BAT A VI A. 219 
population, which had begun to create suspicion and alarm. 
They put them to the SAvord . 
The horrible scenes that were exhibited in this abominable 
transaction, which took place in the year 1740, have fre- 
quently been mentioned, but the subject was never fairly 
investigated. The cause has been ascribed solely to the 
Dutch Governor Valkaniei\ who, disappointed in not being- 
able to extort a large sum of money from the Chinese chiefs 
for permission to celebrate some particular feast, accused 
them of a plot against the government. Many others, how- 
ever, are supposed to have been implicated in this affair ; 
and it is strongly suspected that, in order to get rid of farther 
inquiry, the coadjutors found it expedient to put an end to 
the Governor by poison. The causes assigned on the public 
records of Batavia are too absurd to deserve the least degree 
of credit. By these it would appear that a man, assuming 
the character of a descendant of the Emperor of China, 
formed a conspiracy with some of the Princes of Java, the 
object of which was to exterminate the Dutch; that, with 
this view, they had provided themselves Avith a quantit}" of 
wooden cannon to batter down the walls of the city ; that 
their plan was to seize the persons of the Governor General 
and the Council, whose destiny was to be that of umbrella- 
bearers to the Chinese chief ; but the wives of these noble 
personages were to be cut into minced meat, in order to be 
eaten by the Chinese at one of their solemn feasts ; that a 
general auto da fe was to be held in the early part of 
the day for all Dutchmen that should be taken, and in 
