120 THE END OF THE STRUGGLE then be quiet for a little while, and then loud again.' ' Johnson long refused to confess, but after an hour he was " brought forth wailing and lamenting, all wet and cruelly burnt in divers parts of his body." One Englishman, Edward Collins, gave evidence, according to the Dutch, without torture. But the nar- rative founded upon the depositions of the surviving Englishmen on oath states that Collins was tied up for the torture, and the cloth put about his throat. " Thus prepared he prayed to be respited and he would confess all. Being let down he again vowed and protested his innocency, ,, but for fear of the torture asked them what he should say. This was not enough and he was tortured, but not being able to endure it long, he made a confession helped out by the Dutch prosecutor. Col- lins himself confirmed this statement on oath and pro- duced three witnesses who " heard him many times roar very pitifully, being in the next room, and saw senseless libel," and offering a reward of 400 guilders for the discovery of either the author or the printer. (iii) An Answer to the Dutch Relation touching the pretended Conspiracy of the English at Amboyna in the Indies, being a reply to No. ii. (the libellous Dutch Declaration) drawn up by the English Company and issued under its authority. These three pamphlets were published together by the Company in 1624 with a preface. A third reprint is dated 1632, and there were several subsequent editions. (iv) A Remonstrance of the Directors of the Netherlands East India Company presented to the Lords States-General . . . in defence of the said Company touching the bloody Proceedings against the English Merchants executed at Amboyna. (v) The Acts of the Council of Amboyna. The official Court Record of the Trial and the confessions of the accused, as presented by the Dutch to the East India Company. (vi) A Reply to the Defence of the Proceedings of the Dutch against the English at Amboyna. An answer to, and criticism of, Nos. iv. and v. These last three pamphlets were published by authority in London in 1632.
