Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/218

 Leytimor, in such a position that it looks out upon the coast of the second and larger section designated Hitoe. Its main feature is a strong fortification called Fort Victoria, with solid masonry ramparts and bastions, and based on one side by the sea. In this castle, as it was termed, was in the early seventeenth century the Governor's residence and the principal headquarter establishments of the Government with a considerable garrison of Dutch troops. So enormous was the strength of the position that it could have been held almost independently even without the support of the shipping that was nearly always in the roads against any enemy that could be brought against it. The actual tragedy of Amboina opened with dramatic fitness with a very simple scene. One evening as the garrison were at prayers a Japanese mercenary in the employ of the Dutch, wandering apparently aimlessly about the castle, on the ramparts came upon a young Dutch soldier acting as sentinel. Accosting him he asked how many soldiers there were in the garrison and how often the guards were relieved. There was nothing very extraordinary about the questions, the answers to which presumably could have been supplied by a little observation. But the Japanese had the previous evening made precisely the same inquiries; and, moreover, he had passed on to a portion of the fortifications which was forbidden ground to him as a private soldier. What, perhaps, was worse than these indiscretions was that he and his countrymen had for some time past fraternized overmuch with the Englishmen. Suspicion, consequently, fastened so strongly upon him that orders were given for his arrest.