties Religious observation of Peace and Treatie with all his neighbours yea with all the world what reward then could these English hope for of this their Valour and danger Certainly none other than that which is expresly provided by the Treaty it self that is To be punished as the disturbers of the Common Peace and Amity of both Nations But let these English men have been as foolish in this plot as the Hollanders will have them is it also to be imagined that they were so graceless as when they were condemned and seriously admonished by the Ministers to discharge their consciences yet then to persist in their dissimulation being otherwise of such godly behaviour as to spend the time in Prayer singing of Psalms and spiritual comforting one another which the Dutch would have had them bestow in drinking to drive away their sorrow Let Colsons question to the Minister be considered his and the rests offer and desire to receive the Sacrament in sign and token of their innocencie their mutual asking forgiveness for their like false accusations of one another forced by the Torture Tomsons last farewell to Beomont Colsons prayer and his writing in his Prayer book Fardo's farewell to Powel also his conjuring exhortation to his fellows to discharge their consciences and all their answers thereunto craving Gods mercie or judgement according to their innocencie in this cause their general and Religious profession of their innocencie to their Countrey men at their last parting with them and finally the sealing of this profession with their last breath and bloud even in the very Article of death and in the stroke of the Executioner What horrible and unexampled dissimulation were this If some one or more of them had been so fearfully desperate yet would not there one amongst ten be found to think of the judgement to come whereunto he was then instantly summoned without Essoin Bail or Mainprise What had they hope of reprieve and life if they kept their countenance to the last Yet what hope had Tomsom and the rest when Captain Towerson's head was off Nay what desire had Tomson and Clark to live being so mangled and martyred by the Torture They were executed one by one and every one several took it upon his death that he was guiltless Now to blanch and smooth over all this rough and Barbarous proceeding it is here given out that the Governour and Fiscal found such evidence of the plot and dealt so evenly in the process that they spared not their own people having used some of their Native Hollanders partakers of this treason in the same manner as they did the English But this as well by the Relation here truely and faithfully set down grounded upon the sworn Testimonie of six credible witnesses as also by other sufficient reports of diverse lately come out of those parts appeareth to be a meer tale not once alledged by any in the Indies in many moneths after the execution but onely invented and dispersed here for a Fucus and a fair colour upon the whole cause and to make the world believe that the ground of this Barbarous and Tyrannous proceeding was a true crime and not the unsatiable covetousness of the Hollanders by this cruel treachery to gain the sole trade of the Molluccos Banda and Amboyna which is already become the event of this bloudy process To adde hereunto by way of aggravation will be needless the fact is so full of odious and barbarous inhumanity
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
of March being the day when the execution should have been done but the examination of Towerson was ended the 18. of February so many dayes before This is the substance of the confessions of 10 Japonians of 14 English and of a Neatherlandish Merinho or Captain of the Slaves who all confirmed these their confessions with their own hands What crime this intended prodition was is hence very manifest and undoubted what punishment is due to treacherie according to the Law and Customs of all Nations is also well known no true Christian man will patronage any such horrible attempt but will adjudge it worthy of death as it was determined upon the complices of this conspiracie according to order of Justice as there in Amboyna it is exercised according to desert by the Governour and Councel in the name of the High and Mighty Lords the States Here you have Sir the very substance of the Truth both of the Fact and punishment other than which many things are spread abroad in England but upon what pretence or intendment I know not let the matter it self speak for it self The first point Object 1 which is objected against this Justice done in Amboyna is concerning the proceedings which are said to be holden without formality and with extremity against these conspiratours Your Worship and each reasonable man knoweth that every land hath their Laws and Ordinances and their particular manner of proceedings as well in Civil as in Criminal causes England hath hers France Spain Dutchland Neatherland and all other Kingdoms and Governments have also theirs which are just and lawfull to every one in their Dominion so that when any man will judge of the equitie or injustice of a proceeding used in any Land he must examine the same according to the Laws customs of that Kingdom or Dominion where the Justice Proceedings were holden These Proceedings were holden by the Neatherlandish Governour in the name of the Illustrious Lords the States having supream Power many years since in the Isles of Amboyna which were conquered in the name of the said Lords the States from the Spaniards or Portugals who held that Castle in the name of the King of Spain our hereditarie enemy therefore they are now possessed in the name of the Lords the States and are under their Dominion by a just and Lawfull Title of War according to the Law of Nations There among other things Justice is administred according to the Law of the Neatherlands in that manner as was used in the proceedings against these conspiratours I know that the Laws of England are divers from ours in Criminal cases yea and from all the Nations in Europe howbeit therefore no man hath any ground of reason to say that the proceedings of the English judges holden in England against Delinquents are not legitimate though the said English proceedings do varie in the manner from the proceedings of France Spain c. where other customs are for that is lawfull which agreeth with the Laws of that Land where the fact is committed Now then the Japonian Souldidiers being in the service of the Neatherlands Company in Amboyna are discovered to have conspired against the Castle and the Governour there under whose Oath and pay they were they were apprehended and examined and convicted of the said conspiracie This proceeding is Lawfull and toucheth no man because the said Japonians knew no other Master than the Neatherlanders under whose Oath service and pay they stand All these Japonian conspiratours with the said Merincho a Captain of the Neatherlands Slaves confessed with one mouth that they were moved and induced to this conspiracie by the English Merchants resident in Amboyna whose names they named Now not onely the right of Neatherland but of England and of the whole World requireth that the Authours abettours and complices of Murder and Treason should be punished with death whereto according to the common Laws as also the particular Laws of every Kingdom or Dominion the suspected persons first and before all should be imprisoned not onely for preventing the effect of their evil purpose but that they might also receive their deserved punishment which apprehensions could not in that place be done by any other man than by the command of the Neatherlands Governour to whom it belongeth to take care to see every act concerning Supream power to be there observed and especially all other reasons ceasing the highest English Officers there could not apprehend these English Conspiratours because all the chief of the English Merchants in Amboyna were themselves of the conspiracie and complices of the fact upon which the apprehension was made Therefore the apprehension of the English complices must be done by the Dutch Governour who therefore hath therein proceeded according to the custom of all Nations of the world And that these apprehensions may be holden more Lawfull it appeareth out of the written process that the said English complices were not imprisoned upon the first suspitions gross evidences which were had against them but then at last when all the Japonian Souldiers were taken examined and convicted and had discovered by the uniform confession of all the eleven the names and surnames of such English as had perswaded and hired them to this fact of which English viz. one Abel Price Barber was before apprehended as an Incendiary for burning and violence done upon other houses who also was first examined first confessed as the other 11 Japonians that he by name Gabriel Towerson other English Merchants whom he named by their names had suborned the said Japonian Souldiers and that all the English Merchants in the Forreign Cantores in Amboyna had knowledge of this conspiracie c. So that it may be seen out of that which went before that the Dutch Governour dealt no otherwise in the apprehension and examination of the English than according to his place and power and that with great discretion according to the Laws of these United Provinces The second point which is abusively dispersed in England Oubject 2 against this execution is that it is said that it did not appertain to the Neatherlanders in Amboyna to imprison the said English and to proceed against them or to punish them but that it did belong to the Councel of Defence resident at Jaccatra consisting half of English and half of Neatherlanders according to the Treaty of the year 1619. made between his Majestie and the Lords the States between the two East-India Companies That I might the better inform my self thereof I took in hand and perused the general Treaty of 1619. with the explication following thereupon but I profess that as I think every understanding man not loving discord must confess that neither in the said Treatie nor in the enlargement any one Article or word could be perceived whereby according to that which is untruely said in England either this or any such thing is ordained or decided by the said Treaty as it ought to have clearly been
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
the Province of Amboyna from the unwonted boldness and insolencies of the Ternatans first in the Molluccos and then in Amboyna For those in the Molluccos he saith they had lately before the pretended conspiracie of the English gone about contrarie to the Treatie Anno 1606. between them and the Dutch to make peace with the King of Tedore and truce with the Spaniard without the consent or knowledge of them the Dutch which how honestly and conscionably it is alleadged to this purpose may appear by the Journals of those parts which evidently shew that this Treaty between those of Ternata and Tedore was in November 1621. that is to say fifteen Moneths before this forged conspiragie and that with the knowledge of Houtman the Governour of the Dutch who upon the 19 of November the year aforesaid acquainted M. Nichols the Agent of the English in those parts with the preparations of this Treatie which was actually holden at Ternata the 24 of the same moneth But the matter was so well handled by the Dutch to keep those neighbour Islands in perpetual War that the Treatie was dissolved re infecta And the seventh of December following an Edict was published by the King of Ternata commanding all the Tedorians forth with to depart the Island of Ternata upon pain to be made Slaves After this the correspondence between the Dutch and Ternatans in the Molluccoes returned into as firm state as ever the Ternatans performing dayly exploits against the Spaniards and communicating the Triumph with the Dutch As the seventeenth of February 1622. being a sull year before the seined Treason of the English the King of Ternata with twenty Curricurries took a Spanish Galley slew forty in fight and took 150 Prisoners whom they sold to the Dutch for Cloath and Rice and coming by the Hollanders Castle of Maalaio the eighteenth of the same Moneth with the heads of divers Spaniards at his Stern the Dutch saluted him from their said Castle with nine shot of great Ordnance The 25 of April following the Admiral of the King of Ternata took a Prow of the Spaniards slew some and sold the rest to the Dutch The 28 of the same Moneth both Dutch and English were feasted by the King of Ternata The 22 of May next ensuing the King of Ternata went forth to Machian with six Curricurries and at his departure was honoured with thirty shot of great Ordinance from the Dutch Castle The 15 of June the Admiral of the King of Ternata made a Voyage towards Mindanow carrying divers of the Dutch with him to assist him The third of July the Ternatanes took other Prisoners and sold them to the Dutch The 24 of August the King of Ternata made one Vogler a Dutch Merchant his Treasurer at whose instalment in his new Office the Dutch gave seven great shot from the Castle And this good correspondence between the Ternatans and the Dutch in the Molluccos continued even untill and after the execution of the English at Amboyna which was as hath been shewed in February 1623. New stile Upon the 14 of which Moneth the Dutch gave the King of Ternata and other Blacks two hundred Bails of Japan Rice with other presents at the delivery whereof there were shot off from the Castle seven pieces of Ordnance and three Vollies of small shot By all which may appear how fmceerly this Authour applieth the diffidence between the Dutch and the King of Ternata which was now none at all to this business of Amboyna The next point is that the Ternatans in the Molluccos went about also to make truce with the Spaniards without consent or knowledge of the Dutch wherein this dealing of the Authour is worse than the former For this Treatie of truce appeareth by the Journals to have been holden the 19 of July 1623. which was five moneths after the execution of the English at Amboyna and so came too late to move suspition against them And yet this pretended fear and jealousie of the Molluccos is further amplified by the strength of the Spaniard being then as this Authour affirmeth Master of the Sea there and that by default of the English who contrarie to the Treatie of the year 1619 had deserted the defence and sent no more ships neither to the Molluccos nor to the Manilliaes whence now the Spaniards had means to send Ships Gallies and Pinnaces to the Molluccos What the strength of the Spaniard in the Molluccos by Sea was at the time of this pretended fear may appear by the exploits before mentioned done upon them by the Curricurries of the Ternatans without help of the Hollanders But for the default of the English which is here odiously alleadged it will be requisite to set down the true causes wherefore the English relinquished the action of defence as well at the Manilliaes as elsewhere being a matter much aggravated upon all occasions by the Hollanders albeit themselves have given the cause thereof Wherefore shortly the true motives of the English their desisting from the action of defence were as followeth The English had by agreement of the Councel of defence two years together maintained a Fleet of five tall warlike ships to joyn with the like strength of the Hollanders for the action of the Manilliaes and the profit of the Voyage as the charge to be common to both Companies The Dutch prepared another Fleet of seven ships all of their own for Macao bordering upon China near the Manilliaes without giving knowledge thereof to the English at Jaccatra until their Fleet was ready to depart thence well knowing that upon such warning it would be impossible for the English to prepare a like force to joyn with them To those they appointed also eight Pinaces that were then abroad to joyn and afterwards sent another Ship with provisions unto them This Fleet passing by two of the English Ships which were appointed for that quarter of the Manilliaes the English welcomed them and offered to joyn with them in their exploit which the Dutch refused saying That this being an exploit of their own the English should neither participate of the fact nor of the benefit that might arise thereby Likewise by agreement of the Councel of defence of both Nations there was another Fleet of ten Ships set forth at the equal charge of the English and Dutch for the coast of Mallabar to secure the Trade in that part Of the Dutch Ships about a moneth after they set sail two were found to be so weak and leak that they were fain to return to Jaccatra The rest being come to their quarter two of the best of the Dutch Ships were sent away by the Dutch Admiral for the Red-sea contrarie to their instructions and Commission at Jaccatra from the Councel of defence and notwithstanding the protestations obtestations and exclamations of the English against this prevarication So that four Caracks of the Portugals coming that way the rest of the Fleet of the English and