Page 215 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE BLACK TRAGEDY OF AMBOINA 215

The Japanese was, or professed himself to be, greatly
surprised at the result of his evening ramble. His answer
to the inquiries of the council before whom he was brought
was that his questions had been prompted by mere curi­
osity—“ without any malicious intentions.” This reply,
though a natural one, was deemed so unsatisfactory that,
in accordance with the established practice of that barbaric
judicial age, it was decided to put the man to the torture.
He is said in the official Dutch record to have “ endured
pretty long,” but ultimately under the extreme pain his
stoicism broke down and he “ confessed.” His first state­
ment was a bald one to the effect that the Japanese had
resolved to make themselves masters of the castle. It was
probably the first invention that came into his agonized
mind. Instead of saving him from further unwelcome
attentions it only stimulated the unholy zeal of his ex­
aminers. Once more the terrors of the torture chamber
were exposed. Then, unable to bear the situation longer
he declared that the English were his accomplices and
that he had acted at the direct instigation of another
Japanese, Cevice Michick by name, who had originally
been in the pay of the English Company, but was now in
the Dutch service.
“ I was extremely surprised when I heard of this con­
spiracy,” wrote Van Speult in his dispatch dealing with
the episode. Well he might have been. The Japanese
were an insignificant element of the population; the
English were even less numerous—a mere handful scat­
tered about the islands in positions which prohibited close
communication. The ever present dread of revolt, how­
ever, lent a powerful stimulus to the official Dutch imagina­
tion. Van Speult saw things in a distorted perspective

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