AMBOYNA:

OR, THE

CRUELTIES OF THE DUTCH

TO THE

_ENGLISH MERCHANTS._

A

TRAGEDY.

--_Manet alta mente repostum._

AMBOYNA.

The tragedy of Amboyna, as it was justly termed by the English of the
seventeenth century, was of itself too dreadful to be heightened by
the mimic horrors of the stage. The reader may be reminded, that by
three several treaties in the years 1613, 1615, and 1619, it was
agreed betwixt England and Holland, that the English should enjoy
one-third of the trade of the spice islands. For this purpose,
factories were established on behalf of the English East India Company
at the Molucca Islands, at Banda, and at Amboyna. At the latter island
the Dutch had a castle, with a garrison, both of Europeans and
natives. It has been always remarked, that the Dutchman, in his
eastern settlements, loses the mercantile probity of his European
character, while he retains its cold-blooded phlegm and avaricious
selfishness. Of this the Amboyna government gave a notable proof.
About the 11th of Feb. 1622, old stile, under pretence of a plot laid
between the English of the factory and some Japanese soldiers to seize
the castle, the former were arrested by the Dutch, and subjected to
the most horrible tortures, to extort confession of their pretended
guilt. Upon some they poured water into a cloth previously secured
round their necks and shoulders, until suffocation ensued; others were
tortured with lighted matches, and torches applied to the most tender
and sensible parts of the body. But I will not pollute my page with
this monstrous and disgusting detail. Upon confessions, inconsistent
with each other, with common sense and ordinary probability, extorted
also by torments of the mind or body, or both, Captain Gabriel
Towerson, and nine other English merchants of consideration, were
executed; and, to add insult to atrocity, the bloody cloth, on which
Towerson kneeled at his death, was put down to the account of the
English Company. The reader may find the whole history in the second
volume of Purchas's "Pilgrim." The news of this horrible massacre
reached King James, while he was negociating with the Dutch concerning
the assistance which they then implored against the