Page 219 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE BLACK TRAGEDY OF AMBOINA 219

tion of the Japanese they visited the castle as usual, hear­
ing probably from rumour with interest but without con­
cern for themselves of the hard lot of the Japanese. They
had, however, not long to wait for the revelation of their
true position. Even before the last batch of prisoners
had been brought in the examination had commenced with
all its awful adjuncts.
The first to be called before the council were John Beo-
mont and Timothy Johnson. With a refinement of
cruelty Beomont was left with a guard in the hall while
his companion was taken into the examination room.
His feelings may be imagined when a little later he heard
Johnson “ cry out pitifully, then to be quiet for a little
while, then to be loud again.” What had happened was
that Johnson had at the outset denied all knowledge of
any conspiracy, in spite of the torture, and had been con­
fronted with Price still without eliciting any confession.
Thereupon Price was removed and the torture again applied.
“ At last,” as the pathetic English story says, “ after he
had been an hour under the second examination he was
brought forth wailing and lamenting all wet and cruelly
burnt in divers parts of his body, and so laid aside in a
by place in the hall with a soldier to watch him so that he
should speak to nobody.”
From the account given in the famous pamphlet pre­
pared by the East India Company to secure redress for
the terrible wrongs inflicted at this time, the torture was
of two kinds. There was first the water ordeal. For this
a prisoner was tied with arms and legs extended on a wooden
frame and a cloth was bound round his head so as to form
a loop about the mouth. Then water was slowly poured
from above on to the cloth in such fashion that the victim