HISTORY OF OUR CAPTAIN: HIS HATRED OF THE DUTCH.
The next day, as my brother and I were reclining beneath the
deck-awning, Prabu related the following history:--
“I have told the sahibs how greatly I venerate the memory of the
Counselor Black, their uncle; as Allah knows, it is with reason. When
a little slave-boy, he bought me from a harsh, cruel master, and being
pleased with my grateful behavior, and considering I possessed talents,
caused me to be educated for a clerk--that is, had me taught the Dutch
and English languages. More, he would have given me my freedom, but
feared the jealousy of his fellow-rulers, to whom it was known that I
was the descendant of a prince, and one too, once the direst and most
hated foe of their countrymen.”
“You, Prabu, descended from a prince!--a real, right-down, royal
highness?” asked Martin.
“Have patience, sahib,” he replied; “for to the history of that noble
man I shall soon come. In the Dutch books,” he continued, “I read
the story of the great deeds done by the Hollanders when they fought
to throw off the tyranny of Philip, King of Spain, and how that, by
virtue and bravery, from a nation of slaves they became a free people:
for this I could have loved them. But in other books, I read that in
the East--except in China and Japan, where, for the sake of gold, they
behaved as truculent slaves--they have been tyrants, more hateful and
cruel than him whose yoke they overthrew; and I first asked myself,
whether God had placed hearts in the breasts of Dutchmen, and then
hated them. The latter was for deeds done to me and mine; but the
sahibs shall judge for themselves.
“When the first Dutchman, under one Houtman, found their way to the
Archipelago, in the year 1595 of the Christian era, the island of
Java was divided into several kingdoms--Cheribon, Martaram, Bantam,
and Jacatra. It was not until thirty years after the arrival of these
locusts, that the supreme rule was held chiefly by a great Susunan
of the House of Martaram. Upon their coming, they were received by
the Javans and other islanders with open arms; but these Dutch, aye,
and the Portuguese and English, who were already established in the
Archipelago, and almost as bad, must have been the scum of their own
countries; for, taking advantage of the simplicity of the people, they
cheated and robbed them at every opportunity--nay, behaved like demons,
who considered all less cunning than themselves as birds and beasts of
the forest--lawful prey.
“Thus, even the first fleet of these adventurers made war upon Bantam
and Saduya, and at Madura murdered the king and his family, while
they were paying them a friendly visit on board the fleet. Surely
such arts should have opened the eyes of the native princes to the
real character of their visitors, and have caused them to prevent the
coming of others!--but not so. Fresh fleets, invited by the gains of
their countrymen, came; and, by making great professions of amity and
moderation, were permitted to establish themselves in the kingdom of
Jacatra. In gratitude for this concession, the pirates arose against
the prince, subdued his kingdom, and built Batavia upon the site of his
capital. Having obtained a firm footing in the land, they commenced a
series of intrigues, setting the native princes one against the other,
occasionally aiding each, but keeping faith with neither. Thus they
gradually became virtually masters of the country, although many of
the native princes were permitted to hold their rank and titles. Among
these was the great Susunan Mangkorat, whom they had helped to the
throne against his younger brother. During this reign happened what the
Dutch call the _rebellion_ of Surapati.
“That Surapati, sahibs, was my ancestor, and is a name held holy in the
memory of every true-blooded islander.”
“Was he the born prince, then, of whom you told us?” asked Martin.
“Not so, sahib--not born a prince; far nobler, a self-made one.”
“A successful rebel, then,” said my brother; but, not noting this,
Prabu continued:--
“Surapati, when a child of seven years of age, was brought from Bali
among the crowd of slaves who were annually taken into Batavia by the
Dutch, whose ruin would have been brought about by their own tyranny,
had there been six other such men in the island. Well, Surapati was
bought by a Dutchman of the name of Hesse, for whom he toiled, and was
well treated, till, forgetting that he was a slave, he dared to fall
in love with his master’s daughter--a crime so heinous in the eyes of
the Hollanders, that, upon detection, the slave was severely flogged,
and ordered to be placed in the public stocks, where, with sixty of
his countrymen, he had to endure the scoffs and personal insults of
Europeans; but, sahibs, the stocks could not prevent his brain from
thinking, nor his heart from beating. Thus the wood that galled his
limbs kindled in his breast a hatred that, to his last day, never
became quenched, and which, dying, he bequeathed to his descendants, in
whose hearts it burns, even now, as fiercely as ever.
“Well, one night, after weeks of confinement, Surapati succeeded
in releasing himself and countrymen, and, having slain the Dutch
sentinels, they fled to the mountains near Batavia, upon which town,
from time to time, the band made such fierce raids that it became
the terror of the inhabitants, who began to put the city in a state
of defense, and armed themselves to their very teeth. Surapati now,
finding the place too strong and well prepared, led his small band
eastward, aye, to the very capital of the Susunan in Casard. Ever bold
and fearless, he one day alone entered the palace of the Susunan, and
dared to shame the monarch upon his throne for his great amity with the
rapacious foreigners, whose puppet he had become. And the Susunan--who,
although he feared the power of the Dutch, at heart was disgusted at
the thraldom in which they had placed him--agreed to give secret aid
and countenance to any design that Surapati and his patriot band might
form against them.
“When the Hollanders discovered in whose dominions their now terrible
enemy was hiding, they sent an ambassador, demanding that he should be
given up to them; but the Susunan evaded the request, upon the plea
of respecting the laws of hospitality; at the same time, however, he
told them they might search any or every part of his dominions. Having
obtained this concession, the Dutch, to capture this little band,
sent one thousand men, in addition to those they had already in the
Susunan’s dominions. So great a force would have compelled Surapati to
flee, but, then, his patriotic designs against the hated Hollanders had
obtained for him the friendship of the prime minister, who not only
gave him his daughter in marriage, but, with the permission of his
royal master, espoused his son-in-law’s cause.
“Thus, at the head of a comparatively small force, Surapati met the
foreigners in the field successfully, defeating and killing them to a
man. After this victory, Surapati retired still further eastward, and,
seizing upon several provinces, established an independent kingdom,
which, for twenty years, was happy and prosperous under his rule;
although, during all that period, he never lost an opportunity of
meeting and harassing the enemy. Sahibs, had he lived a few more years,
that great man would have hunted the pirates from the island; and in
that very attempt he died, for although conquering place after place,
he never lost one, and at length fell in battle with the Dutch.”
“Well, Prabu,” said Martin, “he _was_ a plucky fellow, and deserved all
he got but his death.”
“Aye,” said I, “and deserved a monument to his memory.”
“His monument is the hatred in the hearts of his countrymen--a hatred
never to be appeased, if only in memory of the dastardly treatment of
his corpse,” replied Prabu. “For a long time after the battle,” he
added, “the Dutch were sorely grieved, for they could not find the
body of the hero: they were afraid that the soul would re-inhabit it,
and bring back their enemy--so they offered a large reward for its
discovery. The reward was tempting to some degenerate Javans, for,
forgetting their lord, they showed the Dutch chief the grave; but it
was level--no one could discern a tomb. The body was, however, dug for
and found. It was still entire as when alive, and shed a perfume like a
flower-garden. The Hollanders bore it away to their camp, and, placing
it in a sitting posture in a chair, the officers took the corpse by
the hand, saluting it according to the custom of their country, and
tauntingly exclaiming, ‘This is the hero Surapati, the mighty warrior,
the enemy of the Dutch!’ After this they threw the body into a great
fire and burned it to ashes. For this,” concluded Prabu, in a greatly
excited state, “do I hate the Dutch; and for thousands of acts, still
worse, do my countrymen abhor them!”
“And I do not wonder,” said I; “but why should the Chinese, foreigners
like themselves, and equally as money-loving, share in that hatred?”
“For numberless deeds of cruelty and oppression, and not the least the
great and cold-blooded massacre of their countrymen in 1740, when in
Batavia alone, on that one occasion, more than ten thousand were slain.”
“But surely, Prabu, the brutes must have made some _show_ of an excuse
for such butchery!”
“Yes--that the Celestials were meditating a conspiracy to drive them
from Java; but the truth was, that the Chinese had flocked into Batavia
to a number that alarmed the Dutch. Jealous also of their intelligence
and wealth, they goaded the Celestials by excessive taxation, arbitrary
punishments, and frightful executions, until the latter could bear no
more, and threatened to rise in rebellion. This was sufficient for the
European rulers, who commenced a system of persecution; still, it was
not until 1740 that the revolt commenced.
“The crisis was brought about by the forcible seizure of a number
of Chinese, and their deportation to Ceylon, under pretext of their
being engaged in committing irregularities in the neighborhood of
Batavia. Exasperated by this tyranny, the Chinese in the vicinity of
the city, who were not restrained by the presence of a military force,
committed acts of violence, excess, and cruelty. Taking advantage of
this, the Dutch promulgated a story of a _wicked_ and _long-meditated_
conspiracy, to destroy the European authorities. Between the Dutch
troops and the armed mob of Chinese in the environs, several indecisive
actions took place. On the 7th day of October, it was discovered that
the Chinese quarter of the town was on fire. This was construed into an
artifice to mask an attempt to murder the European inhabitants in the
confusion of the conflagration.
“The habitual timidity of the Dutch colonists took alarm; the massacre
of the Chinese inhabitants of Batavia forthwith commenced, and was in
a few hours formally authorized by an order of the Government, which
directed that none but the women and children should be spared. A band
of brutal sailors was landed from the fleet in the roads, to carry
this order into effect; the doors of the Chinese houses were burst
open, and the inhabitants dragged out and massacred, without offering
the smallest resistance. The city was in a state of conflagration, and
nothing was to be seen throughout but fire, murder, and rapine--victims
and executioners; it was not until the twenty-second of the same month
that an armistice was proclaimed. The effects of this abominable
tyranny were felt from one extremity of Java to the other: the
Chinese who escaped the slaughter marched to the east, and leagued
themselves with the Susunan, who were very willing to be rid of their
common oppressors; and a series of revolts, wars, or rebellions was
the consequence, which continued, for a period of fifteen years,
to desolate the fairest portions of the island, and to exhaust its
resources.”