Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [209]
“For they were led to thinking . . .” Interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 27 Sep 1629 [DB 202].
Mutton birds Edwards, op. cit., p. 169. The term “mutton bird” is actually an eighteenth-century colloquialism, which probably refers to the taste of the birds’ flesh. It was invented by early British settlers on Norfolk Island. Other emigrants knew the birds as “flying sheep.” In Western Australia the mutton bird is Puffinus tenuirostris, the short-tailed shearwater; in New Zealand, the phrase refers to P. griseus, the sooty shearwater.
The first wave of killings on Seals’ Island Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180]; verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183–4]; interrogation of Lenert van Os, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB 187]; verdict on Abraham Gerritsz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 232]; verdict on Claas Harmansz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233–4].
“Kill most of the people . . .” Verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183–4].
“Lenert, immediately after he arrived . . .” Interrogation of Lenert van Os, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB187]; verdict on Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 183–4].
“Eight men . . .” Pelsaert names only five (Interrogation of Jan Hendricxsz, JFP 19 Sep 1629 [DB 180]), but Jansz, in his letter of 11 December 1629, says 10, and he is probably closer to the truth. The numbers add up as follows: there were about 45 people on the island, it appears, and 18 were definitely killed in the first assault. During the second attack all four women were killed, and 12 of the 15 cabin boys; two of the other three were dealt with later (see below), leaving eight people unaccounted for.
The second wave of killings on Seals’ Island Verdict on Mattys Beer, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 193]; interrogation of Andries Jonas, JFP 24 Sep 1629 [DB 200–1]; verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 203]; verdict on Jan Pelgrom, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 210].
Jan Pelgrom Pelgrom, a cabin boy, is variously referred to in Pelsaert’s journals as “Jan van Bemmel” and, more usually, “Jan Pelgrom de Bye.” “Bemmel” is Zaltbommel, on the River Waal, which was known simply as Bommel in the seventeenth century, and Jan of the Batavia seems to have been a minor member of a patrician family called Pelgrom de Bye, whose senior branch was based just to the south, in Bois-le-Duc, Northern Brabant. The first recorded member of this family came there from Bommel in 1375. Jan was a common name in the family (in our Jan Pelgrom’s time one of the aldermen of Bois-le-Duc was named Jan Pietersz Pelgrom de Bye). The Jan of the Batavia may have been a member of a cadet branch, or perhaps a bastard son forced to seek his fortune in the East. See Geschiedenis van het Geslacht Vaasen, vol. 8 (unpublished MS, nd, twentieth century), Centraal Bureau voor Genealogie, The Hague, mainly fol. 141–52.
“On the 18 July . . .” Verdict on Andries Jonas, JFP 28 Sep 1629 [DB 203]. I have inserted the word heavily from Jonas’s interrogation of 24 Sep 1629 [DB 201]; the two versions of the event are otherwise more or less identical.
The massacre of the cabin boys Interrogation of Mattys Beer, JFP 23 Sep 1629 [DB 190].
Gerritsz’s killing The dead boy’s name was Frans Fransz, and he came from Haarlem. Verdict on Abraham Gerritsz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 232].
Murder of the three surviving boys Verdict on Claes Harmansz, JFP 12 Nov 1629 [DB 233–4]; verdict on Isbrant Isbrantsz, JFP 30 Nov 1629 [DB 246]. Isbrantsz was unfortunate; two other unwilling mutineers—the steward, Reyndert Hendricx, and Gerrit Willemsz of Enkhuizen, a sailor—were with him in the yawl, but they were not required to participate in any killing and escaped unpunished when the mutiny was crushed.
“Like some Roman tyrant” Cornelisz’s contemporaries compared him with Nero;