public thanksgivings were offered to God, say the
Dutch writers, in the churches of Batavia, for the
conclusion; it is therefore concluded, regard being had to the
before-mentioned crimes, and all the circumstances relating
to them, and we hereby conclude and decree in justice, in
the name, and on the part, of their High Mightinesses the
States General of the United Provinces, that we condemn
the before-mentioned prisoners, with the approbation of the
governor-general Mr Zwardekroon, and of the counsellors of
the Indies, to be transported to the place before^ the citadel,
where it is usual to execute criminals, there to be delivered into
the hands of the hangman, in order to receive their respective
punishments in the manner following : The two criminals,
Erberfeld and Catadia, otherwise styled Rading, shall be
extended and bound each of them on a cross, where they shall
each of them have their right hands cut off, and their arms,
legs, and breasts, pinched with red-hot pincers, till pieces of
the flesh are torn away. They shall then have their bellies
ripped up from bottom to top, and their hearts thrown in their
faces ; after which, their heads shall be cut off, and fixed upon
a post ; and their bodies, being torn in pieces, shall be exposed
to thé fowls of the air without the city, in whateyer place
the government shall please to direct.
“ The otherfour criminals, Maja Praja, SanaSuta, otherwise
Wangsa, Suta Chitra, and Jjayeck, are to be each of them
bound upon a cross, and have their respective right hands cut
off, their arms, thighs, and breasts, pinched, their bellies ripped
open, and their hearts thrown in their faces, and their
limbs exposed upon a wheel in the usual places, there to become
a prey to birds. The other ten criminals shall be each
of them tied upon a cross on the scaffold, and, in Case there be
pot roopi on the scaffold itself, on a place near it, where they
discovery and defeat of this horrible conspiracy.
The house of Erberfeld was razed to the ground ;
and on the spot where it stood is still to be seen a
rude death’s head with a mimic spike through the
scull, underneath which is an inscription in European
and native languages, which expresses the
vindictive feeling of the moment, in a declaration,
that no house shall ever again stand on the spot
where was framed the wicked conspiracy of Erberfeld!
The most atrocious of all the acts of the Dutch
administration in Java, and the observation may
be extended to all their possessions in the Indies,
is the famous massacre of the Chinese. These
people, encouraged to leave the crowded ranks of
shall be broken alive, without receiving the coup de grace.
They shall be afterwards carried to the ordinary place of execution,
and there exposed on a wheel, and guarded so long as
they shall live there; and, after they expire, be left a prey to
the birds. The other three, Tomboam, Grambiek, and Mitas,
are condemned to be each of" them'tied to a stake, and there
strangled, till they are dead. Their bodies shall be then carried,
like the rest, to the common place of execution,and there
exposed on wheels for the nourishment of the birds. We likewise
further condemn the said criminals to the costs and expen.
ces of justice, and to the confiscation of half their effects : This
being paid, renouncing all further pretensions. Done and decreed
in the assembly of my lords the counsellors of justice,
this Wednesday the 8th of April, all the judges, except Mr
Craivanger, being present.”— Roggewein’s Voyage, in Harris!
Collection, Vol, I. p. 285.