{"product_id":"ambonya-von-john-dryden","title":"Ambonya","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe tragedy of Amboyna, as it was justly termed by the English of the seventeenth \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecentury, was of itself too dreadful to be heightened by the mimic horrors of the stage. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reader may be reminded, that by three several treaties in the years 1613, 1615, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand 1619, it was agreed betwixt England and Holland, that the English should enjoy \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eone-third of the trade of the spice islands. For this purpose, factories were established \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eon behalf of the English East India Company at the Molucca Islands, at Banda, and at \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmboyna. At the latter island the Dutch had a castle, with a garrison, both of \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEuropeans and natives. It has been always remarked, that the Dutchman, in his eastern \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esettlements, loses the mercantile probity of his European character, while he retains its \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecold-blooded phlegm and avaricious selfishness. Of this the Amboyna government \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003egave a notable proof. About the 11th of Feb. 1622, old stile, under pretence of a plot \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elaid between the English of the factory and some Japanese soldiers to seize the castle, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe former were arrested by the Dutch, and subjected to the most horrible tortures, to \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eextort confession of their pretended guilt. Upon some they poured water into a cloth \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epreviously secured round their necks and shoulders, until suffocation ensued; others \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewere tortured with lighted matches, and torches applied to the most tender and \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003esensible parts of the body. But I will not pollute my page with this monstrous and \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edisgusting detail. Upon confessions, inconsistent with each other, with common sense \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand ordinary probability, extorted also by torments of the mind or body, or both, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCaptain Gabriel Towerson, and nine other English merchants of consideration, were \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eexecuted; and, to add insult to atrocity, the bloody cloth, on which Towerson kneeled \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eat his death, was put down to the account of the English Company. The reader may \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efind the whole history in the second volume of Purchas's \"Pilgrim.\" The news of this \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehorrible massacre reached King James, while he was negociating with the Dutch \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003econcerning the assistance which they then implored against the Spaniards; and the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eaffairs of his son-in-law, the Elector Palatine, appeared to render an union with \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHolland so peremptorily necessary, that the massacre of Amboyna was allowed to \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eremain unrevenged.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"aw-variant-hidden-subtitle-div\" id=\"aw-variant-subtitle-9791041989560\"\u003e\u003ch3\u003e\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Autorenwelt Shop","offers":[{"title":"Softcover - 9791041989560","offer_id":48413257072965,"sku":"9791041989560","price":12.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0940\/0622\/files\/174fca1a-edbb-493e-a49b-50058c3da443.jpg?v=1748064249","url":"https:\/\/shop.autorenwelt.de\/en\/products\/ambonya-von-john-dryden","provider":"Autorenwelt Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}