220 B A T A V 1 A. 
the evening that all the women were to sutfer the same 
death. Their children were to be slaves to the imperial 
family. 
On such ridiculous surmises was the Chinese chief dragged 
to the stadt-house, where the most horrid tortures were em- 
ployed for the purpose of extorting from him the confession 
of a crime which it had never entered into his mind to com- 
mit ; and, at the same time, about five hundred of this na- 
tion were thrown into prison. The Dutch guards were 
doubled ; and, while the work of torture was going on, a 
fire, unluckily for the Chinese, broke out in that quarter of 
the suburbs which was particularly inhabited by them. This 
accident, occurring at the distance of half a mile without the 
Avails, was nevertheless construed into a malicious intention 
to set fire to the whole city. The gates were doubly guarded, 
the half-cast burghers were armed, the soldiers drawn out, 
and the sailors landed from the ships in the road. The 
Chinese were ordered, by proclamation, to confine themselves 
to their houses; but terror overcoming their discretion, and 
fearful of being murdered within doors, the}" rushed forth to 
meet their fate in the streets. The horrid tragedy now be- 
gan, and neither age nor sex could avail in preserving the 
victims from assassination. About four hundred who had 
fled to their hospital, and five hundred who had been im- 
prisoned, were speedily put to death. Numbers without the 
city, who had hastened to the gates to learn what was doing 
within, were set upon by the soldiers and put to death. 
Within, the streets ran with blood. 
