Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/471

 OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 4^ discovery and defeat of this horrible conspiracy. The house of Erberfeld was razed to the ground ; and on the spot where it stood is still to be seen a rude death's head with a mimic spike through the ' scull, underneath which is an inscription in Euro^ pean and native languages, which expresses the vindictive feeling of the moment, in a declaration, that no house shall ever again stand on the spot where was framed the mcked conspiracy of Erber- feld ! The most atrocious of all the acts of the Dutch administration in Java, and the observation may be extended to all their possessions in the Indies, is the famous massacre of the Chinese. These people, encouraged to leave the crowded ranks of shall be broken alive, without receiving the coup de grace. They shall be afterwards carried to the ordinary place of exe- cution, and there exposed on a wheel, and guarded so long as they shall live there; and, after they expire, be left a prey to the birds. The other three, Tomboam, Grambiek, and Mitas, are condemned to be each of them tied to a stake, and there strangled, till they are dead. Their bodies shall be then car- ried, like the rest, to the common place of execution, and there exposed on wheels for the nourishment of the birds. We like- wise further condemn the said criminals to the costs and expen- ces of justice, and to the confiscation of half their effects : This being paid, renouncing all further pretensions. Done and de- creed in the assembly of ray lords the counsellors of justice, this Wednesday the 8th of April, all the judges, except Mr Craivanger, being present." — Roggewein's Voyage, in Harris^. Collection, Vol, L p, 285.