together
with the loss of all their goods then in Persia. At last the Company was
obliged to compound, by payment of L10,000 to the Duke of Buckingham in
discharge of his claim, and received an order from the secretary of
state, Sir Edward Conway, to pay a similar sum also to the crown.--E.

SECTION XIV.

ACCOUNT OF THE MASSACRE OF AMBOINA, IN 1623.[315]

In the preceding sections of this chapter, the early commercial voyages
of the English East India Company have been detailed; and it is now
proposed to conclude this part of our arrangement, by a brief narrative
of the unjustifiable conduct of the Dutch at Amboina, in cruelly
torturing and executing several Englishmen and others on false pretences
of a conspiracy, but the real purpose of which was to appropriate to
themselves the entire trade of the spice islands, Amboina, Banda, and
the Moluccas. They effectually succeeded in this nefarious attempt, and
preserved that rich, but ill-got source of wealth, for almost two
hundred years; till recently expelled from thence, and from every other
commercial or colonial possession in Asia, Africa, and America. A just
retribution for submitting to, or seconding rather, the revolutionary
phrenzy of French democracy; for which they now deservedly suffer, under
the iron sceptre of the modern Atilla.

[Footnote 315: Purch. Pilgr. II. 1853. Harris, I. 877.]

In giving a short narrative of this infamous transaction, besides the
original account of Purchas, abridged from a more extended relation
published at the time by the East India Company, advantage has been
taken of the account given by Harris of the same event, which is fuller
and better connected than that of Purchas, who most negligently garbled
this story, under pretence of abbreviation. Harris appears evidently to
have used the authorised narrative published by the Company, in drawing
up his account of the event. There are other documents, relative to this
tragical event, both in the Pilgrims of Purchas and the Collection by
Harris, particularly the Dutch justificatory memorial, in which they
endeavour to vindicate their conduct, and to shew that the English
merited the lingering tortures and capital punishments to which they
were condemned; to which is added a reply or refutation, published by
order of the English Company. But the abridged narrative contained in
this section seems quite sufficient on so disgusting a subject,
especially so long after the events