Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/193

 EXCUSES FOR THE DUTCH AT AMBOYNA 149 the victims to death. Van Speult, as we have seen, was on the lookout for conspiracies, when he and his fellow councillors were suddenly transferred into the judges of men who had been their keen trade-rivals and the great obstacle to the Dutch supremacy in the THE DURBAR OF AN INDIAN RULER. Archipelago. Among Eastern races the king or gov- ernor was both ruler and judge, and the early Euro- pean settlements in Asia found themselves compelled firmly to unite all f unctions, executive and judicial, in the hands of one man or body of men. Cases inevitably occurred in which they were practically judges in their own cause; apt in moments of public danger or fear to bring their passions and preconceptions as gover- nors to their seats on the bench. The Amboyna trial