Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/150

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112 THE END OF THE STRUGGLE return home, as he could " live no longer under the insolence of the Dutch.' ' His situation was a mournful one. So far from restitution having been made to us under the treaty of 1619, we were compelled to supply " incredible sums " for fortifications which the Dutch did or did not build, but which could only be a menace to our- selves. We had been dragged into a war with Bantam, from which we could derive no benefit, and which shut us out from the chief pepper mart. The civil and crim- inal jurisdiction was exercised by the Dutch to publicly insult us. We were placed on a level with " the blacks," whose bare affirmation was taken against us. We might not " kill a wild hog or gather a cocoanut in the wood without leave.' ' The Dutch had flogged William Clarke, steward of the English factory, in the market-place, " cruelly cutting his flesh, and then washed him with salt and vinegar, and laid him again in irons." The English watch had been imprisoned for eight days and threatened with torture, to force them to make false confessions against the president of our council. What seemed to the Dutch their lawful jurisdiction, the English regarded as oppression. For another alleged plot twelve natives had been condemned to be quartered, and the rest of the accused to perpetual slavery in chains. The torture failed to elicit anything against the English; but if it could have given the Dutch " any advantage against us," we should have had no mercy. " Wherefore," wrote in 1622 our President Fursland and council at Batavia,