OF THEAECHIPELAGO. 42S same policy which gave birth to the extraordinary conspiracy of Peter Ei^her/eld, which I am now to describe.* Peter Erberfeld was the son of a gentle- man of Westphalia, and citizen of Batavia, by a Javanese mother. His father had left Erberfeld great wealth. At the age of fifty-eight or fifty- nine, he entered into a conspiracy to destroy the Dutch . power in Java by the massacre of all the Christians, on which he was himself to have assum- ed the government of at least all the portion of the island which was under the dominion of Euro- peans. The manner in which the conspiracy was discovered remains unknown. It is only suspect- ed that the Sultan of Bantam, who was engaged in a correspondence with the conspirators, began to fear that his own safety was involved in the success of their ambitious schemes, and became, in conse- quence, instrumental in bringing it to light.
- *' We are the more astonished," says the record of the
trial, *' at this horrible contrivance, because this Cormpany^ under the auspices of their High Mightinesses the States Gene- ral, has never ceased to govern tczY/i all possible mildness and tenderness^ all the people under their authority, whether Ma- homedan or Pagan, without distinction of religion, and pro- tected them against all and every one who sought to trouble or molest them." Either this sentiment is a piece of the most revolting eflfrontery, or the authors of it must have been wholly blinded by the circumstances of their situation. The latter is: most probable^
