within a quarter of an hour after came to our Factory Pengran Nata Negana who acquainted us the Kings pleasure was that without delay all English and other Servants belonging to the Honourable Company should this day depart and go aboard but had liberty to seal up all their Godongs wherein any Goods were housed and when they had Shipping might Export them And within half an hour after this message we had notice of the Sultan's coming from the Pavian and passing through Chinarow to the Danes Garden who making some short stay there returned and came in at the back Gate of our Factory where Mr. Nicholas Wait and Mr. George Gosfright with sundry others of the Companies Servants met him and the said Mr. Nicholas Waite and Mr. George Gosfright desired His Majesties permission to reside upon the place till they had Shipping to Export our Honourable Masters Estate and although moved twice yet responded nothing to that point saying only That he had Ordered Pengran Natta Negana to Live in the Factory and so marched out without admitting any further Reply And within an hour after the said Pengran's people and the said Pengran came into the Factory and took possession of all the Chambers except onely wherein Mr. Nicholas Waite and Mr. George Gosfright resided who some time after went to Monsieur Martin and Mr. Tack the Dutch Commissioners in the Fort and in their absence entred our Factory sundry Dutch and other Soldiers belonging to them and plundered most of the Chambers The Truth whereof we are ready to confirm by Oath when required Witness our Hands in Bantam this 11th day of April 1682. Signed George Gosnal Richard Knipe John Burdet The Deposition of Captain John Fisher I Hada house in Bantam which had been in possession of several English Men for about 13 years In which House I kept Servants and several Goods for the most part Liquors which I bought and sold The day after the Dutch Landed in Bantam being the 29th of March. 1682. I stood on a Platform in our Factory and saw the Soldiers under the Command of De Roy the Lieutenant of the Majors Company pull down a silk Flagg commonly called St. George's Flagg which I had by permission and Order of the Council put upon my House seeing which I went with speed towards my House near the entrance whereof I saw the abovesaid De Roy with part of the Flagg in his hand which he had torn and given to his soldiers for Scarfs who espying me ordered his soldiers to stand upon their Guard and keep me out of my house two whereof knocked me down with the but-end of their Musquets telling me I now had nothing to do with the house nor any thing therein and so took out my Goods being Houshold Goods four chests of Claret four barrels of Mum c. and broke open some of the chests and took out the heads of some of the barrels and drank out part the remainder by Jacob's Order was carried away First having put some Batavia Blacks in possession of my house After which seeing no remedy I returned back to the Factory The nearest value of my Goods besides house was about 600 Dollers At our Exclusion and departure from Bantam the Council Ordered the Halyardes of our Flag being St. George 's to be cut off close to the foot of the flag and nailed to the Flag-staff and leave the Flag flying and one English Man by name Daniel Quickâ— to remain upon the place to acquaint the Commanders of our Ships which might arrive from Europe c. of departure of the Companies servants to Batavia for which Port they were to proceed with their ships About five days after our departure from Bantam the Dutch soldiers went into our Factory and Ordered their black servants to go up our Flag-staff and pull down the Flag This information we had from some of the eminentest China Merchants in Bantam particularly Concho Chooancho Sankee and Abdool Hallim the last whereof was a Chinese turned Javee Signed Iohn Fisher Dated the 4th of April 1683. Memorial of the late Transactions at Bantam Extracted from the Companies General Letters Received by the Emoy Merchant Dated from Batavia the 23th of September 1682. And from Mr. Charles Sweeting's of the 17th ditto with the said Sweeting's Deposition thereupon 1. THat upon a difference depending and a War broken out between the old Sultan of Bantam and the Young Sultan his Son the Dutch Government at Batavia pretending to assist the Young King came with a Fleet of Ships and Prows and attempted to Land at Bantam on the 14th of March 1681-82 but were beaten off by the Old Kings Forces and forced to retreat with their Fleet to a greater distance from the Town till further recruits might be had from Batavia which arriving the 23th of the same month of March The Dutch General the sieur Martin Landed his Men at Bantam the 28th who forced their way through the Old Kings Guards which were placed between the Castle in which the Young King was besieged by His Father and the shoar and were immediately let in by the Young King into the Castle where they set up their Dutch colours and so they did upon all other principal parts of the Town 2. The next day being the 29th the sieur Caeffe the Dutch Resident with a File of Soldiers and several Carpenters came into the back yard of the English Factory and commanded the English Agent to pull down the Balconies and to nail up all the windows a Dutchman in his Company adding by way of threat that if the Factory did not cause it immediately to be done he would himself do it and he accordingly did cause it immediately to be done 3. The next day but one being the last day of the month of March 1682. One of the Young Kings chief Officers called Pengran Deepa Paneratt came to the English Factory with a Paper Writ in the Mallay Language and said to be sent from the King being an Order to the English with all possible speed to get their Goods and Effects on Board their ships and depart his Countrey The said Pengran urged the English Agent and Factors to comply speedily with the said Order as they tendred the said Kings displeasure But the English Agent and Factors are assured that no such Order was given voluntarily by the King the Agent and Council when they were the day before to attend the King to represent to him how they had been perfectly Neuters in the differences between him and the King His Father and had given him no cause at all to be offended with them having perceived nothing by his words or actions towards them of any intent in him to drive the English out of his Countrey And it is certain there was a great dispute between the Young King and the Dutch Major before he could be brought to give any such Order but being himself under the power of the Dutch he was forced to
considered of the affairs of the Young King of Bantam offered themselves to mediate between the Old Sultan Agan and his Son writing to this effect two Letters in obliging and civil terms by which they shewed not only the trouble which it gave them to see the dissension between the Father and the son but also the design which they had to endeavour to make a friendly end of their differences and with this prospect they sent to Bantam Plenipotentiaries with their Letters to the two Kings convoyed only but by one Vessel three others having been sent thither before But these Plenipotentiaries going to a place where all were in Arms and that they did not know whether they should meet Friends or Enemies they thought it was necessary for their safety to put themselves in a posture of defence and to arm themselves sufficiently to be able to resist those who forgetting the Law of Nations and the respect due to publick persons should undertake to attacque them And this is that Fleet of Ships and of Boats which is pretended was sent to Bantam there to Land their Forces The Hollanders having waited some dayes for the answer of Sultan Agan without receiving it and not knowing well enough what were the inclinations of the Javans towards them they re-tacked some Commanders with a Party to inform themselves more exactly of the posture of affairs But after having advanc'd a little they met with some Europeans who asked them by the mouth of an English Man why they intermedled with the differences between the two Kings To which having answered that they came in the quality of Friends to procure Peace between a divided Father and Son they were not long without perceiving the design which was formed against them since the Javans drew together in those parts a body of Forces and sending out some fire Ships and some men of Warr they made as if they would attacque the Hollanders who were of too small a number of having any thoughts to undertake any thing against an Enemy so powerful as that that threatned them The Javans proceeded from Threats to Effects fired upon the Hollanders and the Canon of which the English had the management having very much gauled the Dutch Ships they were sensible that they were resolved not only not to accept of their mediation but that they look't upon them also as Enemies which afterwards determined the government of Batavia to free the Young King from his misery by force of Arms which notwithstanding was not done until the 28the of March. As to the Dutch Colours which they say the Hollanders set up after the Victory upon the Fort and every where else in the Town of which the Subscribers are notwithstanding really ignorant deserves no answer since it is certain that the Hollanders never having pretended any right to the Town of Bantam the Colours could be of no other use than the service of the Dutch Forces which after the siege of the Dutch Forces was raised were posted in all the principal places of the Town the Dutch Colours having been set up by the Kings Order in honour to the Auxiliary Armes of the Government of Batavia but they did alwayes fly underneath the Kings Colours The second Article of the said Sweetings Deposition though there hath been a great deal of noise made of it is notwithstanding to take it rightly the innocentest thing in the World. Mr. Sweeting swears that the Dutch Resident Caeffe came with a Company of Souldiers and several Carpenters into the English Companies back Court commanding the English Agent to cause his Galleries to be beat down and to dam that is to say nail up the Windows to which an Hollander who was in the Company added threatning him that if he did not do it immediately he would do it himself and that he did cause it to be done immediately In reading this Article in the Terms wherein it is couched one would imagine without doubt that there was a great outrage committed by the Hollanders but those who have any knowledge of this afair will judge quite otherwise of it this being the true Relation of it The Hollanders not being willing to cause any inconvenience to any person in Bantam chose their own House to keep their Magazine of Ammunition and Victuals but the Wall of their House touching in a little place the English Habitation and that heretofore there came no light but through the Lettice where sometime after the English by the Old Kings Permission who sought all occasions to trouble the Hollanders had made great and large open Windowes and which was made a Gallery or Balcony which leaning 4 or 5 foot over the Dutch House which is raised but 12 or 13 gave them opportunity of hearing and seeing all that ever past in the Dutch Residents House The Young King seeing that the Dutch House was like to be in time of a War the great Magazine in the Garrison foresaw the dangerous consequences of such Inlets into a place where was Powder and other Ammunitions of War Wherefore knowing that the English would not cause his Windowes to be shut up nor take away the Balcony He himself sent thither his people with a Dutch Renegado who is here called barely a Hollander who having lived several years amongst the Javans had gained the favour of the Prince and had been raised by him to the Dignity of a Pengran As to what is said that their Resident Caeff was present there that might very well be because this happened at his door and his duty was to take care of the Magazine This is the true History of this affair which contains nothing in it of ill and which besides was done by the Kings Authority as it was proved by the fifth Abstract of Mounsieur St. Martins Considerations marked G. As to the first Article of the said Depositions which Mr. Sweeting believes to be true upon the credit of credible persons which is much to be wondred at It contains but two things First the intimation which the Kings Officer gave to those of the English house containing a peremptory order from his Master to make us leave Bantam and this is confessed Secondly That the English Agent and Council were assured that such an Order was not voluntarily given by the King of whose opinion of them although we have before examined the Reasons we ought here to convince the English of the wrong which they do the Hollanders in accusing them of having been the cause of their expulsion from Bantam It is confessed by both sides that there was command given by the King to the English to go out of Bantam but the dispute is whether the King gave it of himself or at the instigation of the Hollanders The Hollanders protest that they do them great injustice to believe them capable of an action of the nature of this Are not the English obliged to prove so uncharitable a fact But have they any proofs of it Surely none at
engross the whole Trade of Pepper which if attained will consequently destroy the English Navigation and carry with it the Universal Trade of India in all other Commodities as well as Pepper The said Deputies therefore have been obliged in duty to inform His Most Sacred Majesty and the Lords Commissioners Decisors as they intimated to Your Honours in their last Paper what they judged to be the only means to preserve any part of the English Trade in India and to lay the foundation of an Everlasting Peace between the two Companies Which opinion the said Deputies are ready not only to Defend and Submit to the Lords Commissioners Decisors according to the Treaty of the Year 1674-75 but to demonstrate to their Lordships that all other tedious circumstantial discourses tend only to protract time Signed Joseph Ashe Governour Josia Child Deputy Benj. Bathurst Jer. Sambrooke Dated at London 17 June 1685. The Fourth Paper Received from the Dutch Commissioners Instructors To the Honorable Gentlemen Sir Joseph Ashe Baronet Governour of English East-India-Company Sir Josia Child Baronet Deputy-Governour Sir Benjamin Bathurst and Sir Jeremy Sambrooke Knights Deputies of the said Company for the Affairs of Bantam ALthough the under-written Deputies of the East-India-Company of the United Provinces cannot assure themselves well to understand the true sense of the Memorial that they received from your Honours yet they find themselves obliged to Witness how much they are satisfied with the protestation they have made not long to defer the discussion of the Controversies about Bantam in the form prescribed by the meeting in the Year 1674-75 To which seeing the under-written Deputies have been a long time conformable they shall be very glad that the said controversies may be debated as soon as possible according to the same Form before the Lords Commissioners that must decide it Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Bloquery A. Paets Dated at Westminster 19th June 1685. Whereupon the English Commissioners Instructors did present unto the Lords Commissioners Decisors the following Paper Together with their Demands for Dammages sustained by the surprize of Bantam To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners for determination of Differences between the English and Dutch East-India-Companies occasioned by the late surprize of Bantam 1. IN Obedience to Your Lordships commands intimated to us in the Robes Chamber at White-Hall the 17th Instant We do humbly present your Lordships with Copies of all Papers that have passed between the Dutch Commissioners Instructors and our Selves since their Arrival in England We do humbly offer it to your Lordships as our Opinion and the Opinion of all English Men that have any knowledge of the Affairs of India That nothing less than the withdrawing of all the Dutch Forces from Bantam and the Territories thereof belonging to both or either of the late Kings of Bantam on the 14th day of March 1681-82 and the surrender of the Fort of Bantam unto His Majesty undemolished can prevent the Dutch from being immediately Masters of the entire Trade of Pepper And what fatal consequences to His Majesty and His Kingdoms do depend upon such their Engrossing of that Trade we have Demonstrated in Writing to His late Majesty of Blessed Memory And the Memorial relating thereunto now remains in the hands of the Clerks of His Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council And although His late Majesty did only demand from the Dutch the withdrawing of all their Forces from Bantam c. and the satisfying the East-India-Company for the dammages sustained by reason of the unjust surprisal thereof Our later advices from India have given us sufficient Reasons to justifie our further Demand of having the Fort of Bantam delivered to His Majesty undemolished for the following Reasons 1. Because as we foresaw when we humbly presented our Memorial aforesaid to His late Majestie The Dutch have since not only obstructed but Hostilely invaded our Trade and shot at our Servants with Bullets on the Coast of Mallabar to deter and beat them off from that little remainder we had there of the Pepper Trade 2. We since understand that the Dutch have so miserably enthralled and improverished both the late Kings of Bantam that they are not now both able to pay us 5 l. of that vast Debt they owe us otherwise than by that Fort of Bantam which was built with the Money the young King owed us and the Guns mounted on the said Fort are our own Guns for which we were never paid 3. Because the Young King as we have been credibly informed and do believe assassinated formerly our Agent and Factors though for what Cause or who instigated them thereunto we know not And now the Dutch say it was He the said Young King and not They that commanded us away from Bantam And therefore we dare not without a strong Garrison to defend us trust our Servants and Estates in his Dominions neither will any go thither that are worth sending without such security be provided for their Lives 4. Because if the Old King of Bantam had a right to Bantam and to the Territories thereof They are now His Majesties by His Donation of them to the late King of ever Blessed Memory If the Right thereof lyes as the Dutch say in the Young King He hath been so inhumane ungrateful and bloody an Enemy to His Majesties Subjects confessedly without the least Cause or Provocation on their part that we humbly conceive His Majesties Honour cannot be repaired without invading his City and Countrey And the rather because though he be called a King he is in truth none but a perfect Slave to the Batavians and an Executioner of their will and pleasure 5. If the Dutch say the Young King is their Allie and they are bound in honour to protect him We say by that Rule there can never be Peace between the English and the Dutch in India And they may be as good Right easily make a Quarrel between any other Indian Princes and their Neighbours or their own Sons or Brothers and then take a side and condition with the prevailing side to turn us and all other Europeans out of their Countries and we must not revenge our Selves because they will protect such injured and injurious Princes as their Allies Whereas by the Articles of Peace the English and Dutch ought mutually to assist and help each other 6. This is an old practice of the Dutch So they made a quarrel with the Macassars and when the differing Princes were equally matched they assisted one side which turned the ballance and they conditioned with the prevailing side to turn the English Nominatim and all other Europeans out of their Countrey 7. The Dutch were doing the same thing again between two Kings or Rajas on the Coast of Mallabar when our last Letters came from that Coast 8. If the Dutch say the old King was assisted by the English against his Son the Young King and therefore he turned the English out of his Countrey We
do it 4. When the English saw themselves in such danger and not only their Houses and other Goods on shoer forcibly taken from them but their Powder also from on Board their ships commanded to shore as was done out of the ship Return on the 3d. of April they Laded what Goods and Effects they could in that hurry get together in the Countrey Boats in Order to put them on Board the English ships then near at hand Whilst this was doing they met with no hindrance from the Young Kings subjects or souldiers that were on shoar but when they came up to the Dutch Guards at Sea they were stopped and told that they the Guards were ordered not to suffer any Goods to be brought from the shoar to the English ships and that if the English did attempt further to get on Board their ships they would fire upon them upon which the English and their Boats were forced to return back 5. Of this the English made their complaint to the Dutch Major who in a smiling manner told them all was by Order of the Young King though none of the Natives or the Kings soldiers had any hand in these violences all being directed by Dutch Officers and executed by Dutch soldiers And this is the more notorious in that the Young King himself told the French Chief in the presence of the Dutch Commissioners when the said Chief addressed himself to him to have four chests of Treasure that had been taken from him restored That he the said King knew nothing of the cause of his complaint for that he neither had nor would prejudice him nor the English nor the Danes nor any other Strangers that were Trading in His Countrey Therefore if he the French Cheif had any wrong done him since the Landing of the Dutch at Bantam the King told him he must apply himself to the said Dutch Commissioners or to the General at Batavia for Reparation 6. On the 11th of April the Dutch souldiers entred and ran-sackt all the Chambers in the English Factory carrying away whatsoever they found there but the Java's that is the Natives did not deal so unjustly with them permitting the Factors to seal the Companies Warehouses and promising to secure them 7. On the 12th of April the English left Bantam and to save themselves and what they could of their Masters Goods and Effects imbarqued upon their ships leaving the English Flag commonly called St. George's Flag flying upon the Factory where it had stood for so many years before but this Flag was soon taken down by the Dutch and their Flag set up in the stead of it and so had another Flag of St. George's set up upon another House in Bantam being pulled down by One Jacob de Roy Leiutenant of the aforesaid Majors Company on the 29th of March that was the very next day after the Dutch Landed there And the said Flag being taken down was by the said de Roy with his own hands torn in pieces and given among the souldiers to wear for Scarffs Charles Sweeting Merchant late Factor and one of the Council for the English East-India Company at Bantam and afterwards residing with the rest of the said Council at Batavia maketh Oath That the matters contained in the two first Paragraphs of the Memorial aforegoing is certainly true to this Deponents own knowledge And that the other five following Paragraphs he beleives to be True having heard the same from divers credible Witnesses in that Countrey And that four of the five last Paragraphs of the Memorial are truly Extracted from the English East-India Companies Letters from their Agent and Council at Batavia dated the 17th and 23th of September 1682. The last Paragraph is proved by Captain Fisher's Affidavit to which he refers and verily beleives the same to be true as therein set down Signed Charles Sweeting Sworn the 31th of May 1683. before Sir Will. Beversham Master in Chancery The Deposition of Mr. Nicholas Waite NIcholas Waite late of Bantam in the East-Indies Merchant maketh Oath as followeth 1. That upon a difference depending and a Warr broken out between the Old Sultan of Bantam and the young Sultan his Son The Dutch Government at Batavia pretending to assist the young King came with a Fleet of Ships and Prowes and attempted to land at Bantam on the 14 th March 1681-82 but were obliged to retreat at some distance from the Town till further Recruits might be had from Batavia which arriving the 23. of the same Month of March the Dutch General Sieur Martin landed his Men at Bantam the 28 th who forced their way through the old King's Guards which were placed between the Castle in which the young King was besieged by his Father and the shoar and were immediately let in by the young King into the Castle where they set up their Dutch Colours and so they did upon all other principal parts of the Town 2. The next day being the 29 th the Seignior Caeffe the Dutch Resident with a File of Soldiers and several Workmen came on the back side of the English Factory and commanded the English Agent to pull down the Balconyes and to nail up all the Windows looking that way An Officer in his Company adding by way of Threat that if the Factory did not cause it immediately to be done he would himself do it and it was caused immediately to be done 3. The next day but one the last day of the Month of March 1682. One of the young Kings Chief Officers called Pengran Deepa Panneratt came to the English Factory with a Paper writ in the Mallay Language and said to be sent from the King being an Order to the English with all possible speed to be gone with their Effects aboard their Ships the said Pengran urged the English Agent and Factors to comply speedily with the said Order as they tendred their own Lives and the King's Displeasure But the English Factors are assured that the King used to put his Seal to all Orders sent to them and to that said Paper was neither Hand nor Seal And the Agent and Council when they were the day before to attend the King to represent to him how they had been perfectly Neuters in the difference between him and the King his Father and had given him no cause at all to be offended with them Having perceived nothing by his Words or Actions towards them of any intent in him to drive the English out of his Country but on the contrary declared in presence of several Dutch Officers that he alwayes did and would still believe that the English were his Friends And it is certain that after the said Paper was brought to the English Factory that the Council could have no admittance to the King though several times they went into the Castle and desired leave of the Dutch Commissioners 4. When the English saw themselves in much danger especially when some of their Officers made it their business to suborn
Witnesses as was told the Factors by the very Persons that they endeavoured to corrupt and that a Dutch Lieutenant with a File of Soldiers sealed up a Warehouse in the Factory and not only their Horses and other Goods on shoar forcibly taken from them but their Powder also from on board their Ships commanded to shoar as was done out of the Ship Return on the 3 d April They loaded what Goods and Effects they could in that hurry get together in the Companies Boats in order to put them on board the English Ships then in Bantam Road. Whilest this was doing they met with no hindrance from the young King's Subjects or Soldiers but when they came up to the Dutch Guards at the Mouth of the River they were stopt and told that the Guards were ordered not to suffer any Goods to be brought from the shoar to the English Ships and that if the English Men in the said Boats did attempt further to get on Board their Ships they would fire upon them Upon which the English and their Boats returned to the Factory Gate 5. Of this the English made their complaint to the Dutch Commissioners who told them all was by Order of the King though none of the Natives or the King's Soldiers appeared to the knowledge of the English in these violences all being executed by Dutch Soldiers And this is the more notorious in that the young King himself told the French Chief as the said Chief acquainted the English Factors that in the presence of the Dutch Commissioners when the said Chief addressed to him to have some Chests of Treasure restored that had been taken from him That he the said King knew nothing of the Cause of his Complaint and that he neither had nor would prejudice him nor the English nor the Danes nor any other Strangers that were Trading in his Country Therefore if he the said Chief had any wrong done him since the landing of the Dutch at Bantam the King told him he must apply himself to the said Dutch Commissioners or to the General of Batavia for Reparation 6. On the 11 th April the Dutch Soldiers entred and ransackt all the Chambers of the young men in the Factory but the Javaes that is the Natives did not deal so with them they permitting the Factors to seal the Companies Warehouses and promising to secure them Sworn the 16th Sept. 1685. before Sir John Moore Signed Ni Waite The Relation and Deposition of Ambrose Moody who lived in Bantam five years and was there a Prisoner Seven Months by the Dutch. SOme few dayes after the Dutch landed in Bantam in the Month of April 1682. several Dutch Soldiers came into the English Factory and stole out several things and Twelve of them broke open the Chamber Door of the aforesaid Ambrose Moody and carried away all that was therein viz. Three Pecul of Aggula-wood Sixty Musquets One Chest of fine Tea-Pots One Barrel of Mum and Fifteen dozen of Pottle Bottles and Two dozen of Wine and several Cloths Books and Bedding and one Canister of China-Tobacco c. The English being all ordered to leave Bantam the said Moody went to Batavia with the Agent c. where he spent above Four Months time and being inform'd that one Nynahassin a Moor-man and others who were indebted to the said Moody was gone to Terrytyassa the Palace of the old King of Bantam he having an opportunity went thither to demand his Debts And upon his arrival he requested the favour of the King that the said Nynahassin might be summoned to Court to give an accompt why he did not pay the said Moody But when he came he told the King that in the time of the Wars of Bantam he had delivered to the said Moody and Mr. William Hodges to the value of 7000 Rs. 8 / 8 in Goods upon which the old King advised the said Moody to write to the Council of the English East-India Company in Batavia and desire them to send word to the Sultan what was the real value of the said Goods They being in their possession were able to give an accompt of their true value and if they would not satisfie the said Nynahassins Debt then he would give him order to seize upon all his Concerns So the said Moody wrote to Batavia and waited in Terrytyassy about two Months for an Answer But it being troublesome times could get none So he resolved to return to Batavia himself but the King advised him not to go directly for Batavia for fear of being cut off but to go to Cherringyen and stay till arrival of an English Ship which he did but could meet with none until the latter end of December the Surrat Merchant bring in sight the said Moody could not procure a Boat to go on board it being ordered by the Java's that none should go on board of an English Ship. So he resolved to go to Bantam in a Java Prow to take his passage for Batavia But upon his arrival at the Boome in Bantam the Dutch ordered him to come ashoar and immediately stopt him as Prisoner and the next day put about Twenty Five pound weight of Iron upon his legs the said Moody demanded the reason of their unjust Action and had for Answer that he must confess that he was sent by the Agent and Council of the English Nation to assist the old King of Bantam against them and then he should be discharged but not before He replyed that if he should confess that it would be false and would rather dye in Prison than confess it In the time of the said Moody's Imprisonment in Bantam one David Oorly and William Harmenson with one Christian Inson and Phillip Aldes and several other Dutch Soldiers did declare they met with but little plunder in Bantam except what they had out of the English Factory which by their own confession was considerable Some part of the said Plunder the aforesaid Moody did see in the hands of the Dutch viz. Pepper and small Arms and Armourers Tools some of the Chirurgeons Instruments and Medicines and Bottles which they said had been full of Wine and part of the Mallay Library and Books of Accompts and other Writings of the English East-India Company which supplyed the Dutch Soldiers for six Months time for Cartridges The aforesaid Dutch Soldiers at the Boome did declare that some of them had played away to the value of One Thousand Rs. 8 / 8 a Man in a days time of those Goods which were plundred out of the English Factory The said Moody being in the old King's Palace the 5 th of November 1682. did hear him say that he had nothing in his Territories but what he had received from the English and to them he would give it again with the possession of all his Forces upon the arrival of the first English Ships and Pengran Probaya the General of all his Forces did likewise declare that he would surrender up his Charge The
formed of driving them out of Bantam and even that they found him much less this much less ought to be observed angry with them than the Dutch had published he was And suppose also that there was a great contest between the King and Mr. St. Martin to what can be reduced the Proofes urged at the Hague or here in an Affair of this Importance Was there ever such a pitiful Argument as this The underwritten passing at present to the discussion of the Proofs which the Commissioners of the English Company have produced to justifie the Facts which they have heaped up one upon another wiâ—hout remarking the Conclusion which they pretended to make from them will follow no other Method than this That is of the numbers wherewith the Papers are markt The first marked Number 2. is an Abstract of a Letter from Captain John Vtber to Mr. Edward Rudge Director of the English East-India Company In the which the said Vtber giving an Accompt of what he met with in his Voyages says that being arrived in the Road of Bantam two of the Factors of the English Company came on board to command him to sail for Batavia where were the English Agent and Council informing him at the same time of the Destruction of Bantam the Possession which the Hollanders had taken of it That going in his long Boat ashoar to fetch fresh Water he there saw with his Eyes that which had been related to him by the Factors that the young King hearing he was ashoar desired to speak with him but that the Dutch Chief would not allow him to do it These are the Contents of the Letter which contain these three points viz. The Story of the English Factors The Confirmation of the Truth of this Story by his Eyes The Desire which the young King had to speak with him but that the Dutch Chief would not allow him to do it As to the Story of the Factors it cannot be doubted that the Town of Bantam was very much ruined both by the War and the Fire which the Rebels according to their Relation of the young King and his Party had kindled there before But it is false that this Desolation was caused by the Possession of the Hollanders for it was the young King and not the Hollanders who retook the Possession of it having reduced it to their Obedience with the Assistance of the Government of Batavia As to the Confirmation of the said Story 't is a strange thing that the said Captain Vtber seeing the Desolation of Bantam should be able to discern by whom and how it was caused and that he should be able to find out by the Ruines the Author of its Destruction But although the Hollanders should even have contributed by their Auxilliary Arms to disfigure the Town as there is great likelyhood they did this ought to be imputed solely to the Chance of War since no Body is obliged to answer for the Calamities which commonly are its Consequences But this ought to be understood only of a just War as this without doubt was undertaken for the Assistance of a Prince oppressed by his Rebellious Subjects As to the third point of the said Letter viz. That the young King desired to speak with Captain Vtber but that the Dutch Chief would never allow him to do it This good man ought to be ask't how he knew that the King had a mind to speak with him Had he signified it only to himself Or did he know it onely by Relation For he doth not say that the King had seen him but onely that he had heard that he was ashoar and by consequence he could not be assured that That which was told him was true But in fine what would they inferr from all this Would they infer that the King of Bantam had submitted himself to those of Batavia That he was under their Yoke Oh the pitiful consequence For although the Dutch Chief should have disswaded the King of Bantam from his design of seeing an unknown person for fear that in the condition wherein he was encompassed by his Enemies there should be Snares laid for him into which he might fall could this shew the least slavery trifles The most powerful Princes sometimes suffer themselves to be governed by the wholesome Counsels of their Ministers and with much more reason ought those of their Alyes to be a wholesome constraint upon them The Abstract of the Consultations without Book of Bantam markt No. 3. contains nothing which deserves Refutation for that which in the first place Mr. Gosnall Mr. Hodges and Mr. Fisher Witnesse viz. That James De Roy entred into the English Factory with a Company of Dutch Musketeers accompanied by Pengran Nata Nagaa with some of his Forces also and that after a strict search in every one of the Warehouses upon pretence of searching for some Goods which had been carryed out of the Dutch Factories and that the same Deroy had sealed it with his own Seal what doth this prove against the Dutch Company The presence of the King 's two Servants Pengran Nata Negaa and James De Roy who far from ever having been Lieutenant to Mounsieur St. Martin had been in the service of the young Sultan sometime before the War shews enough that this Action was done by Publick Authority that is to say by that of the Prince and not being possible to know by the said Deposition whether the search was made by the desire of the Servants of the Dutch Company the Subscribers do also think they need say nothing of it adding only that however it was not an Affair of great Importance since the English themselves don't complain that they then lost any thing As to the Depositions of Mr. Smith and Mr. Jeffcott and that of Harrison can't be wondred at the King having recovered the Town of Bantam from his Enemies by whom he was yet encompast had caused the Behaviour of the English to be watched as also the entring and going out of their Ships considering the apprehension which he had of their plotting some new and ill design against his Person and Estate and that in the confusion wherein Affairs then were the Goods of other Men were taken away which the Directors of the English Companies Affairs of Bantam themselves could not have prevented no more than they were able to hinder in the time when the old King made himself Master of the Town of Bantam that the Dutch Resident Caeff was forced to take flight and to shelter himself from the violence of the Bantamites some English probably without the knowledge of their Masters from robbing the Dutch House as it is proved from the Deposition markt S. And as for the Depositions of Gosnal Knipe and Burditt also contained in the same Abstract the Subscribers will pass it over without Remark as being far from being prejudicial but rather advantagious to the Cause which they defend because by them it appears that the King's Edicts
the Invasion of Bantam have not only Obstructed but Hostilely Invaded our Trade and shot at our Servants with Bullets on the Coast of Malabar to deterr and beat them off from that little Remainder we had there of the Pepper Trade To which the Subscribers Answer That the Dutch Company having taken from the Portugals when they had War with them the Towns and Forts which they possest on the Coast of Malabar It was not unjust for the said Company to enjoy the Advantages of their Victory with excluding of all those who without having shared with them in the Charges and Dangers of the War pretend to a share in their Conquest although they have the Trade of all the North part of Malabar free and open where is a great deal of Pepper and where the Dutch Company hath very little or no Trade and which produce much greater profit to the English Company without being at any Charge of keeping Towns and Forts That the Hollanders assaulted the English fireing upon them as it is said in this Article The Subscribers protest they knew nothing of it and that they do not even believe any thing of it since the Letters from Batavia make no mention of it The second Article speaking of the Money which the English Company had lent to the Young King of Bantam and with which the Fort was built is a thing does not in the least concern the Dutch Company and of which they know nothing Besides That when they make up their Accompts with the King of Bantam he will discharge himself of his Debts by a just Compensation The third Paragraph making mention of an Assassination which the Dutch Company abhors shews a great inclination to Suspition and Jealousie which ought to be banisht from the Mind to re-establish a good Understanding between the two Companyes The fourth Article is a Dilemma couched in these Terms Because if the Old King of Bantam had a Right to Bantam and to the Territories thereof they are now His Majesties by his Donation of them to the late King of ever blessed Memory If the Right thereof lyes as the Dutch say in the Young King He hath been so inhumane and ungrateful and bloody an Enemy to His Majesties Subjects confessedly without the least Cause or Provocation on their Parts that we humbly conceive His Majesties Honour cannot be repaired without invading his City and Country and the rather because though he be called a King he is in Truth none but a perfect Slave to the Batavians and an Executioner of their Will and Pleasure As to the first fork of this Argument because it is evident that the Old King of Bantam having resigned His Kingdom to his eldest Son could not give it afterwards to any other so that the inference which ought to be made from it is against the English Company As for the second part of the Dilemma viz. If this Right belongs to the Young King and that it be true that he hath been so inhumane ingrateful and bloody an Enemy to His Majesties Subjects without the least provocation One may indeed inferr a great deal from it but nothing which can support the demand of the English Company from That of Holland As there can be nothing inferred from it against the Young King of Bantam if for good Reason as he maintains he has he shewed his resentment against the English But it must be observed here by the by that when they are to reproach the Young King they say he has been an inhumane ungrateful and bloody Enemy to His Majesties Subjects without the least cause or provocation But when the Hollanders are to be charged and to make them pass for the Authors of the expulsion of the English from Bantam the language is changed and it is said that there could not be observed either in the Kings looks or words the least thing which shewed any resentment against or that he had any design of turning them out of his Countrey The Fifth Sixth and Ninth Articles have been examined before Of the Seventh The Gentlemen of the Dutch Company never knew nor believe any thing To the Eighth it is answered That the Young King was perswaded as it appears by Tack's Relation marked O. and that of Heinsius marked N. that all those which he had drove out of his Countrey had assisted his Enemies Thus is the Apology of the Dutch Company finished and the English Companies Demands destroyed There remains now nothing more but to relate in a word the Demands of the Dutch Company for the Hire of their Ships of which the Gentlemen of the English Company at Bantam promising to pay the Freight made use of to Transport their persons and Effects from thence to Batavia and which afterwards were made use of instead of Magazines to the great dammage of the Dutch Company who had desired them to be returned to them to carry their own Merchandize The Ships which the Gentlemen of the English Company used are these following The Europe of 1200 Tuns which was at the disposal of the English from the 16th of April 1682. until the 13th of August of the same year and by consequence four Months each Month at 1000 l. Sterling for four Months l. 4000 New Middleburgh of 1000 Tuns was delivered to the English the 22th of April 1682. and was not unladen and discharged until the 22th of November of the same Year and therefore seven Months each Month at 900 l. Sterling 6300 Â l. 10300 T. Wont of Burthen 200 Tuns was used from the first of May until the first of July being two months each at 200 l. sterling amounts to for the two Months 400 Delfshaven Burthen 900 Tons was from the 13th of April until the 13th of August that is to say four Months each Month at 800 l. sterling amounts for the four Months to 3200 The whole Freight of the Ships together amounts to l. 13900 And the Subscribers relying entirely upon the Justice and Right of the Dutch Company as well in Relation to their Defence as to their Re-convention they hope your Excellencies will acquit them from the English Companies Demands and that you will condemn the English Company to pay to the Dutch Company for the Freights of the said Ships the said sum of 13900 l. sterling besides Dammages and Interest Signed G. Hooft Jacob Van Hoorne S. V. Bloquery A. Paets Dated at Westminster 13th Octob. 1685. The Reply of the English Commissioners Instructors to the last foregoing Paper humbly presented to the Lords Commissioners Decisors To the Most Honourable the Lords Commissioners appointed by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for determinig the differences between the English and Dutch East India-Companies according to the Treaty of 1674-75 Right Honourable 1. WE should admire at the Voluminousness of the Deputies for the Dutch East-India-Companies Answer especially considering how valuable Your Lordships time is But that looking back for many years past we find it is one of the Old
be compleatly finished This my Lords is our Case and must be our Fortune if we must see our selves destroyed the noblest Navigation of England ruined and consequently our King and Country dishonoured with our hands tyed behind us so as not to be permitted to right our selves without being unjustly charged as the Lyon did the Lamb in the Fable as if we were Men affecting Wars and promoting Dissension between the two Nations An imputation that we disown and abhor having been in all times more averse to Armes than did consist with our Interest and Duty out of the too great inclination we had to Peace and Quietness Eleventhly And whereas the Gentlemen are pleased to insinuate that though the pretended young King of Bantam be never so mean their Faith ought to be kept with him as much as if he were the greatest King upon Earth which we deny not but say they had first plighted their Faith to our Deceased Sovereign of Glorious Memory in the last Treaty of Peace which they have violated by those injurious Articles they have made with the enslaved King of Bantam Twelfthly If the Batavians have kept their terms with that enslaved Prince of Bantam which we have reason not to believe they have it is the first time that ever we heard they have kept their Faith with any of those poor ignorant Natives Thirteenthly If they have made any Articles with that poor King they were made while he was a Prisouer within the Fort in a most abject Thraldom to the Dutch in which condition the poor man would as readily set his hand to any thing the Batavians would have him as our servants subscribed the Letter before mentioned And such is certainly his condition that the poor Creature if Bantam be delivered to the English will be so far from upbraiding the Batavians with breach of Faith for that cause that he will look upon it as the only good turn that ever they did him in his life for then he may be sure of his Liberty and hope to be a little King upon the Hills or in the Woods and at worst see his Subjects flourish under the mild Government of the English whereas in his present condition with the total loss of his little Dominion he must live in durance under the anxiety of seeing his Country ruinated and depopulated Fourteenthly For the justification of our Demands of Dammages or to lessen or invalidate what is demanded of us by the Gentlemen Subscribers we shall trouble your Lordships with no Discourse at present because we desire not to enter upon that Argument till Bantam be restored to us neither shall we trouble your Lordships with any Paraphrase upon the Dutch Papers offered for Evidence upon the Netherlands East-India Companies part because few of them are upon Oath and none of them as we apprehend to any purpose Fifteenthly There are some few particulars in the said Deputies answer that we have not replyed unto being in our judgments to use their own phrase meer trifles but if your Lordships shall think any thing of moment unanswered upon your Lordships command we shall make a farther and particular answer thereunto Sixteenthly What the Gentlemen mean by their triumphant conclusion that they have overthrown our pretensions and justified that wicked act of Bantam we understand not except it be a form of concluding litigious Papers in Holland Our Conclusion shall be no more but to assure your Lordships that we have a perfect confidence in your Lordships Justice and therefore we cannot doubt but our present Sovereigns most auspicious Reign shall be signaliz'd by having one place of importance in India that his Subjects were unjustly deprived of restored again to them in his time which never was done in the time of any of his Noble Progenitors We are Dated at the East-India-House 22th Octob. 1685. My Lords Your Lordships most Dutiful and most Obedient Servants Joseph Ashe Governour Josia Child Deputy Jeremy Sambrook Benj. Bathurst The Rejoynder of the Dutch Commissioners Instructors to the foregoing Reply being the second Paper presented by the said Commissioners to the Lords Commissioners Decisors Viz. To the Most Honourable Lords my Lords the Commissioners appointed by the King of Great Brittain and the Gentlemen appointed Commissioners by the Lords the States General of the Vnited Provinces for the decision of Differences arisen between the East-India Company of England and that of the said Provinces upon the subject matter of Bantam Most Honourable Lords THe underwritten Deputies of the Dutch East-India Company being desirous not to engage in a fight of Calumnies from which the Conquerour can reap nothing but shame and confusion instead of returning the like to the Gentlemen of the English Company will apply themselves solely to demonstrate in this replication that the Reply far from having undermined the foundation of the Answer has not so much as touched it The English Commissioners having highly maintained in their demand that on the behalf of the High and Mighty Lords the States General and of that of the Dutch Company It was agreed that restitution as they call it of Bantam should be made into His Majesties hands The underwritten before they entered into the discussion of the principal cause in relation of this preliminary point quaestio pre judicialis had proved two things I. That touching the Restitution of Bantam there was nothing concluded nor setled between the two Companies and that their High and Mightinesses were far from disposing of Towns that did not belong to them and to which they had no manner of Right II. And in the second place That the English Company after the change which happened at Bantam could not take hold of the Answer return'd by their High and Mightinesses to Sir John Chardin's Memorial no more than of the Advances which the Dutch Company made in the Year 1683 towards the Accommodating the Differences which the War at Bantam had been the cause of between the two Companies What do the Gentlemen of the English Company reply to this Nothing at all but only bring Sir John Chardin upon the Stage very improperly The question not being what Sir John Chardin acted at the Hague upon the matter of Bantam but only whether the two Companies with the consent of the States did agree to the Restitution of Bantam into the Hands of His Majesty which the underwritten have expresly denyed which was enough to prove that there was nothing concluded between the said Companies Wherefore it may be inferred since the Gentlemen of the English Company pass all this under silence speaking there only of Sir John Chardin that these Gentletlemen do indirectly detract from what they advanced in their Demand touching the Conclusion of the Restitution of Bantam The English Company having had in the Capital City only a Factory and their residence without having made any pretence there to the least Right of Territory it was demanded of the English Deputies with what appearance of Justice the