Batavia's Graveyard: The True Story of the Mad Heretic Who Led History's Bloodiest Mutiny

by Mike Dash

  Murder of Hans Radder and Jacop Groenwald Verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 182–3]; verdict on Mattys Beer, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 192–3]; interrogation of Rutger Fredricx, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 205].

  Andries de Vries is spared Verdict on Mattys Beer, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 192–3]; interrogation of Rutger Fredricx, JFP 20 Sep 1629 [DB 205].

  Signal beacons “Declaration in Short,” JFP nd [DB 252]. Bastiaensz, in LGB, adds that Jeronimus “affected not to see” the fires.

  Massacre of the people from Traitors’ Island I assume that Jansz’s departure was caused by sight of Hayes’s beacons, though this is not mentioned in the journals; Pelsaert is clear that the provost’s party left the island before they were attacked, and it seems clear that they would not have departed unless they had indeed seen signals. The coincidence of the known date of the massacre—9 July—and the statement that Hayes’s men, who must have been put onto the High Land sometime around 20–30 June, had searched “for 20 days” for water seems to fit this supposition. Exactly when the provost was killed is not stated, either, but I think the journals would have mentioned if he had been one of the otherwise anonymous men who jumped into the sea and drowned, and since he did not survive long enough to come ashore on Batavia’s Graveyard I have assumed he met his death in the shallows in the manner described.

  In general, the account of the massacre of Jansz’s men is perhaps the most fragmented to be found anywhere in Pelsaert’s journals. There is no single coherent account of the episode; instead, important details lie scattered throughout the transcripts of many separate interrogations and verdicts. See chiefly, interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 22 Sep 1629 [DB 167]; verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 173]; interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 179]; verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183]; interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB 200]; verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 203]; interrogation of Rutger Fredricx, JFP 20 Sep 1629 [DB 205]; verdict on Rutger Fredricx, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 207]; verdict on Lucas Gellisz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233].

  Andries Jonas Interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB 200].

  The declarations of the minor mutineers It can hardly be argued that these men were anxious to become killers, since practically none of them took any part in the violence in the archipelago.

  Frans Jansz changes loyalties Because Jansz never signed the mutineers’ oaths (see chapter 7), his involvement with Cornelisz emerges only from vague hints in the journals and in his participation in the massacres on Seals’ Island (below).

  Hans Hardens and his family The murder of Hilletgie took place on 8 July. JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 146]; verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183]. Hardens played no active part in any of the events of the mutiny, and there is no record that he ever killed or wounded anyone. Yet he signed both the mutineers’ oaths, in the first instance above Rutger Fredricx, Cornelis Pietersz, and Lucas Gellisz, and in the second behind Fredricx and Gellisz, but ahead of Pietersz, Olivier van Welderen, and Jan Pelgrom. His name is conspicuously absent from the list of the “most innocent” minor mutineers that Jeronimus supplied to Pelsaert. Finally, he was one of the crew who attempted to capture the Sardam when the jacht eventually appeared in the Abrolhos (see chapter 8). From this it would appear that he was not only one of the earlier recruits to Cornelisz’s cause, but also one of the more active. Pelsaert gave no interpretation of the reasons for Hilletgie Hardens’s death; this is my own. Interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 146, 165, 166].

  “Written unbreakable agreement . . .” This quotation comes directly from the text of the oath sworn by all the mutineers on 12 July 1629 (see chapter 7). JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 147].

  “The whole day long it was their catch-call . . .” LGB.

  Andries de Vries and the killing of the sick Interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 22 Sep 1629 [DB 167]; verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 173–4]; verdict on Allert Janssen, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 198–9]. Little is known of how Jeronimus and his men solved the problem of disposing of these bodies. In the early seventeenth century, medical wisdom held that corpses produced a poisonous miasma capable of causing plague and fever, and the mutineers evidently made arrangements to bury at least some of their victims, scraping out grave pits in the middle of the island, where the soil was deepest. These shallow graves—none was more than about two feet deep—held up to seven or eight dead bodies. When men were killed close to the water, the mutineers may well have thrown their corpses into the sea. Interview with Dr. Alanah Buck, Western Australian Centre for Pathology and Medical Research, Perth, Australia, 13 June 2000.

  Jan Pinten This murder took place on 10 July. Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 179].

  Sick cabin boy This murder took place at the same time as the killings of Van Den Ende and Drayer (below), with whom the sick boy shared a tent. Ibid. [DB 180].

  Hendrick Claasz This murder took place on 14 July. In Janssen’s recollection, “Jeronimus himself came and called him out of his tent and has said, ‘Go get Hendrick Claasz of Apcou, carpenter, out of his tent and say he must come to me, and when he comes outside, you, with the help of De Vries, must cut his throat,’ which they have done.” Interrogation of Allert Janssen, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 196].

  Hans Frederick and Oliver van Welderen Verdicts on Frederick and Van Welderen, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 244–5]. Frederick and Hendricxsz both came from Bremen.

  Murder of Van den Ende and Drayer Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep–28 Sep 1629 [DB 179–81]; verdict on Lucas Gellisz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233].

  “He, together with David Zevanck . . .” Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180].

  “Have murdered or destroyed” Verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 172–3].

  Diet of the Batavia survivors Pelsaert’s journals scarcely concern themselves with the survivors’ diet. If the people from the Batavia were typical of Dutch sailors of the era, however, it would appear that, given the choice, they would eat their familiar preserved meats first, then sea lion and finally birds or fish. Clear distinctions seem to have existed between the diets of officers (for which, in the case of the Batavia, read “mutineers”) and those of the common people in the case of shipwreck. The diet of the Zeewijk survivors—as reconstructed by Boranga (op. cit., pp. 97, 103), who believed she was able to positively identify 76 percent of the animal bones recovered from the several camp sites on Pelsaert Island—indicates that the food consumption of the various groups stranded on the island after the retourschip went aground there in 1727 was as follows:

  % CASK BEEF CASK PORK SEA LION BIRDS FISH

  Officers 60 17 22 1 -

  Petty officers 12 12 72 3 1

  Soldiers 24 17 49 9 1

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  * * *

  This analysis no doubt understates the importance of fish in the diet of all three groups—their bones are less likely to be detected in an excavation—and a preference for familiar fare over fresh meat is apparent, but the general pattern is clear enough. The campsites of the common hands were not identified, and Boranga theorizes that they were probably split into small groups and kept some distance from the main camp, in an area subsequently destroyed by guano mining. The archaeologists’ discoveries contradict assertions in journals kept by two of the Zeewijk’s surviving officers that food was distributed equally to all parties on the island. However, these same journals mention that ordinary sailors—the “common hands,” who were equivalent to the VOC loyalists on Batavia’s Graveyard—were the first to catch and eat birds, which certainly suggests that their rations were the most meager of all.

  Freedom of movement All Pelsaert’s notes concerning the men permitted to crew the makeshift rafts and yawls refer to men who had signed oaths of allegiance to Cornelisz.

  Morning sta
rs The remains of a weapon of this description were found early in 2001, during a metal detector search of Seals’ Island conducted on behalf of a Perth-based TV production company called Prospero Productions. The nails and the rope were both long gone, but the deadly purpose of the carefully worked lump of lead could not be doubted. Interview with Ed Punchard of Prospero Productions, 7 May 2001.

  Case of jewels “List of cash and goods retrieved from the wreck,” ARA VOC 1098 fol. 529r–529v [R 218–9]. In various places in a single long letter written over several weeks, Antonio van Diemen valued the contents of the case at between 20,000 and 60,000 guilders, which has led to speculation that the jewel-studded golden frame was looted at some point. However, the estimates rise, rather than fall, in the course of the letter, so this theory looks untenable. The highest of the estimates appears the most reliable. Van Diemen to Pieter Carpentier, 30 Nov–10 Dec 1629 [DB 42, 49, 51]

  The Great Cameo The Gentlemen XVII had to be content with sight of a sketch of the piece. For profit, see VOC contract with Boudaen, 18 Dec 1628 [DB 88]. The specified commission was 28 percent of the sale price. See also A. N. Zadoks-Josephus Jitta, “De lotgevallen van den grooten camee in het Koninklijk Penningkabinet,” Oud-Holland 66 (1951): 191–211; Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 84–93. Drake-Brockman also suggests that a valuable agate vase, the property of Peter Paul Rubens (and now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore) was among Pelsaert’s trade goods. Her interpretation of the rather obscure contemporary evidence for this assertion has been followed by later authors, but in my view it is not possible to state with any certainty that the Rubens vase was ever in the Abrolhos. For the known history of the vase, see Marvin Chauncey Ross, “The Rubens Vase: Its History and Date,” Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 6 (1943): 9–39.

  “For they were led to thinking . . .” Interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 27 Sep 1629 [DB 202].

  Mutton birds Edwards, op. cit., p. 169. The term “mutton bird” is actually an eighteenth-century colloquialism, which probably refers to the taste of the birds’ flesh. It was invented by early British settlers on Norfolk Island. Other emigrants knew the birds as “flying sheep.” In Western Australia the mutton bird is Puffinus tenuirostris, the short-tailed shearwater; in New Zealand, the phrase refers to P. griseus, the sooty shearwater.

  The first wave of killings on Seals’ Island Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180]; verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183–4]; interrogation of Lenert van Os, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB 187]; verdict on Abraham Gerritsz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 232]; verdict on Claas Harmansz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233–4].

  “Kill most of the people . . .” Verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183–4].

  “Lenert, immediately after he arrived . . .” Interrogation of Lenert van Os, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB187]; verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183–4].

  “Eight men . . .” Pelsaert names only five (Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180]), but Jansz, in his letter of 11 December 1629, says 10, and he is probably closer to the truth. The numbers add up as follows: there were about 45 people on the island, it appears, and 18 were definitely killed in the first assault. During the second attack all four women were killed, and 12 of the 15 cabin boys; two of the other three were dealt with later (see below), leaving eight people unaccounted for.

  The second wave of killings on Seals’ Island Verdict on Mattys Beer, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 193]; interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB 200–1]; verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 203]; verdict on Jan Pelgrom, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 210].

  Jan Pelgrom Pelgrom, a cabin boy, is variously referred to in Pelsaert’s journals as “Jan van Bemmel” and, more usually, “Jan Pelgrom de Bye.” “Bemmel” is Zaltbommel, on the River Waal, which was known simply as Bommel in the seventeenth century, and Jan of the Batavia seems to have been a minor member of a patrician family called Pelgrom de Bye, whose senior branch was based just to the south, in Bois-le-Duc, Northern Brabant. The first recorded member of this family came there from Bommel in 1375. Jan was a common name in the family (in our Jan Pelgrom’s time one of the aldermen of Bois-le-Duc was named Jan Pietersz Pelgrom de Bye). The Jan of the Batavia may have been a member of a cadet branch, or perhaps a bastard son forced to seek his fortune in the East. See Geschiedenis van het Geslacht Vaasen, vol. 8 (unpublished MS, nd, twentieth century), Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, The Hague, mainly fol. 141–52.

  “On the 18 July . . .” Verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 203]. I have inserted the word heavily from Jonas’s interrogation of 24 Sep 1629 [DB 201]; the two versions of the event are otherwise more or less identical.

  The massacre of the cabin boys Interrogation of Mattys Beer, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB 190].

  Gerritsz’s killing The dead boy’s name was Frans Fransz, and he came from Haarlem. Verdict on Abraham Gerritsz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 232].

  Murder of the three surviving boys Verdict on Claes Harmansz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233–4]; verdict on Isbrant Isbrantsz, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 246]. Isbrantsz was unfortunate; two other unwilling mutineers—the steward, Reyndert Hendricx, and Gerrit Willemsz of Enkhuizen, a sailor—were with him in the yawl, but they were not required to participate in any killing and escaped unpunished when the mutiny was crushed.

  “Like some Roman tyrant” Cornelisz’s contemporaries compared him with Nero; his abandonment of the Seals’ Island party was a deed “as Nero or some other tyrant would have thought of” for the writer of the letter of 11 Dec 1629 [R 232].

  Deschamps as a clerk In fact, Pelsaert’s journals state in several places that Deschamps was not an assistant but an under-merchant (Verdict on Salomon Deschamps, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 231])—an unexplained anomaly, given that this was Jeronimus’s rank, and retourschepen were supposed to carry only a single under-merchant.

  Salomon Deschamps and Mayken Cardoes’s child Ibid.

  Number of deaths “List of those on board the Batavia,” ARA VOC 1098, fol. 582r [R 220].

  “To have murdered or destroyed . . .” Verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 172–3].

  Gijsbert Bastiaensz and his family LGB. Bastiaen: GAD baptismal registers 3 (1605–1619), June 1606; interrogation of Wouter Loos, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB 225]. Pieter: GAD baptismal register 3, March 1610. Johannes: Ibid., December 1615. Roelant: GAD baptismal registers 4 (1619–41), May 1621. Judick: GAD baptismal registers 3, January 1608. Willemijntge: Ibid., October 1614. Agnete: Ibid., March 1618. For details of the family’s early life in Dordrecht, see chapter 3. Father and children were temporarily separated after the wreck, but reunited on Batavia’s Graveyard, LGB.

  “. . . no more than three unmarried adult women . . .” The only other definite example who can be traced in Pelsaert’s journals is Wybrecht Claasen, who as a servant would have been a much less attractive catch than Judick. One other women, Marretgie Louys, is not explicitly mentioned as having either a husband or children, but it may be presumed that to have come on board she probably was married to a member of the crew.

  Judick’s betrothal to Van Huyssen LGB. The precise chronology is very slightly unclear here, as the predikant does not say explicitly whether the betrothal took place before or after the murder of the remainder of the family. He does note that Judick and Van Huyssen were together “for about five weeks” before the mutineer’s death on 2 September (see chapter 7), which would place the couple’s engagement on about 29 July, or a week after the murders, which took place on 21 July. It is evident, however, that the relationship between the two predated the killings.

  “. . . a pleasant outing . . .” Confession of Andries Jonas, JFP 27 Sep 1629 [DB 204].

  Murder of the predikant’s family Ibid; sentence on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 174]; confession of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180–1]; sentence on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 184]; confession of Mattys Beer, JFP 23–24 Sep 1629 [DB 190–1]; confession of Wouter Loos, 24 Sep 1629 [DB 224–5];
testimony of Judick Gijsbertsdr, JFP 27 Oct 1629 [DB 225–6]; sentence on Andries Liebent, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 243–4].

  Murder of Hendrick Denys Confession of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 181]. The skull of a Batavia victim, now in Geraldton Museum, has been identified as possibly that of Denys; see Juliïtte Pasveer, Alanah Buck, and Marit van Huystee, “Victims of the Batavia Mutiny: Physical Anthropological and Forensic Studies of the Beacon Island skeletons,” Bulletin of the Australian Institute for Maritime Archaeology 22 (1998): 47–8. My description of the wounds is largely based on an interview with Dr. Alanah Buck of the Western Australian Centre for Pathology and Medical Research in Perth, 12 June 2000. This skull (the jaw is missing and the remainder of the body still lies buried under the foundations of a fisherman’s house on Beacon Island), catalogue number BAT A16136, was originally excavated in 1964, during filming for a television reconstruction of the Batavia story (Hunneybun, op. cit., section 4.11), and in 2000 was the subject of detailed reconstruction by a forensic dentist, Dr. Stephen Knott. See the epilogue for additional details. The identification with Denys is conjectural; the wounds agree with the description given in the journals, but nothing definite is said about the disposal of the body. In general it may be stated that the sex, age, and wounds found on the bodies so far excavated on the island do not agree very well with the descriptions of the murders and burials listed in Pelsaert’s journals, which casts some doubt on the accuracy of the survivors’ recollections and the upper-merchant’s record.

  Murder of Mayken Cardoes Confession of Andries Jonas, JFP 24–27 Sep 1629 [DB 201–2]; sentence on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sept 1629 [DB 202–4]. Jonas denied repeatedly, even under torture, that he had entered the predikant’s tent that night, but admitted freely to murdering Mayken Cardoes.