m
that the.greateft and mo ft lhameful crimes of perfons of high rank, or of favourites,remain unnoticed and unpunilhed, I fhali adduce one inftance of this rank abufe ofauthority, from which a judgment refpecting others may be formed.
The chief of a certain fadtory upon one of the adjacent iflands, having for fome timebeheld, with eyes of defire, a young girl, fcarcely fourteen years of age, and remarkablybeautiful, who had been adopted by a perfon at Amboyna, and brought up in his ownhoufe, gave him and his family an invitation to pay him a viiit. The man accepted itwith confidence and pleafure, and went thither with his wife, his daughter, and thisgirl. When, in the evening, the guefts retired to reft, it was fo arranged by theirhoft, that the objefl; of his licentious purfuit was conducted to a bed in a diftant andfolitary apartment; there being, as it was pretended, no beds, or room, in or nearthofe occupied by her friends.
In the dead of the night, when all but the wakeful eyes of luft were clofed in deeprepofe, this wretch ftole to the apartment of the innocent maid, whom he had thusinveigled into his fnares, and completed his long-concerted fcheme of villany, by thenioft brutal violation of her charms. The poor victim of his luft was found the nextmorning bathed in tears 3 and fcarcely knowing that fhe was undone, related the wholeexaftly as it happened. The perpetrator of this deed of violence moft ftrenuouflydenied the accufation, but he pretended that he very well knew who was the ravifher;
was, he faid, one of his flaves, an Amboynefe, who had frequently before made ufeof his mailer’s name to attain his purpofe, and cover his enormities. Neither the ftrongdenial of the flave, nor the moft folemn afleverations of the girl, that the mafter, andUo one elfe, had perpetrated the bafe a£tion of the night, could ought avail: the monfteradded murder to rape ; and the wretched flave was tied up and whipped fo unmercifullya nd inceflantly that he expired in a few minutes.
As this man was a gentleman of rank, and one of the particular minions of thegovernor, the matter was never enquired into, and all reports concerning it werefmothered as much as poflible.
A kind of provincial court is likewife eftablifhed here, confifting in part of the Com-pany’s fervants, and in part of the heads of fome negrees, of whom the rajahs ofNouflanivel and Soya are the firft, and follow in rank upon the members of thecouncil of polity.
. The governor likewife convokes from time to time an affembly of the native chiefs,m which he makes fuch orders public as he may have received from the governmentnt Batavia, or which he may think neceflary, and commands them to fee them executed ;to r example, when a certain number of clove-trees are to be planted or deftroyed, andother fimilar matters.
. Befides thefe, there are an orphan-chamber, a court of aflignees for bankrupt orlnt ^ ate e ftates, a board of controul over marriages, and a court of common pleas.
I he number of clergymen belonging to this government is, I believe, when com-P let e, fix *, viz. four at the chief fettlement and fort of New Victoria, one at Hila,nd one at Sapoura; but when I was there, there was but one, the others being gonea church-vifitation to Banda, and the fouth-weftern iflands belonging to that
government.
Heihat remained had been for a long time a journeyman bricklayer in the provinceelderland; but his trade not fucceeding to his liking, he went out in the year
Novell? ^ 0 °k' n g into the memorial of Governor MjfTcl, refpedling the general ftate of India , of the 3 r .that three ^ I perceive that the number of clergymen in the province of Amboyna, was then fettled
V °L. XI