470 James I, Naval Expeditions , Ac. of the

iglilh

1623. the Castle, and eight Ships riding inthe Road : The slender (or rather no)Pretence upon which this Suspicion ofa Plot was founded was this: A Japa-nese, at Amboyna, walking, in the Night,of the eleventh of February, upon theWall of that Place, asked a Dutch Sen-tinel some Questions, about the Strengthof the Castle, and the People who werein it, which he had Reason to do, thathe might understand the Course of theirWatches, and the Strength of the Aidhe might expect, if any sudden Attemptshould happen in his Quarter, where heserved the Dutch, upon Occasion, as aSoldier. The Dutch, who wanted aPretence to make a Plot, laid hold ofthis Opportunity to wreek their Maliceupon the Englijh, and having appre-hended the Japonese , put him to theTorture, and extorted from him a Con-fession, that himself and others of hisCountrymen,, by the Instigation of theEnglijh, had contrived to take the Ca-stle : Whereupon other Japonese werealso examined and tortured, as also aPortugueJ'e, the Guardian of the Slavesunder the Dutch , which lasted three orfour Days.

During this Examination, the En-glijh went freely to the Castle, andheard of their Accusation and Torture;But being conscious of their own Inno-cence, never offered to sly. At thefame Time, Abel Price, Surgeon to theEnglijh, being a Prisoner in the Castle,for offering to set a Dutch House onFire, in his Drunkenness, was told thatthe Japonese, whom they shewed himmost grievously tortured, had confefs’dthat the Englistt had conspired withthem, on New Year’s Day, to take theCastle, and that if he would not con-fess, they would use him as bad orworse than th e Japonese. Whereuponhaving given him theTorture, he quick-ly confessed whatever they asked him,on February, the fifteenth.

The same Day, they sent for Cap-tain Towerson, and the Rest of the En-glijh who were in the Town, who cameall but one to the Governour’s. Hetold them they were accused of a Con-spiracy to surprize the Castle, and wereto remain Prisoners ’till farther Trial.After this, they presently seized himwho was left at Home in the House,t took the Merchandize of the Englijh

Company into their Custody, by Inven-tory, and seized all the Chests, Boxes,

. Writings and other Things, in

the Englisj House. Captain Towerson 1623was committed to his Chamber, with aGuard of Dutch Soldiers , EmanuelI’omjon was kept Prisoner in the Castle,and the Rest, being seven, viz. JohnBeaumont, Edward Collins, WilliamWebber, Ephraim Ramsey, TimothyJohnjon, John Fardo and Robert Brown,were sent on Board the Dutch Shipsriding in the Harbour, and were all putin Irons. The fame Day, the Gover-nour sent to the two lesser Factories inthe same Island, and apprehended Col-son, Clark and Sharrock, at Hitto, andCojlins, Webber and Sadler, at Lark a,and they were all brought Prisoners tothe Castle, the sixteenth, which Daythree more were apprehended at Cam-bello, and three more at Loho, two lit-tle Factories of the Englijh, and broughtin Irons to Amboyna, the twentieth.

Having thus extorted by Torturefrom the Japonese, and others, a Decla-ration of what they knew to be false,they proceeded in the next Place totorture the Englijh whom they hadseized, so make them confess them-selves, and one another, to be guilty ofthis pretended Conspiracy. The Man-ner of their Torture was as follows:

They first hoised the Person to be tor-tured by the Hands upon a large Door,where they made him fast upon twoStaples of Iron, at the Top of the Door-posts, with his Hands stretched out aswide as they could endure: Then hisFeet being raised two Foot from theGround, they stretched them out as faras they could, and fastened them tothe Door on each Side. After this,they bound a Cloth about his Neck andFace so close, that little or no Watercould go by, and then poured Watersoftly upon his Head, untill the Clothwas full, up to the Mouth and Nostrils,and somewhat higher, so that he couldnot draw Breath, but he must suck inthe Water, which being still continuedto be poured in softly, forced his in-ward Parts, came out of his Nose, Earsand Eyes, and many Times so stifledhim, and took away his Breath, thathe fell into a swooning Fit, which assoon as they perceived, they quickly .took him down, and made him vomitup the Water. But after he was a lit-tle recovered, they drew him up again,and poured in the Water, as before,still taking him down as soon as heseemed to be stifled. In this .Mannerthey handled him, three or four several

Ti-

mes,