Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/157

 BECORDS OF DUTCH TORTURES AT AMBOYNA 119 the East, and was found on board a Dutch ship stayed by royal command at Portsmouth in 1627. He had continued in the Dutch service for two years after the trial. His declaration closely corresponds with the depositions of the English survivors. In my narrative I fairly consider all the foregoing materials, together with the pamphlet literature which quickly sprang up. 1 I have also checked the " True Relation " from the depositions on oath. That evidence consisted entirely of confessions wrung from the accused by torture. The ransacking of the English factories yielded not a single incriminat- ing letter, or other corroborative piece of testimony, as is proved by the answer of Joosten, the Dutch officer who examined the papers. The Dutch began with John Beaumont and Timothy Johnson. Beaumont, an elderly man for India and an invalid, was left with a guard in the hall, while Johnson was taken into another room. Presently Beaumont heard him " cry out very pitifully; 1 The chief contemporary pamphlets on the Amboyna tragedy are six in num- ber. (i) A True Relation of the Unjust, Cruel, and Barbarous Proceedings against the English at Amboyna. This narrative was " taken out of the depositions of six several English factors " who survived the trial, as delivered on oath before Sir Henry Marten, Judge of- the Admiralty, supplemented by the testimony of Welden, the English chief agent in Banda at the time of the tragedy. The Privy Council in September, 1624, gave their opinion that the relation was justified by the statements of the six witnesses. Calendar of State Papers, East Indies, 1622-1624, par. 620. (ii) A True Declaration of the Newes that came out of the East Indies, with the Pinace called the " Hare." A Dutch pamphlet which appeared anonymously, and was thought by some to be the work of Boreel. The Directors of the Dutch Company denied the authorship, and, on complaint of the English ambassador, the States-General issued a proclamation declaring it to be " a scandalous and