2^)2 IIISTOItV OF INlJlA. [Book II.
A.D. 1623. purpose of wresting the i.slaiid from them, the Dutch autliorities proceeded, in the name of law and justice, but in gro.s.s and manifest violation of Loth, Ut perpetrate an atrocity which has left a stain on the national character.
A massacre. According to their own acccjunt, part of their garri.son in the castle of AniLoyna consisted of natives of Japan. One of these, having incurred susjjicion hy the minuteness of his inquiries as to the state and defences of the place, was apprehended, and on examination divulged a plot, into which other eight of his countrymen and the English in the service of the London East India Company had entered, for the puipose of seizing the castle of Amhoyna, and thereby making themselves masters of the island, The Jajtanese, whose names their countrjTnan had mentioned while under torture, were first apprehended, and being subjected to the same horrible process, not only confessed their own guilt, but implicated the leading members of the English factory. After a short- interval the English thus denounced were seized ; and, partly under the terror of being tortured, and partly under the actual application of it, confirmed the statements of the Japanese. On the evidence thus extorted, a conviction was obtained ; and sentence of death was not only pronounced, but actually inflicted on nine natives of Japan, one Portuguese, and twelve Englishmen. Among the last were Captain Gabriel Towerson, the English agent at Amboyna, and several of his factors and assistants.
Confession j^ endcavouring to defend this proceeding, the Dutch dwell particularly on
by tortme. the Uniformity of the confession made by the unhappy sufierers ; but they omit to mention that, at the time when tortm-e was inflicted, the answers desired to be obtained were actually suggested, and the accused, instead of being simply called upon to state the truth, were asked, while wi-ithing in agony or threa- tened with it, whether they had not entered into the plot with which they were charged — whether such and such proposals had not been made — whether such and such plans had not been arranged — and whether a particiilar day, also named, had not been fixed for carrying them into execution. In this way, not by fair interrogatories, but by a series of leading questions, the answers were made to assume a degree of consistency well calculated to conceal or disguise the monstrous absurdities which the whole charge carried on the face of it. It ousfht also to be borne in mind, that the confessions which had been extorted were afterwards solemnly retracted in the interval between the sentence and the execution, and that all the victims died protesting their innocence.
Iniquity of Evcn admitting that the suspicion of some kind of plot was not altogether
the sentence. tiitai ^ • • j.j.1
groundless, the extreme measures adopted by the Dutch authorities are utterly incapable of vindication. The danger, if it ever existed, vanished the moment it was discovered. Where, then, was the necessity of hurrying on the trial while the accused remained without the means of providing a proper defence; or of executing it, without allowing them the opportunity of bringing a sentence which they held to be iniquitous under review ? The Council of Defence, to
