the English Commissioners would have reason if the Affair concerning the Restitution of Bantam were determined by their High and Mightinesses and the Company of Holland not to ingage themselves in a long Suit being able to make an end of the Affair without breaking their Heads with so many Disputes but as these Gentlemen have been mistaken in writing of a few Lines as it appears by their Answer of 27 th July to the Memorial of us the underwritten of the 19 th of the same Month where the word of Decisors at which they are so angry is not to be found but that of Negotiators is used 't is not much to be wondred at that they should be mistaken in the Explication of the Answer of the States General to the Memorial of Sir John Chardin to which they refer in their Demand Their High and Mightinesses love justice too much to have been willing to dispose of a Town that did not belong to them and to which they had no right It is true that they offered not only not to hinder the resettlement of the English in Bantam from being obstructed either by the Dutch Company or any of their Subjects but also to further it themselves and to make the said Company to assist them in it which is far from that which the Deputies of the English Company say in their Demands But it being important to prove here that the English Company cannot at this time take hold of the Answer of their High and Mightinesses no more than of the advances which the Company of Holland made in the year 1683 towards the accommodating the Differences which the War of Bantam had made to arise between the two Companies who must have recourse to what passed between Sir John Chardin and the Deputies of the Dutch Company on the subject of the said Differences It is certain that at that time it was not known in what condition the Affairs of Bantam were Whether the War between the King of Bantam yet lasted or whether it was ended and if it were determined whether it were done by a treaty or by force of Arms if by Arms which of the two the Father or the Son remained Conqueror and Master of the Kingdom It being also less known whether the Son in case that by the Auxiliary Arms he was resettled in his Throne had not granted to the Company of Holland in recompence of their Assistance some right in Bantam by virtue of which they might have been able to dispose of the reestablishment of the English in their former Residence Besides that the Dutch Company might reasonably promise themselves that the King of Bantam who owed his Deliverance from the Oppression in which he was to the Auxiliary Arms of the Company would not be displeased that to be assured that the English would never assist his Father against him they had engaged to cause the English to be resettled in their former Habitation which Consideration would not have place any more after that the Father was reduced under the Power of his Son. In these uncertainties the Dutch Company made some Advances and Sir John Chardin drew up a project of Accommodation between the two Companyes wherein it is spoken of the withdrawing the Dutch Forces from Bantam and of what each of the Companyes should be obliged to do in the Cases therein specifyed But it having pleased Mr. Chudleigh and Sir John Chardin to break up somewhat abruptly the Negotiation which was already very far advanced and that it pleased the English Company to refuse all the Offers as well of the States General as those which the Embassador Citters made here in London in the Name and on the behalf of the Company of the United Provinces after the return of the said Sir John Chardin the last Company did not think it proper to follow the Negotiation with which my Lord Embassador Citters was charged upon the foot of those offers which had been despised and by which they were by consequence no more tyed especially when in the latter end of the year 1683 they understood by Letters from India that the War of Bantam was ended with advantage to the Son who remained in possession of the Kingdom of Bantam the Father being made Prisoner and the Rebels Power overcome without however having granted to the Dutch Company any Right by virtue of which they might be able to settle the English again in Bantam To what purpose is it then to alledge at this time the Answer of the States General to the Memorial of Sir John Chardin after that they have publickly refused their offers and proposed new Conditions which appeared to their High and Mightinesses so much out of all reason that they would not so much as allow them to give so much as an Ear to them as it appears by the Resolution of their High and Mightinesses quoted B. How can the English Company then imagine that excepting at present the offers which they refused two years ago the Dutch Company should think themselves obliged to it after the change of Affairs which hath happened at Bantam Have not they declared that after the said change the Treaty could not continue any longer upon the foot of the Offers which they had rejected with so much disdain And although they had not declared it was it not a thing visible and evident of it self to conclude a project which supposing a perfect uncertainty of the Affairs of Bantam contain causes which at present cannot happen Besides it is not to be conceived how the English Company after having chosen themselves the way of decision in pursuance of the year 1674 and 1675 and prest for this Effect the Nomination of the deciding Commissioners can at present make use of the offers and projects of Accommodation which they themselves caused to be broken off and which besides has nothing of Common with a judicial discussion in which the two Companyes are at present engag'd and from which they can't dismiss themselves to return to the Treaty but by a Common Consent the underwritten Deputies of the Company of Holland having proved at present that neither from the offers of their High and Mightinesses nor those of the said Company of Holland the English Company can infer any thing which is capable of making good their Demands we will now pass to the second point which is that of the justice of the Complaints of the English Company and will Examine in them first their Nature and in what they consist and will consider in the second place the strength of the proofes which have been delivered to the underwritten to make them good As to the first point the English Company had represented to the King of Great Brittain of Glorious Memory as it appears by the Letter his Majesty wrote to the aforesaid Lords the States General dated the 23th April 1683 that the Sieur St. Martin Commander in Chief of the Dutch Forces and Ships which the Government of Battavia
had sent to the assistance of the King of Bantam had committed great violences upon the Factors Servants and Effects of the English Company at Bantam even to the dispossessing them of and driving them from their antient residence and Mr. Chudleigh then Envoy from his said Majesty to the States General says in the Memorial which he presented to them in the Month of May of the said Year 1683 that the King of Great Brittain his Master having understood by the complaints of his Company of Merchants Trading into the East-Indies in what an extraordinary manner those of Battavia had affronted and drove away from Bantam all those of the English Nation which had been setled there for so many years his Majesty could not avoid being sensible of such a proceeding without the Companies ever troubling themselves with verifying so black an accusation with which they have filled all Europe to prepossess it to the disadvantage of the Company of the United Provinces Sir John Chardin who in the year 1683 was deputed in the behalf of the English Company into Holland for the Affair of Bantam endeavouring to risco the said Company from the plunge into which the want of proofes had cast them thought of changeing the Byafs and instead of accusing the Government of Batavia for having drove the English from Bantam contented himself with imputing their going out of the Town to the suggestion and advice of the said Sieur St. Martin who 't is said had inclined the King of Bantam to turn the English out of his Country making use for proof of an Affirmative so ill founded but on a bare conjecture grounded only upon want of Charity which we shall prove upon the Examination of the principal cause it being enough to observe here by the by that the Circumstances upon which Sir John Chardin grounded his suspition are so little considerable that there is reason to wonder a Man of Parts should pretend to make use of them in a publick manner The Deputies of the English Company holding at present the same Language say in their Memorial which they have annexed to their demand that the Hollanders at Batavia have made and fomented the quarrels between the Old and the Young King of Bantam and in their demand that those of Batavia having made the young King fall into their Snares and drawn him perfidiously under their Yoke to compass to themselves the entire Trade of that Place exclusive to all others compell'd him to put the English out of his Dominions These Complaints are very terrible and at the same time very just if they are true but they are very black Calumnies and very unjust reproaches if they are false as they will be proved to be in the sequel of this Answer 'T is not that the Subscribers think that the Directors of the English Company are the Inventers of it God forbid but that they have only too easily suffered themselves to be led away by Reports ill grounded and sown every where with a design to blacken the Dutch Company and to render it odious But these Reports although they have no other Grounds but Lyes and Scandals have insinuated themselves into the minds of several Persons and especially of the Parties concerned by the means of Credulity Jealousie and Mistrust The Subscribers although they might intrench themselves in a bare Negative and keep solely upon the Defensive without advancing of any Affirmative which may oblige them to Justification and Proofes have notwithstanding proposed to themselves before the discussion of the Justificative Papers of the English Company be entred into to give your Excellencies a true Idea of the Affair of Bantam but not intending to leave their hold which is the Negative but only with a prospect of making their Defence the stronger as it will appear supported by the truth of Facts which are indisputable and which destroy and overthrow from top to bottom all that the Commissioners of the English Company have advanced Sultan Agan King of Bantam and Father to the present King finding himself too weak by reason of his great Age to continue to bear the weight of the Government yielded up the Kingdom of Bantam to his Eldest Son retiring to Turchaser a charming and delightful place about six Leagues from the Town of Bantam and about a League from the Sea to enjoy there an agreeable Repose and to finish there the remainder of his Life in quiet and out of the troubles of the Affairs of the Kingdom The Son having ascended the Throne sent Embassadors to those of Batavia as to his nearest Neighbours to signifie to them his accession to the Empire as he also dispatched others afterwards to the late King of Great Brittain of Glorious Memory who acknowledging their Character gave them such a Reception that the Gentlemen of the English Company themselves exaggerating the Honours which were turned to the said Embassadors here at London saying in the Letter which they wrot to the King of Bantam in the Month of June in the Year 1682 and by consequence two years after his coming to the Crown that they had treated his Embassadors in as magnificent a manner as if they had come from the greatest Prince of the Earth adding in the same Letter that they had heard that God with the consent of his Father had established and settled him on the Throne of the Kingdom of Surosoan that is to say Bantam But the People being accustomed under the Reign of the old King to a looser Government then that of the young King who kept them in subjection they began to murmur and at length took up Arms to throw off the Yoke having engaged in their Party by evil Impressions and Importunities the old King of Bantam whom they had taken out of his Retirement and prevailed with him to make himself Master of the Town and afterwards to besiege the Fort into which the young King had retired to save his Life who seeing himself upon the brink of the Precipice and within two fingers breadth of his Ruine dispatched Letters and Servants to those of the Government of Batavia to represent to them the sad Condition of his Affairs and to pray their Succours But the Gentlemen of the Government of Batavia being too prudent and too circumspect to embarque themselves in an Affair of this importance they thought it fit before they resolved upon any thing upon the sollicitations and instances of the Indian Prince to inform themselves of the Condition of his Affairs and even after having found that they were very bad and almost desperate would not resolve upon any thing notwithstanding in his Favour until they had interposed their good Offices for Peace which being despised by the Father who made no Answer to them they at length took up their Resolution of assisting the Son against the Rebels and to deliver him from the Oppression wherein he was which they had the happiness to Effect and to Re-establish him upon his Throne whereon
to an advice so extravagant and so dangerous An advice that no body could relish unless he were a man fit to be shut up From whence we must conclude That there were some people which not being able to endure the government of the Young King who did not suffer himself to be nosed by his subjects as his Father who was too soft and too indulgent did without doubt make the subjects rise and rebel against their Prince to throw off the yoke and to set up another in his place which might be more to their minds and who would easily suffer an Anarchy as they did effectually afterwards take up Arms against the King to execute the criminal design which they had brought to the point that the King had like to lose his Crown and his Life But it may be it was the government of Batavia which enflamed the Father and the subjects of the Young King against their Prince and that afterwards perswaded them to take Arms and to throw off the Yoke But why and with what design may it be asked Only with the prospect of making an advantage by the War For as those of the said government were Divines and Prophets and that by a spirit of prophesie they were able to penetrate into the secrets of futurity they knew that the Warr would be determining to the advantage of the Son that the English would take part in it and that they would assist the Young Kings Enemies or at least they would be perswaded they did and that upon this score he would turn the English out of his Kingdom Thus far must we carry the Vision and the extravagance to make the Gentlemen of the government of Batavia pass for head strong Mad people fit to be put into an Hospital for mad Men To which also it must yet be added that those of Batavia for in fine we must believe every thing though never so far from any likelihood of Truth had the Old King in their power and possessed the subjects of the Young Prince But although the arguments by which the adverse parties are reduced to absurdities that they would never confess themselves but which are natural and necessary consequences to be drawn from their positions are it may be strong enough to convince them of the falsity of what they advance in matters of Fact. The under-written will notwithstanding give themselves the trouble to demonstrate not only the little likelihood which there is in the said accusations but also the moral impossibility of that which the government of Batavia is charged with in this matter The Young King being besieged in His Fort gave notice of it to those of Batavia and desired their assistance representing to them his miserable condition and reiterating the said requests divers times this is proved by the Letters marked D. The government of Batavia inquired into the condition of his affairs and after having understood the Truth of his complaints would not however determine any thing in favour of him before they had offered their mediation both to him and his Father as it appears as well by the Letters that they sent to each quoted E and F. as by the relation of Mr. Saint Martin markt G. and having in vain used all peaceable ways for ten whole dayes as it appears by the said relation they resolved at last to send succours which if they had defferred to do but one day longer it had come too late and after the destruction of the Young King who was then upon the point of yeilding The under-written desire the Gentlemen of the English Company to devest themselves for a moment of all their prejudices and then to tell them sincerely if they can possibly imagine that if the government of Batavia had made and fomented the War between the Father and the Son they would have suffered the Young King to languish in his Fort sighing after the succours which he had requested so often and so vehemently if before the arrival of the Dutch Forces the Old King and the Rebels had made themselves Masters of the Fort and that they had killed the Young King would not the succours have come too late and those of Batavia could they have been able to hinder the Old King or save others from seizing upon the whole Kingdom From whence it must be concluded that it is morally impossible that those of Batavia should have concerned themselves to make a quarrel between the Old and the Young King and to raise and foment a War. As to the Second of the said Facts Viz. That the Hollanders of Batavia having beguiled the Young King into their power had compelled him to force the English out of Bantam It must be confessed it is a very bold thing to urge Facts of this nature without justifying them with the least proofs there is not so much as one witness of all those which the English Commissioners have produced who hath spoken the least word of it Or that speaks of any snares into which those of Batavia led the Young King Or of the Yoke under which they had perfidiously brought him There is only Mr. Waite whose deposition is marked number 6 who speaking of the driving away of the English from Bantam by the Kings Order adds that the English Agent and Servants were assured that such an Order was not voluntarily given by the King because the day before the Agent and Councel waiting upon the King to represent to him that they had been Neuters between the Father and the Son and that they had given him no manner of Reason to be displeased with them they could not perceive in him either by his Words or Actions any thing which shew'd an intention of banishing the English from his Countrey and it is certain there was a dispute between the Young King and the Dutch Major before the said Order could be obtained from him but he being himself wholly under the power of the Dutch was forced to grant it Upon which it is to be observed in the first place that it is not a Testimony founded upon the Witnesses own knowledge but only a Deposition grounded upon what he believes to be true and which he heard related by several credible Persons as he says himself at the end of his Depositions having only made Oath of the two first Articles of his Depositions whereof the first speaks of the landing of the Dutch Commander at Bantam and the second of the Galleries of the English House which the Resident and the Dutch Soldiers caus'd to be thrown down and of the Windows of the said House which they ordered to be dammed up of which more hereafter All which was true to his own knowledge and he believed the rest to be true relying upon the credit of credible Persons But supposing that the English Agent and Council being to wait upon the King to perswade him of their neutrality could not discover his Animosity against them nor the design which he had