Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/201

 “Suddenly the rumour spread that in Mandhéling a plot had been discovered, in which Yang di Pertooan was said to be mixed up, and which aimed at raising the sacred banner of rebellion and murdering all Europeans. The first discovery of it had been made in Natal, which was but natural, as one is always better informed about the trend of things in neighbouring provinces than in the place itself, because many who locally are withheld by fear of an implicated chief from revealing a circumstance known to them, will to some extent conquer that fear as soon as they are in a territory where that chief has no influence.

“And this too, Verbrugge, is the reason why I am not a stranger in the affairs of Lebak, and why I knew a fair proportion of the things that went on here before ever I thought of the possibility of my present appointment. About 1846 I was at Krawang, and I have wandered about a good deal in the Preanger Regencies, where already in 1840 I met refugees from Lebak. Also I know some landowners about Buitenzorg and in the districts around Batavia, and I am aware how these landed gentry have always been pleased about the unfavourable condition of this division, because it adds population to their own hereditary lands.

“In this way then the conspiracy was said to be discovered in which— it ever existed, and this I do not know—Yang di Pertooan proved himself a traitor. According to the sworn testimony of witnesses called by the Controller of Natal, he was supposed, with his brother Sootan Adam, to have collected the Batak Chiefs around him in a sacred forest where they had sworn never to rest until the rule of the ‘Christian dogs’ in Mandhéling had been destroyed. It goes without saying that for this mission he had had an inspiration. You know that this feature is never absent from such occasions.

“Now whether this purpose ever really existed in Yang di Pertooan’s mind is a thing I have no certainty about. I have read the declarations of the witnesses, but you will see presently why these may not be given unconditional credence. It is certain that, as regards the man’s Islamite fanaticism, he may well have been capable