Batavia's Graveyard (62 page)

Food
Letter of 11 Dec 1629 in
Leyds Veer-Schuyts Praetjen, Tuschen een
Koopman ende Borger van Leyden, Varende van Haarlem nae Leyden,
pp. 15–8 [R 231].
Shellfish were also available in abundance on the islands, but Dutchmen of the seventeenth
century despised them as the poorest sort of food, and would have eaten oysters and
mussels only
in extremis.
Gijsbert Bastiaensz, who spent some weeks on the island,
commented on the fecundity of the island in very similar terms: “Miraculously God has
blessed the good ones . . . with Water, with fowls, with fish, with other Beasts, with
eggs in basketfull; there were also some Beasts which they called Cats with as nice a
flavour as I ever tasted.” LGB. Tammars
(Thylogale eugenii houtmani)
stand up
to two feet tall, and lack the extremely well developed hind limbs of the
kangaroo.

New arrivals
For the escape of people from Batavia’s Graveyard, see
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143].

Improvised weapons
Letter of 11 Dec 1629 [R 232]; LGB, which includes the
reference to “guns”; Edwards, pp. 52–4.

Hayes’s dispositions
For a full discussion of the coastal shelter and
its inland counterpart, see chapter 10.

Location of Hayes’s boats
See the discussions in
The ANCODS
Colloquium,
pp. 93, 100.

Allert Jansz
According to OV, he was a corporal rather than a cadet. This
seems less likely, as, whatever Hayes’s qualities, an experienced corporal might have
been expected to command the landing party, while a young cadet would not.

Jeronimus’s plans
Verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB
175]; Pelsaert’s “Declaration in short, [of] the origin, reason, and towards
what intention, Jeronimus Cornelissen, undermerchant, has resolved to murder all the
people . . . ,” JFP nd [DB 252].

“. . . by exploiting the well-known antipathy . . .”
It is
interesting, from this perspective, to note that when the mutineers signed their second
oath of comradeship on 20 August, it included a clause that specified: “Also that the
ship’s folk amongst us will not be called sailors any more, but will be reckoned on
the same footing as the soldiers, under one company.” Oath of 20 August [DB
148].

Jeronimus’s letter
Letter of 23 July to the French soldiers on Wiebbe
Hayes’s Island [DB 148–9]. This letter was handed to Pelsaert by Hayes when the
mutiny was over and was copied into the
commandeur
’s journals, together with
the mutineers’ oaths, to form part of the evidence against Cornelisz and his
men.

Cornelissen captured
Verdict on Daniel Cornelissen, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB
240].

Attacks on Wiebbe Hayes’s island
Pelsaert is inexact concerning the
number and dates of these contacts. Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 115–7, presents a
chronology with the most likely dates. For the sources, see the
commandeur
’s
“Declaration in Short” [DB 252–3]; verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28
Sep 1629 [DB 175]. Pelsaert’s earlier account (JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 159]) of the same
episodes is partial, since it was based on Jeronimus’s original statement to him, and
thus emphasized the roles of Zevanck and Van Huyssen while minimizing Cornelisz’s
own. The second attack coincided with the murder of Frans Jansz, from which it appears
that the mutineers split their forces and for some unknown reason chose to leave at least
five of their best fighting men on the High Island.

Van Huyssen and Liebent grumble
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 159]; verdict on
Andries Liebent, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 244].

“To come to an accord . . .”
Pelsaert, “Declaration in
Short” [DB 253].

Clogs
LGB. When he arrived on the island (see below), the Defenders gave
Bastiaensz a pair of these homemade shoes, a gesture that touched him so deeply that he
wrote that he would keep them for the rest of his life.

“. . . under cover, as friends . . .”
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB
142].

Bastiaensz and the treaty of peace
This occurred on 1 September, during a
reconnaissance. Jeronimus was also present, and, according to the
predikant,
“Our Merchant offered them Peace, but [tried] to deceive them.” It would appear
that Cornelisz was planning some sort of surprise attack, but two musketeers, who had
instructions to pick off the Defenders when they came to the beach, found that their
weapons persistently misfired, and Hayes had again emerged unscathed. Ibid.

“Saying joyfully . . .”
“Declaration in Short” [DB
253].

“Very skinny . . .”
Letter of 11 Dec 1629 [R233].

“Deceiving them with many lies . . .”
LGB. Negotiations seems to
have been conducted through Gijsbert Bastiaensz, who acted as go-between. JFP 17 Sep 1629
[DB 142]

“Hither and thither . . .”
LGB.

Capture of Cornelisz and execution of his lieutenants
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB
159]; “Declaration in Short” [DB 253]; LGB.

Jeronimus in the pit
Harderwijk MS [R 28].

Election of Wouter Loos
Verdict on Wouter Loos, JFP 13 Nov 1629 [DB
226-7]; “Declaration in Short” [DB 253].

Loos and Creesje
Interrogation of Wouter Loos, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB
225].

Loos and Judick
LGB.

New council
Bastiaensz, ibid., refers to the setting up of a “new
government” on the island.

Loos’s motives for attacking
Francisco Pelsaert, in interrogating
Loos, suggested that the attack was launched “on the pretext that they wanted to be
Master of the Water,” but adds, remarkably, “but on the contrary no water ever
was refused to them.” Verdict on Wouter Loos, JFP 13 Nov 1629 [DB 228].

“. . . at least some military experience . . .”
I would count
Wouter Loos, Jan Hendricxsz, Stone-Cutter Pietersz, Lenert van Os, Mattys Beer, Andries
Jonas, Hans Jacob Heijlweck, Lucas Gellisz, and perhaps Hans Frederick (who was often ill)
among the soldiers, and Rutger Fredricx, Jan Willemsz Selyns, Allert Janssen, Andries
Liebent, and Cornelis Janssen among the sailors. Of the boys, Jan Pelgrom, Rogier Decker,
Abraham Gerritsz, and Claes Harmansz Hooploper might have been relied on to fight, taking
the mutineers’ maximum fighting strength to 18 men. The other signatories to
Loos’s oath—there would have been 15 of them, if the numbers of the
mutineers’ party had remained unchanged since the men had signed Cornelisz’s
second oath of 20 August—had played no part in the earlier attacks or killings, even
though there were four or five soldiers and a similar number of sailors among them. A
couple, including Olivier van Welderen, were not well enough to fight, but plainly the
rest had no appetite for the killing.

Two muskets
“Declaration in Short” JFP nd [DB 253]. It took some
time to get these weapons into action; according to Jan Hendricxsz, “had we shot them
[Hayes’s men] immediately, we should certainly have got them, but the gunpowder
burned away 3 to 4 time from the pan.” Cornelisz, told of this later when they were
all under guard, admonished Hendricxsz, saying, “If you had used some cunning you
would have got it all ready on the water, and then we should have been ready.” JFP 19
Sep 1629 [DB 160].

The final attack
JFP 17 Sept–13 Nov 1629 [DB 142, 222, 227–8];
LGB. Pelsaert and Bastiaensz give conflicting accounts as to how the action ended; the
predikant
writes that Loos ordered a retreat before the rescue ship appeared, but Pelsaert implies
that the attack was still continuing when the
Sardam
hove into view: “[The
mutineers] apparently would have caused even more disasters if it had not pleased God that
we arrived here with the Yacht at the same time, or in the very hour, when they were
fighting, and thus all their design has been destroyed.” Verdict on Wouter Loos, JFP
13 Nov 1629 [DB 227]. Jan Hendricxsz confirmed this account, noting that “while they
were fighting with the other party, they suddenly saw the ship.” Confession of Jan
Hendricxsz, JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 178].

Chapter 8: Condemned

Pelsaert’s
Batavia
journals contain detailed summaries of the
interrogations of all the major mutineers, together with the sentences passed on them.
These, with the commentaries of Henrietta Drake-Brockman (
Voyage to Disaster
[Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 1995]) and V. D. Roeper (
De
Schipbreuk van de
Batavia,
1629
[Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1994]), have been my
principal sources for this chapter.

Pelsaert’s initial actions
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 141–2].

The
Sardam’s
anchorage
Hugh Edwards, “Where Is
Batavia’s Graveyard?,” in
The ANCODS Colloquium,
pp. 91–3; Jeremy
Green, “The
Batavia
Incident: The Sites,” in ibid., p. 100.

“Frantic relief”
“The pious ones jumped for joy,”
wrote Bastiaensz, “and immediately went in their little boat to the
jacht
to
warn them.” LGB.

Loos and Pelgrom
Verdict on Jan Pelgrom, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB
209–10].

Hayes’s anchorage
Edwards, “Where Is Batavia’s
Graveyard?” p. 93, persuasively advocates this as the most likely explanation for
Hayes’s appearance “round the northerly point,” as mentioned in
Pelsaert’s journals.

“Thick with nettles . . .”
H. Edwards,
Islands of Angry
Ghosts
(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1966), p. 174.

The crew of the mutineers’ boat
JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 146] lists the 11
members of the crew as Stone-Cutter Pietersz, Jan Hendricxsz, Rutger Fredricx, Hans Jacob
Heijlweck, Lucas Gellisz, Hans Frederick, Jan Willensz Selyns, Hendrick Jaspersz Cloet,
Hans Hardens, Jacques Pilman, and Gerrit Haas. It is interesting to note that the last
four were very minor figures, who had committed no specific crimes and who were in fact
never actually punished for their involvement in the mutiny. Probably at this point all
those who had signed Jeronimus’s oaths expected nothing but death as a
result.

The “boat race”
Philippe Godard,
The First and Last Voyage of
the
Batavia (Perth: Abrolhos Publishing, nd, c. 1993), p. 174n. It should be pointed
out that neither party seems to have been aware that the “race” was going on;
both were simply trying to reach Pelsaert and the
jacht
as rapidly as
possible.

Crew of the
Sardam
Drake-Brockman,
Voyage to Disaster,
p.
153n.

Encounter with Wiebbe Hayes
JFP 17–28 Sep 1629 [DB 142–3,
152].

Swivel guns
These were small cannons, on pivots, which were generally
loaded with grapeshot, nails, or other antipersonnel devices and mounted on the poop rail
to deter boarders. When Pelsaert, in JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143] says that he and his men
“made all preparations to capture the scoundrels,” he surely meant that he had
these pieces loaded and prepared to fire; at least, the anonymous Defender implies as much
when he writes that the commandeur “pointed his guns” at the men in the boat.
Letter of 11 Dec 1629,
Leyds Veer-Schuyts Praetjen, Tuschen een Koopman ende Borger van
Leyden, Varende van Haarlem nae Leyden
(np [Amsterdam: Willem Jansz], 1630), pp.
15–18 [R 321].

The arrival and arrest of the mutineers
JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB
152].

“They answered me . . .”
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143].

“We learned from their own confessions . . .”
JFP 28 Sep 1629
[DB 152].

“I looked at him with great sorrow . . .”
JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB
144].

“Where the rest of the scoundrels were . . .”
JFP 18 Sep 1629
[DB 144–5].

“These have all been found . . .”
Ibid. [DB 145].

“We found that the ship was lying in many pieces . . .”
Ibid.

Pelsaert legally obliged to administer justice swiftly
Roeper,
De
Schipbreuk van de
Batavia,
1629,
pp. 30–2.

Jan Willemsz Visch
Drake-Brockman, in
Voyage to Disaster,
p. 157n,
speculates that he was a sailor, but on no good evidence. My identification of him as the
Sardam
’s
provost, or—given the small size of the crew—simply the man deputed to fill that
role is also guesswork, but it fits the typical composition of a shipboard
raad
rather better. He was certainly illiterate, signing the various interrogations only with a
mark.

Dutch law on confessions and evidence
Roeper, op. cit., pp.
31–2.

Water torture
Ibid., p. 32; Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 101–2;
Giles Milton,
Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of
History
(London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999), pp. 328–9.

“Forcing all his inward parts . . .”
Cited by John Keay,
The
Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company
(London: Harper
Collins, 1993), p. 49.

Cornelisz’s testimony
Interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 19
Sep 1629 [DB 160–70].

“Saying they are lying . . .”
Interrogation of Jeronimus
Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 170].

“On account of his unsteady and variable confessions . . .”
Ibid.

“In order to speak again to his wife . . .”
Ibid.

“Something was in it . . .”
Ibid. Janssen and Hendricxsz
indignantly denied the suggestion of their captain-general, calling out “as one Man
that they would die on it, on the salvation of their souls, not to have lied in the least
in the things heretofore confessed.”

“Mocked the Council . . .”
Ibid.