fullest, which was written on March 5 by Coulson "aboard the Rotterdam lying in irons," is to this effect:—
"Understand that I, Samuel Coulson, late factor of Hitto, was apprehended for suspicion of conspiracy; and for anything I know must die for it: wherefore having no meanes to make my innocency knowne, have writ in this book, hoping some good Englishman will see it. I doe hereupon my salvation, as I hope by His death and passion to have redemption for my sinnes, that I am cleere of all such conspiracy: neither do I know any Englishman guilty thereof, nor other creature in the world. As this is true, God bless me—Samuel Coulson."
Towerson figures little in these moving narratives of the Amboina prisoners, doubtless because of his isolation. But that he suffered with the rest is clear from an account of a visit paid by Beomont to him on the morning of execution. Beomont "found him sitting in a chamber all alone in a most miserable condition, the wounds of his torture bound up. . . . He took Beomont by the hand and prayed him when he came into England to do his duty to the Honble. Company, his master, to Mr. Robinson, and to his brother Billingsley, and to certify them of his innocence, 'which,' said he, 'you yourself know well enough.' "
At length the dread hour of execution arrived. The beat of drum and the tramp of soldiers re-echoing through the streets from early morning had sent throughout the town an irresistible summons to witness the deed of horror about to be perpetrated. All about the execution ground, outside the line kept by the military, was a vast crowd of Amboinese, silent and awed, and yet not devoid of that brilliancy of colouring which is so characteristic of the Oriental popular gathering. There must have been amongst
