Batavia (65 page)

While Ariaensz seems to have somehow escaped:
It is possible he is ‘Ariaen the Gunner’, named in the letter Daniel Cornelisz was to deliver to the French soldiers on Hayes’s Island on 23 July 1629.

There is a job of work to be done:
In Pelsaert’s Journal, this is noted as occurring at Traitors’ Island, but I believe this to be a mistake. Traitors’ Island is not in the direction of the High Islands, and it was populated by the provost and his people, who were as yet unaware of the full murderous mayhem being orchestrated by Jeronimus. There are, however, islands just beyond Seals’ Island that entirely fit with the rest of the account.

A good deal of thrashing and bucking:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629.

The Mutineers fall about with laughter:
Dash, pp. 204–5.

Avail yourself of my hospitality:
There is no record of their conversation at this point, but this would be the obvious justification for what Lucretia is being forced to do.
Women for common service:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629.

Woman for common service:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), p. 252.

That is enough for her to soon lead the howling:
Dash, p. 174.

Looking right into the other man’s
soul:
As a point of interest, the author Mike Dash, the greatest authority on the subject, has it that because the day after Pelsaert arrived was a Sunday, he did not come before Coen until the Monday, 9 July, when he made a full report to both Coen and the Council of the East Indies (Dash). I accept the importance of Sundays to Dutch religion at this time but find it difficult to believe that on such an important matter Pelsaert would have been kept waiting for 36 hours to make his report.

The ship was turned in time:
Heeres, p. 148.

Stab her dead:
Pelsaert, 28 September 1629.

His face and the bright blue sky:
Ibid., 17 September 1629.

They are saved:
In a visit to the Abrolhos Islands in late March 2010, I was shown this very hole by a local called ‘Spags’, who, despite having haunted those parts for the previous 40 years, had only discovered it himself a year earlier. The rock covering the hole looks no different to any of the other rocks that are scattered for hundreds of yards in every direction. Yet this one really does sound hollow when you step on it, and I believe this is
exactly
the way they must have discovered it.

Everyone who was once on Traitors’ Island:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629.

He will do
anything
they ask:
Ibid., 22 September 1629.

Chapter Seven: Say Your Prayers

Whatever it takes to survive:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629. Not even a week after the death of his daughter Hilletje on 8 July, Hardens signed the Mutineers’ oath on 12 July, presumably in the hope this would help protect his wife and himself.

Salomon Deschamps, Under-Merchant:
Ibid. Although Deschamps was officially an assistant, Pelsaert honours his old friend with the title ‘Under-Merchant’. Strictly speaking, only one Under-Merchant travelled on each
retourschip
. Of course, in the
Batavia
’s case, this was none other than Jeronimus Cornelisz.

Passchier begins to weep:
Ibid., 28 September 1629.

He might become a babbler:
Ibid., 19 September 1629.

The doorway has suddenly filled:
H. T. Colenbrander., J. P. Coen,
Levensbeschrijving
, 1934, Vol V, quoted in Drake-Brockman,
Voyage to Disaster
, p. 41.

Andries is at a point well beyond desperation:
Pelsaert, 28 September 1629.

Send me Rutger Fredericxsz:
Ibid.

He would be happy to help:
Ibid., 19 September 1629. Though Frans Jansz joined the Mutineers, there is no evidence that he had any enthusiasm for his membership whatsoever.

A key project of his own:
J. P. Coen’s Order to Pelsaert, in Drake-Brockman,
Voyage to Disaster
, p. 243.

They must accompany Zevanck and Coenraat van Huyssen:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629.

You must participate in the killing:
Ibid., 12 November 1629.

Their own burden would be lightened:
Ibid., 19 September 1629. In the
Commandeur’s
words, ‘Jeronimus made several articles to which the women had to be put on oath if they wanted to remain alive, and that they had to be obedient to the men in all that they should desire of them.’

We undersigned persons:
Ibid.

Treachery!:
Ibid. We know at least that Cornelis Janszoon got away from the murderers on Seals’ Island and subsequently showed up on Hayes’s Island as he is mentioned in Jeronimus’s letter to the French dated 23 July 1629. It would have been him, or his confrères, who first informed Hayes of what was happening on Batavia’s Graveyard.

Cut the throats of the women:
Ibid., 24 September 1629.

It nearly severs her head:
Ibid.

His eyes strangely glazed:
Ibid., 12 November 1629.

Go over there and fix it:
Ibid.

Marched to the permanent gallows:
Hugh Edwards in conversation with the author.

No, none of that:
Drake-Brockman,
Voyage to Disaster
, pp. 38, 58–9.

He is visible to those on Batavia’s Graveyard:
Pelsaert, 30 November 1629. We know from Pelsaert’s Journal that the boys had shown themselves.

You may also take some wine:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), p. 251.

Crack!:
Pelsaert, 28 September 1629.

Will you do any evil to me?:
Ibid.

A bag of so many old spuds:
Ibid.

Aris is up on his feet:
Ibid., 27 September 1629.

He’s had it:
Ibid.

Chapter Eight: Attack!

The boy is mad:
Pelsaert, 26 September 1629. Bearing in mind Pelgrom’s obvious lack of sanity, his crazed demand appears to be goading the Survivors (devils), with all their sacraments (religious beliefs and customs), to show themselves to him.

They all emerge from the water:
Ibid., 17 September 1629; Dash, p. 178.

They take some of the barrel hoops:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), p. 253.

Let alone the Frenchmen:
Pelsaert, 30 November 1629.

Signed, Jeronimus Cornelisz:
Ibid., 19 September 1629.

He has killed in cold blood:
Ibid., 30 November 1629.

Stab Hendrick Jansz in the heart:
Ibid., 24 September 1629.

Let him live a little longer:
Dash, p. 251.

Judick, my only child:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), p. 251.

I’ll soon make her do it:
Drake-Brockman,
Voyage to Disaster
, p. 63, quoting
Ongeluckige Voyagie
, 2 October 1629.

That for which we have kept the women:
Ibid.

Rendering their muskets useless:
Pelsaert, 17 September 1629; Dash, p. 221.

Continue to hurl smaller rocks:
There is little information available on the mechanics of the battle, but on close inspection of the terrain, together with what details there are, this is the way I think it must have played out. I do not give credence to any talk of catapults being made from bending trees or the like, all of it born of the curious notation in the Predikant’s Letter that they had constructed a ‘gun’. There are no trees. There are only shrubs. Nor do I believe that planks bent back could have achieved enough power to propel the rocks very far. The only thing that fits is slings.

Strong, healthy and advancing rapidly:
Pelsaert, 17 September 1629; Dash, p. 221.

The place where thou has lost the ship:
J. P. Coen’s Order to Pelsaert, in Drake-Brockman,
Voyage to Disaster
, p. 243.

Anneken has been less than generous:
This seems the most plausible explanation as to why this valued woman for common service was murdered.

It may prove of some use:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629.

He leaps aboard the lead skiff:
Ibid., 28 September 1629. Pelsaert’s Journal contains conflicting testimony as to whether Jeronimus did attend this second attack. Having weighed the evidence, I concur with Pelsaert’s final sentencing that Jeronimus was indeed on the attack.

The now familiar jeers of the Defenders:
Ibid., 17 September 1629.

Taking his own life in his hands:
Ibid., 14 November 1629.

I have little confidence in him:
Ibid., 19 September 1629.

Hans Jacobsz now strikes him a devastating blow:
Ibid., 14 November 1629.

Do you have that only now in mind:
Ibid., 28 September 1629.

Chapter Nine: Deliver Us from Evil

Now, they needn’t bother:
Pelsaert, 6 August 1629.

I beg this privilege be mine:
Ibid., 23 September 1629.

Be happy, sit nicely:
Ibid., 28 September 1629.

Their heads installed on spikes:
Konstam, p. 29.

Thus given and signed on the island named Batavia’s Graveyard:
Pelsaert, 19 September 1629.

27 degrees 56 minutes south:
Ibid., 25 August 1629.

The others are obliged to suck pebbles:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), p. 251.

Too scared to do their own dirty work:
Ibid., p. 252.

They are all heavily armed:
Pelsaert, 17 September 1629.

Wouter Loos frees himself:
Ibid.

A collected Hayes:
Ibid.

Can she not be brought over?:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), pp. 252–3.

Trusting her fate to God:
Ibid., p. 253.

Jeronimus will be kept alive:
Pelsaert, Declaration (in Journal).

So Loos it is:
Pelsaert, 24 September 1629.

The order is respected:
Ibid.

Open the hull like a split banana:
Ibid., 13 September 1629.

They weigh anchor again:
Ibid., 15 September 1629.

Now be gone!:
Bastiaensz (Predikant’s Letter), p. 253.

Picked off one by one:
Dash, p. 228.

The great advantage of their two muskets:
Pelsaert, Declaration (in Journal).

A safe place secure from nightly incursions:
Pelsaert, 17 September 1629. While there is no direct evidence that this is why he had put the boat there, when you look at the lie of the land, it makes sense as the beach would not have been visible to the Mutineers passing down the east coast of Hayes’s Island. As a trained soldier, Hayes would always have had an exit strategy.

I have given up the idea:
Ibid., 28 September 1629.