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

by Mike Dash

  Attempted murder of Aris Jansz Testimony of Aris Jansz, JFP 27 Sep 1629 [DB 196–7]; sentence on Allert Janssen, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 199].

  Chapter 6: Longboat

  Phillip Playford’s books provide the best description of the Western Australian coastline between the Abrolhos and Shark Bay. I found Jean Gelman Taylor, The Social World of Batavia: European and Eurasian in Dutch Asia (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1983) particularly useful in reconstructing early seventeenth-century Batavia, and R. Spruit, Jan Pietersz Coen: Daden en Dagen in Dienst van de VOC (Houten: De Haan, 1987), is the most up-to-date authority on the remarkable and controversial governor-general of the Indies. The only reasonably full account of the bizarre incident concerning Sara Specx and her lover, Pieter Cortenhoeff (which for its sheer awfulness deserves much more space than it has been possible to accord it here) that could be found is C. Gerretson, Coen’s Eerherstel (Amsterdam: Van Kampen, 1944). The fact that Gerretson felt compelled to give his book this title—it means “Coen’s Rehabilitation”—says a good deal about twentieth-century historians’ general disapproval of this most remarkable of Dutch empire builders.

  Description of the longboat A reconstruction of the boat, based on contemporary plans, was completed in the Netherlands some years ago. I saw it in Sydney, where the full-size replica of the Batavia built in Lelystad (see epilogue) had gone as part of the 2000 Olympic celebrations; it seems tiny, and far too small ever to have held 48 people. A photo of the reconstructed longboat can be found in Philippe Godard, The First and Last Voyage of the Batavia (Perth: Abrolhos Publishing, nd, c. 1993), p. 150.

  The plan Pelsaert’s resolution of 8 June 1629, JFP [DB 127–8].

  The crew Neither the bos’n’s mate nor Nannings, both of whom were active mutineers, are mentioned among Jeronimus’s band, so they must either have been on board the longboat or—less likely—have been among the dozen men who drowned when the Batavia was wrecked. For other members of the crew, see Antonio van Diemen to Pieter de Carpentier, 30 Nov–10 Dec 1629, ARA VOC 1009 [DB 42–3]; Pelsaert’s resolution of 8 June 1629, JFP [DB 127–8].

  The voyage up the coast JFP 8 June–7 July 1629 [DB 128–33]; Phillip Playford, Carpet of Silver: The Wreck of the Zuytdorp (Nedlands, WA: University of Western Australia Press, 1996), pp. 69–71; Godard, op. cit. pp. 149–56. De Vlamingh’s views are quoted in Playford’s Voyage of Discovery to Terra Australis by Willem de Vlamingh in 1696–97 (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 1999), pp. 49–50.

  The first landing JFP 14 June 1629 [DB 129–30]. The breakers were still far too fierce to permit a landing, but six sailors managed to swim ashore through the heavy surf. It did no good; they found no water and did not even see the Aborigines who were undoubtedly present in the area until the end of the day, when the commandeur noted a frightening incident: “Saw four men creeping towards [our men] on hands and feet. When our folk, coming out of a hollow upon a height, approached them suddenly, they leapt to their feet and fled full speed, which was clearly seen by us in the boat; they were black savages, entirely naked, without any cover.”

  The second landing JFP 15–16 June 1629 [DB 125n, 130].

  The river of Jacop Remmessens It had been discovered by the boatswain of the VOC ship Leeuwin. JFP 16 June 1629 [DB 131]; Günter Schilder, Australia Unveiled: The Share of Dutch Navigators in the Discovery of Australia (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1976), p. 77.

  Decision to head for Java JFP 16 June 1629 [DB 131].

  Conditions in the longboat Survivor’s letter, Dec 1629, published in anon., Leyds Veer-Schuyts Praetjen, Tuschen een Koopman ende Borger van Leyden, Varende van Haarlem nae Leyden (np [Amsterdam: Willem Jansz], 1630) [R 235-6]. For Bligh’s voyage, see John Toohey, Captain Bligh’s Portable Nightmare (London: Fourth Estate, 1999), pp. 62–4, 72–8. On psychological issues, see S. Henderson and T. Bostock, “Coping Behaviour After Shipwreck,” British Journal of Psychiatry 131 (1977): 15–20. Henderson and Bostock, who made a particular study of the case of 10 men cast adrift off the coast of Australia in 1973, are explicit concerning the importance of “attachment ideation,” as they term it: “Throughout the ordeal,” they write, “the most conspicuous behaviour was the men’s preoccupation with principal attachment figures such as wives, mothers, children and girl friends. . . . Every one of the survivors reported it as the most helpful content of consciousness which they experienced” (p. 16). In contrast, one man who died after five days adrift was said by the others to have “given up.”

  The mutineers’ prediction that Jacobsz would go to Malacca JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143–4].

  One kannen of water left Pelsaert declaration, op. cit.

  Making Sunda Strait JFP 3 Jul 1629 [DB 133].

  Batavia Taylor, The Social World of Batavia, pp. 3–32; Jaap Bruijn et al., Dutch-Asiatic Shipping in the 17th and 18th Centuries (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 3 vols., 1979–1987), I, pp. 123–4; C. R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600–1800 (London: Hutchinson, 1965), pp. 189–93, 207; Bernard Vlekke, The Story of the Dutch East Indies (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1946), pp. 87, 91–2; Spruit, Jan Pietersz Coen, pp. 48–58.

  Jan Coen He was born in January 1587 and sent to Rome as a young merchant at the age of 13. Returning to the United Provinces six years later, he signed on with the VOC as an under-merchant, aged only 20. Revisiting the Netherlands in 1611, he presented the Gentlemen XVII with a caustic report on the incompetence he had witnessed among its servants in the East. Impressed, they promoted him to upper-merchant and sent him back east in 1612 in command of a flotilla of two ships. He improved efficiency by cutting down on the number of landfalls his vessels made, and kept his crews healthy by feeding them lemons and plums, thus reducing the incidence of scurvy. These actions further commended him to the Gentlemen XVII, who in 1613 named him director-general, the second most senior position available in the Indies. Six years later Coen succeeded Governor-General Reael, serving in the latter post until 1623, and again from September 1627 until his death in 1629. Coen was well rewarded for his work. In 1624, at the conclusion of his first term as governor-general, the Gentlemen XVII awarded him the unheard-of gratuity of 20,000 guilders—money enough to set their servant up for life and enable him to make an advantageous marriage. Spruit, op. cit., esp. pp. 9–10, 16–8, 41–4.

  The expulsion of the English and the conquest of the Banda Islands Spruit, op. cit., pp. 47–50, 71–3; Jonathan Israel, Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740 (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 172–6; Giles Milton, Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1999), pp. 286–7, 298–314. The English retained a foothold in the Spiceries thanks largely to the so-called Treaty of Defence (July 1619) between the Dutch Republic and the English crown, which guaranteed the East India Company a third of the produce of the Indies. The treaty had been signed before the authorities in the United Provinces became fully aware of Coen’s successes in the East. When news of the agreement at last reached Java, the governor-general was predictably apoplectic. Nevertheless, by 1628, when the English East India Company finally abandoned its foothold in Batavia, its only remaining factories in the Indies were in Bantam, Macassar, and Sumatra.

  Coen and the attempted conquest of China Spruit, op. cit., pp. 74, 80–2.

  The Amboina massacre The total armament available to the English contingent, it seems worth noting, consisted of three swords and two muskets. Ibid., pp. 89–92; John Keay, The Honourable Company: A History of the English East India Company (London: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 47–51; Milton, op. cit., pp. 318–42.

  “An oriental despotism of the traditional kind” Boxer, op. cit., p. 191.

  Agung of Mataram Spruit, op. cit., pp. 92–105; Boxer, op. cit., pp. 190–2; Vlekke, op. cit., pp. 88–9, 94; Israel, op. cit., p. 181. The Mataramese war effort was covertly backed by the Portuguese. Mataram itself is nowadays known as Jogjakarta.

  “. . . a small proportion of their ships . . .” No
t all that many. The Company had lost four vessels in the years 1602–24, and would lose another 16 (14 wrecked and two captured) in the next quarter of a century, about 3 for every hundred voyages made during the period 1602–49. Jaap Bruijn et al., op. cit., I, p. 75.

  “could never forget misdeeds . . .” The opinion of the historian Bernard Vlekke, cited by Drake-Brockman, op. cit., p. 45.

  Sara Specx Coen’s principal motive in prosecuting this case was to assuage the disgrace done to the reputation of the Dutch in the eyes of the Javanese; Sara’s lover, a standard-bearer named Pieter Cortenhoeff, had bribed some slaves to allow him access to the girl’s chamber, and news of their actions had thus spread to the native community. Sara Specx was the natural child of Jacques, the president of the fleet Pelsaert was supposed to have sailed in. She was half-Japanese and was born on the island of Hirado in 1617. Taylor, The Social World of Batavia, p. 16.

  Pelsaert before the Council of the Indies Minutes of the Governor-General in council, 9 Jul 1629, cited by Drake-Brockman, op. cit., p. 44. During Pelsaert’s time in Batavia, he was also interrogated by Anthonij Van den Heuvel, the fiscaal, as to the precise circumstances of the disaster. Pelsaert declaration, op. cit.

  Coen’s encounter with the South-Land J. A. Heeres, The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606–1765 (London: Luzac, 1899), p. 52; Schilder, op. cit., p. 100; Miriam Estensen, Discovery: the Quest for the Great South Land (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1998), p. 152. Coen’s estimates of distance are given here in English miles; his original account gives them in Dutch mijlen, each of which was approximately 4H miles long.

  “the other members of the council” Although the Council nominally had eight seats, there were in fact six vacancies at this time. Nor were the two remaining members in any real sense independent. Van Diemen was an undischarged bankrupt who had fled to the Indies, and Coen had shielded him from the Gentlemen XVII in spite of this because he recognized his great ability; he thus owed his entire career to the governor-general. Vlack was Coen’s brother-in-law. Gerretson, op. cit., p. 64.

  Coen’s orders Order of 15 July 1629, cited by Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 257–8.

  Arrest of Jacobsz and Evertsz Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 46, 63.

  “Because Ariaen Jacobsz . . .” Governor-General in council, 13 July 1629, cited in ibid., p. 46.

  Antonij van den Heuvel He had arrived in Batavia in June 1628 and three months later was appointed fiscaal. His principal task was to curb the excesses of the private trade, and in order to incentivize him the Gentlemen XVII had promised Van den Heuvel one-third of all the fines he imposed on those found guilty of the crime. The new fiscaal took to his job with enthusiasm, even fining members of the Council of the Indies for their activities. He quickly became the most hated man in Batavia as a result. Gerretson, op. cit., pp. 68–70.

  The Sardam’s voyage JFP 15 Jul–16 Sep [DB 134–141]; Drake-Brockman, op. cit., pp. 46–7. For Gerritsz, Hollert, and Claas Jansz, see ibid., pp. 46, 68.

  Gerritsz, Jacob Jansz, and Claes Jansz OV; JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 157]; Drake-Brockman, op. cit., p. 68; Pelsaert’s declaration, op. cit.

  “Smoke on a long island . . .” JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 141].

  Chapter 7: “Who Wants to Be Stabbed to Death?”

  Gijsbert Bastiaensz’s letter home, the only personal account of life on Batavia’s Graveyard, was particularly important in compiling the information in this chapter. Information on the geography, geology, and archaeology of Wiebbe Hayes’s Island has been drawn from the various publications of the Western Australian Maritime Museum, and my discussion of the events surrounding Pelsaert’s return to the Abrolhos on the interpretations advanced in Jeremy Green, Myra Stanbury, and Femme Gaastra (eds.), The ANCODS Colloquium: Papers Presented at the Australia-Netherlands Colloquium on Maritime Archaeology and Maritime History (Fremantle: Australian National Centre of Excellence for Maritime Archaeology, 1999).

  Gijsbert Bastiaensz LGB; J. Mooij, Bouwstoffen voor de Geschiedenis der Protestantsche Kerk in Nederlands-Indiï (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1927), I, 328.

  Jeronimus preaches his views Verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629; interrogation of Jan Pelgrom, JFP 26 Sep 1629 [DB 184, 209]; Mooij, op. cit., p. 308.

  “He tried to maintain . . .” This summary was written by Salomon Deschamps, but presumably at Pelsaert’s dictation. JFP 30 Sep 1629 [DB 212].

  Spiritual Liberty and its views Norman Cohn, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), pp. 148–97.

  “Bastiaensz was rarely allowed to preach” In his evidence to the Church Council in Batavia, Bastiaensz claimed that he had continued to preach in the Abrolhos. It was certainly in his interests to assert this, since—as we will see—his perceived weakness during the Batavia episode had left him in danger of being prevented from taking up a post in the Indies. Since there are several references in the journals to a ban on religious services (cf. verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 204]), the predikant was probably referring to his time on Wiebbe Hayes’s Islands, if he was telling the truth at all. There is, however, one reference in the Harderwijk MS to a religious ceremony on the island; see below. Mooij, op. cit., p. 328.

  “Blaspheme and swear” Harderwijck MS [R 26].

  “Let us sing” Ibid.

  Severed seals’ fins Ibid.

  Oaths of loyalty Later on, when circumstances compelled Jeronimus to remove potential rivals from his band, “he tore the Oath of agreement publicly, by which action he dismissed the same, and so those who had to die were murdered at night, and then a new agreement was made.” For this, and the oaths themselves, see JFP 19 Sep 1629; interrogation of Jeronimus Cornelisz, same date [DB 147–8, 166].

  Those who signed Twenty-five men signed the first oath of loyalty, and 36 the second, not including Cornelisz himself. Their names are listed here; note the changes in the order of the names, which in certain cases seem to denote variations in status within the group. The original lists give occupations and places of origin for most of the men, which have had to be omitted here. Deschamps, who wrote out the documents, places himself at the bottom of each, no doubt to dissociate himself as far as possible from the mutineers, though his rank would have assured him of a higher place in the originals. Finally, note that Cornelisz signs as a member of the band on the first occasion, primus inter pares, while the second oath was sworn to him, as undisputed leader. From JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 165–7]. Additions to the ranks of the mutineers are marked* on the second list:

  FIRST OATH, 16 JULY 1629 SECOND OATH, 20 AUGUST 1629

  Hieronomus Cornelisz Coenraat van Huyssen

  Coenraat van Huyssen David van Zevanck

  Jacop Pietersz Jacop Pietersz

  David van Zevanck Wouter Loos

  Isbrant Isbrantsz Gsbert van Welderen

  Olivier van Welderen Gijsbert Bastianesz*

  Gsbert van Welderen Reyndert Hendricx

  Jan Pelgrom de Bye Jan Hendricxsz

  Jan Hendricxsz Andries Jonas*

  Lenert Michielsz van Os Rutger Fredricx

  Mattys Beer Mattys Beer

  Allert Janssen Hans Frederick*

  Hans Hardens Jacques Pilman*

  Rutger Fredricx Lucas Gellisz

  Gerrit Willemsz Andries Liebent*

  Cornelis Pietersz Abraham Jansz*

  Hans Jacob Heijlweck Hans Hardens

  Lucas Gellisz Olivier van Welderen

  Reyndert Hendricx Jeuriaen Jansz

  Daniel Cornelisz Isbrant Isbrantsz

  Wouter Loos Jan Willemsz Selyns

  Gerrit Haas Jan Egbertsz*

  Jan Willemsz Selyns Cornelis Pietersz

  Jeuriaen Jansz Hendrick Jaspersz

  Hendrick Jaspersz Gillis Phillipsen*

  Salomon Deschamps Tewis Jansz*

  Hans Jacob Heijlweck

  Gerrit Haas

  Claas Harmansz*

  Allert Janssen<
br />
  Rogier Decker*

  Gerrit Willemsz

  Abraham Gerritsz*

  Jan Pelgrom de Bye

  Lenert Michielsz van Os

  Salomon Deschamps

  * * *

  * * *

  The killers It would not do to suggest these men were too discriminating. Beer, for example, claimed never to have killed a woman, but in fact he slaughtered one of Bastiaensz’s daughters and helped to kill his wife. Nor did he display any reluctance to murder children. Interrogation of Mattys Beer, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB 190].

  Jan Hendricxsz’s murders Upon Pelsaert’s return to the Abrolhos, Hendricxsz immediately and openly confessed to this number of killings, almost as though he were boasting of his achievement. JFP 17 Sep 1629 [DB 143].

  The women Mutineers’ oath of 20 Aug 1629 [DB 147].

  “. . . for common service . . .” JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 147].

  Jan Hendricxsz’s woman Verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 184].

  Mattys Beer’s woman Verdict on Mattys Beer, JFP 2 Oct 1629 [DB 193].

  Olivier van Welderen’s woman Verdict on Olivier van Welderen, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 245].

  Loos’s and Van Os’s women Verdict on Wouter Loos, 24 Sep 1629; verdict on Lenert Michielsz van Os, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 188–9, 225].

  Jan Pelgrom’s women Interrogation of Jan Pelgrom, JFP 26 Sep 1629 [DB 209].

  “My daughter . . .” LGB.

  “Almost as soon as he took power” The journals state that Cornelisz enjoyed Lucretia as his concubine “for two months.” Since he was captured by Hayes’s men on 2 September (see below), this implies that his relationship with her began early in July, though Zevanck’s conversation with Creesje suggests she did not sleep with him before 22 July. Verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 176].

  Cornelisz’s wooing The romantic expectations of the period are mapped by Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (London: Fontana, 1987), pp. 437, 439–40. In seeking to seduce Creesje, Cornelisz naturally ignored the inconvenient fact of his existing marriage; by now he must have realized that, whatever happened on the Abrolhos, he would never see Haarlem again.