Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [206]
Jeronimus’s plans for the rescue ship “His procedures,” wrote Francisco Pelsaert, “could neither exist nor be acceptable to God or Worldly Power.” But to Jeronimus they were merely common sense. JFP 3 Dec 1629 [DB 239]. For Cornelisz’s thoughts, see JFP 17–28 Sep 1629 [DB 143, 153, 160]. On the number of men the jacht would carry, see JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 153].
Abraham Hendricx He was possibly, but not certainly, the same Hendricx who had taken part in the assault on Creesje Jans.
“On 4 July . . .” Pelsaert’s “Declaration in Short,” JFP nd [DB 251].
Appointment of the new council Ibid.
“He proved this point immediately . . .” Pelsaert gives 4 July as the date of the sentencing of these men (Verdict on Jeronimus Cornelisz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 173]), but 5 July as the date of their executions (Verdict on Daniel Cornelissen, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 240]) and also as the day on which Zevanck and the others joined the council (“Declaration in Short” [DB 251]), while clearly implying that the carpenters were sentenced by Cornelisz’s raad. One or other of these journal entries must be incorrect. See also verdict on Hans Frederick, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 244].
The first covert drownings The date of this incident appears to have been 4 July, and not 3 July as Drake-Brockman suggests, which would have put the murders before Cornelisz ordered the execution of Hendricx and Ariaensz. Van Os’s interrogation makes it clear that the murders were ordered on 3 July but not committed until the following day, which probably suggests that Jeronimus knew he was going to charge Hendricx and Ariaensz with theft well in advance. Jan Cornelis was the only Dutchman; he came from Amersfoort, in the province of Utrecht, while Liebent and Janssen, an ordinary private, were Germans and Wensel was a Dane. Interrogation of Lenert van Os, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB 186]; verdict on Mattys Beer, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 192]; verdict on Rutger Fredricx, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 206–7]; verdict on Daniel Cornelissen, 30 Nov 1629 [DB 240]. Pelsaert’s various accounts of these killings are somewhat confused. Some state that the men were tied up on the raft, others that they were taken to Traitors’ Island, tied up there, and dragged into the sea to drown.
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,