Batavia's Graveyard - Mike Dash [87]
In the mornings, when Jeronimus arose, he could look west across the half-mile of deep water that separated him from Seals’ Island and see the figures of the men and women he had landed there moving about their own camp, almost opposite his own. He had left them unmolested for the best part of a month, while never doubting they should go the way of Pieter Jansz’s men eventually. By the middle of July, with the provost and the sick safely out of the way, he felt ready to attack.
There were still 45 survivors on the cay. Without supplies from Batavia’s Graveyard they would have struggled to find sufficient food and water to feed themselves, and many of them must have been ill and exhausted. Their leaders—Cornelis Jansz, a young assistant from Amsterdam, and Gabriel Jacobszoon, the corporal—had no more than 10 or 12 men under their command. The other members of the party were either boys (perhaps two dozen of them) or women with young children.
It is not clear how much these people knew of Cornelisz’s activities, but the murders of 9 July would have been clearly visible to anyone watching from the other side of the deep-water channel, and if Jansz and Jacobszoon really had no contact with the small boats that now ventured out to fish, they must have wondered why. It seems that the assistant and the corporal at least guessed what Jeronimus was planning, for they, like the provost’s men, had begun to construct rafts. Three or four were being assembled on the west side of their island, out of sight of Batavia’s Graveyard. The boats were just about complete when, on 15 July, the under-merchant’s men appeared, paddling a yawl across the channel separating the islands, heading directly for their campsite.
Jeronimus, who was growing rapidly in confidence, had sent no more than seven of his men to tackle the people of Seals’ Island. Zevanck and Van Huyssen were to lead the attack; with them went Jan Hendricxsz, Lenert van Os, Cornelis Pietersz, and a Swiss cadet called Hans Jacob Heijlweck. The last member of the party was the surgeon, Jansz, who had thus far played no part in any killings. It seems likely that Jeronimus ordered him to go, and that Jansz felt it wise to demonstrate his loyalty by obeying.
Cornelisz had issued precise instructions—“Kill most of the people,” he had said, “children as well as some men, and leave alive for the time being only the women who are there”—and for once Zevanck showed no interest in creating any pretext for his crimes. This time there were no accusations of treachery, no mention of any stolen goods. The mutineers had been issued with swords, daggers, and morning stars. They landed, drew their weapons, and attacked.
Van Os was among the first to leap ashore. “Lenert, immediately after he arrived, has stabbed one boy right through the body, and another through his buttock, and also Jacop de Vos, tailor, right through his side,” one account of this episode explains, “and as soon as they have come there Jan Hendricxsz has stabbed to death five cabin boys and two men.” The other mutineers split up, chasing and cutting down their unarmed opponents throughout the camp. Some of the men, including the corporal, had wives and families to protect, and they were probably among the first to die. The rest made for the rafts or hid. Eight men, including Cornelis Jansz, reached the boats and managed to escape, eventually finding their way to the High Land to the north. Several of the surviving cabin boys hid themselves among bushes in the middle of the island. The rest took to their heels and ran, heading north along the mile-long cay so nimbly that the murderers could not keep up.
Zevanck tackled this problem with his usual brutality. The mutineers had captured one of the cabin servants during their initial assault—he was Abraham Gerritsz