“When the accused was asked what had moved him to this assault, and the intended murder of Soetan Salim and the Controller of Natal, he replied ‘that he had been bribed to that by Soetan Adam, in the name of his brother Jang di Pertoean of Mandhéling.”
“ ‘Is that clear or not?’ asked my predecessor. The Resident’s sentence ‘fiat execution’ was carried out, as regards the flagellation and branding, and Si Pamaga is now on his way through Padang, to be sent to Java, there to undergo his hard labour. At the same time with him the documents of the procés-verbal arrive at Batavia, to show who the man was upon whose accusation my father-in-law was suspended. That sentence the General cannot annul, even if he would.
“I undertook the Government of the Natal district, and my predecessor left. After some time they acquainted me that the General would come in a war-steamer to visit the North, and also Natal. He arrived with a large retinue at my house, and asked to see the original documents concerning that poor man who had been so extremely ill-treated.”
“ ‘The accusers themselves,’ added he, ‘deserved to be flogged and branded.’ ”
“I did not understand it at all. For the causes of this contest about Jang di Pertoean were then still unknown to me, and I could therefore not conceive, either that my
