An Eye For An Eye Will Only Make The Whole World Blind
The Amboyna massacre of 1623
Relations between the English and the Dutch have not always been rosy, despite William of Orange’s intervention in 1688 to secure the Protestant ascendancy. Three Anglo-Dutch wars were fought between 1652 and 1674.
As both countries sought to establish dominance over the spice trade in what is now Indonesia in the early 17th century through their commercial manifestations, the Dutch VOC and the English East India Company (EIC), relationships were increasingly fractious. A period of co-operation was supposed to have been brokered with the signing of the Treaty of Defence in London in 1619 but the drafting left for some ambiguities. Both companies were allowed to conduct trade in the area, sharing trading posts but keeping control of those they had previously occupied. The Dutch, however, interpreted the treaty to give them jurisdiction over traders from both countries in posts that they administered whereas the English took a contrary view.
In late 1622 the Dutch were experiencing some local difficulties with the natives and the Dutch governor of Amboyn, now the Indonesian island of Maluku, Herman van Speult, suspected that the English were behind it. His suspicions seemed to be well-founded when in February 1623 a Japanese samurai mercenary of ronin was caught sniffing around the defences of the Dutch fort of Victoria. Under torture the mercenary admitted his involvement in a plot, masterminded by the head of the English trading post, Gabriel Towerson, to seize the fort and murder the governor.
Van Speult immediately raised a raiding party and Towerson and some of his colleagues, including some ronins and a Portuguese employ of the VOC were arrested. They were subjected to a form of torture akin to what we now know as waterboarding and, probably unsurprisingly, confessed to their part in the conspiracy. Although, four of the English and two of the ronins were pardoned, the rest were beheaded on 9th March 1623 for treason, Towerson having the further indignity of having his head stuck on a pike and displayed for all to see.
Perhaps van Speult’s mistake was to pardon some of the English. The survivors went to Batavia and demanded that the Dutch authorities make amends for the outrage perpetrated on the English. Gaining no satisfaction there, they made the long journey to Blighty where their story caused an immediate uproar. The EIC demanded that the VOC pay exemplary damages and that the judges involved in executing Towerson and his colleagues be summarily executed.
The Dutch dragged their clogs but eventually recalled the judges from Amboyn and placed them under house arrest. It was not until 1630 that the case was heard and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the judges were acquitted. Charles I refused to ratify the decision but the prisoners were released anyway.
The EIC were hopping mad.
In 1632 they published a sensationalist pamphlet which revealed in gory detail (with illustrations) the tortures and indignities to which Towerson and his pals were subjected by the barbaric Dutch. It proved to be a best-seller and made a reappearance twenty years later as A Memento for Holland when Oliver Cromwell was whipping up anti-Dutch feelings ahead of the first Anglo-Dutch war.
In this conflict the Dutch came off second best and under the Treaty of Westminster in 1654 were forced to agree to execute any of the Amboyna culprits still alive. However, the passage of time was such that none were alive and the only satisfaction the EIC got was a payment of £85,000 from the VOC while the descendants of Towerson and his colleagues were paid £3,615.
The Dutch eventually gained supremacy in the area but the Amboyna massacre remained a cause celebre. It can be no coincidence that Jonathan Swift named the Dutch ship upon which Gulliver leaves Japan the Amboyna. The memory of the massacre was still vibrant a century later.
