2§g The V O W 
add the Barbarian towards all thofe who were not fo lucky 
as to be in his good Graces : He perfecuted the Europeans 
as well as the Indians , and was alike terrible to all. As he 
had, from the Beginning, this Project in his Head, of 
rendering himfelf an independent Sovereign, he purfued 
it deadily, and by the Methods that were fitted for accom- 
pliffiihg his Purpofe. In the fird Place, he thought it 
neceffary to rid himfelf of the riched Perfons in the Ifland* 
and of fuch. as were of the greated Reputation for Wifdom, 
Experience, and Penetration. In order to fave Appear- 
ances, and play the Villain with an Air of Judice, he 
thought it requifite to forge a Plot 5 and catifed Inform- 
ations to be preferred againd fuch as he intended to ruin, 
for being in a Confpiracy to betray and deliver up the 
principal Fortreffes in the Ifland to fome foreign Power : 
Which Scheme of his ferved him doubly *, for, in the fird 
Place, it feerned to manifed a great Zeal for the Com- 
pany’s Services and, in the next, it gave him an Oppor- 
tunity to fconvidd thofe he hated of High Treafon, which 
deprived them at once of Life and Fortune. 
To manage this more effectually, he thought it requi- 
iite to change his Council, and to bring into it fuch as he 
could depend upon. The Confifcation of the Edates and 
Effects of a Number of innocent Perfons, whom he con- 
demned and murdered under colour of his Attention to the 
public Welfare, put it in his Power to oblige many, and 
to raife a vad Number of Creatures. To make this fhort 
Hidory the more intelligible, it will be proper to give the 
Reader the Character of the Man. Mr. Vuifi was bom in 
the Indies , of Dutch Parents •, he had naturally a drong Ca- 
pacity, which he had improved by an affiduous Appli- 
cation to his Studies. His dark Brow, and cloudy Air, 
fufficiently fhewed the Cruelty of his Difpofition, and that 
Flintinefs of Heart, which didinguifhed him from other 
Men. He loved and protected the Indians , either from a 
natural Inclination, as they were his Countrymen, or becaufe 
he thought them lefs capable of penetrating, and lefs wil- 
ling to traverfe, his Defigns. In order to gain them in- 
tirely to his Devotion, he preferred them as often as any 
Vacancies which fell in his Government would permit and 
this in direCt Oppofition to the repeated Indruftions of 
the Company, directing him to bedow the principal Pods 
in the Ifland o V Dutchmen, or other Europeans. 
This did not proceed from an abfolute Diffidence, in the 
Company, of the Indians in general, which they neither 
had, nor ought to have, fince Experience has taught them, 
that there are, amongft the Indians , Perfons of as much 
Probity, and approved Fidelity, as among the Dutch 
themfelves : And our Author affures us, of his own Know- 
ledge, that fome, with whom he had occafion to contract 
Acquaintance, didinguifhed themfelves towards him by 
indubitable Marks of fincere Friendffiip, and the greated 
Uprightnefs in their Condud. He adds farther, that the 
lad time he was in the Indies , the General who commanded 
all the Forces, in the Service of the Company, was an 
Indian born : His Name was Dirk de Cloon , a Man of very 
great Capacity, an excellent Officer, and of acknowledged 
Virtue and Merit , of which his rifing to that high Pod, 
though not a Dutchman born, ought to be confidered as 
the mod convincing Proof. But to return to Mr. Vuifi, 
and his TranfaCtions, which brought upon him fuch a Re- 
ward as every Traitor ought to meet with. 
He carried on his Defigns, for a long time, with the 
greated Dexterity and Cunning, acquiring by Gifts, and other 
Artifices, a prodigious Number of Dependents, who were 
ieady to fiipport him even in the blacked of his Defigns. 
This, however, he could not do without giving Umbrage to 
fome of the Company’s faithful Servants, who fent over 
to Holland fuch clear and perfed Informations of his Be- 
haviour, as gave diffident Light to his real Intentions, in 
fpite of all the hypocritical Arts he made ufe of to conceal 
them. At lad, therefore, the Company fent Mr Verjluys 
directly to Ceylon to fucceed him, with Orders to fend 
Vuifi Prifoner to Batavia , where he was called to an Ac- 
count for his Condud. As foon as he came thither, abun- 
dance of Informations were preferred againd him, for a 
Variety of Crimes, of a private as well as public Nature , 
into all which the Council of Judice caufed the drided 
Inquifition to be made, ‘and took care to be furniffied with 
5 - 
AGES of , Book I. 
every kind of Proof. In fine, after abundance of Exami- 
nations and Interlocutories, he freely confeffed, that he 
had caufed nineteen innocent Perfons to be mod cruelly 
put to Death \ adding farther, that as 1 he had, to keep up 
a Shew of Judice, put them all to the Torture, fo, by 
the Severity of this Proceeding, he had extorted from 
every one of them a Confeffion of Crimes, none of which 
had ever fo much as entered into their Pleads. Such fla- 
grant Offences certainly deferved the fevered Punifhment 
the Laws Could inffid ! The Sentence paffed upon him 
was to this Effed i That he fhould be broken alive upon 
the Wheel, his Body immediately quartered, and, thofe 
Quarters being burnt on a Pile of Wood, the Allies to be 
put in a Calk, and thrown into the Sea, as unworthy of 
any other Interrment : Which Sentence, without the lead 
Mitigation, was put in Execution within a few Days after 
it was pronounced. Such was the deferved End of the 
Traitor and Tyrant Vuifi , but, fure, the Reader will be 
adonifhed to hear, that the next Indance to be produced 
of a like, and, perhaps, of a worfe Condud, is that of 
his Succeffor Verjluys , who was fent exprelly to amend 
what the other had done amifs, and to make the People 
forget, by a mild and gentle Adminidration, the Exceffes 
committed by his Predecefibr. 
This Man had by no means the Cruelty of Vuifi , and 
therefore he died no Blood, dridly fpeaking , but he aded 
as defpotically and tyrannically as the other, though with 
much more Subtilty, and under a fairer Appearance. 
The great Point he aimed at, was not the abfolute Pof- 
feffion of the Country, but the Poffeffion of all that was 
valuable in it. As foon as ever he was fettled in his Pod* 
he raifed the Price of Rice, which is the Bread of that 
Country, to fuch an extravagant Height, that, in a very 
fhort time, the People were not able to purchafe it, fo that 
they were by degrees reduced to Beggary and Starving. 
Their humble Reprefentations of the great and general 
Mifery which reigned among all Ranks of People 
throughout the whole Ifland, made no manner of Inv* 
preffion upon him ; but all things went on from bad to 
worfe, till an Account of his Condud was fent over to. 
Holland. The States General were no fooner informed of 
the Didrefs the Inhabitants of Ceylon were in, than they 
immediately appointed a new Governor, one Mr. Doem- 
bourg , and gave him particular Indrudions to repair pad 
Errors, and to treat the Subjeds of the Eafi India Com- 
pany with all the Tendernefs and Indulgence poffible, that 
they might be convinced, their Grievances proceeded from 
the Wickednefs of particular Men, and not from any 
Difpofition in their Sovereigns to Oppreffion. 
On the Arrival of Mr. Doembourg , Things took a very 
new and unexpeded Turn •, hot Verjluys, after beggaring a 
whole Nation, took it into his Head, that they would 
defend him againd his Maders, and therefore abfolutely 
refufed to lurrender the Government ; and had even the 
Infolence to fire upon the Company’s Ships, as they rode at 
Anchor in the Road of Colombo. But all this fignified no- 
thing •, Mr. Doembourg landed ; his Authority was imme- 
diately acknowledged by all in the Company’s Service, 
and by the People. Fie indantly caufed Verfiuys to be 
arreded, and fent Prifoner to Batavia, where a long cri- 
minal Profecution was carried on againd him, but with 
indifferent Succefs ; for he had taken care to cover himfelf 
fo effedually, that it was found almod impoffible to obtain 
other than circumdantial Proofs : At lad, he thought 
proper to lay down a very large Sum of Money, which was 
to attend the Event of the Suit ; and he was fet at Liberty, 
that he might be the better able to defend himfelf. Our 
Author fays, he has no Account of the Event of this' 
Affair •, but, at the Time he wrote his Book, there were 
new Didurbances and Complaints in Ceylon •, of which 
Country he has given us the following Defcription. 
Of all the Afiatic Hands, Ceylon is, perhaps, the faireft, 
and mod fruitful : It lies to the South-ead of the Peninfula 
of India , beyond the Ganges, and feparated from the 
Goads of Coromandel by the Streights of Chilao , or of 
Manar . Its Situation is between 6° and io° of North La- 
titude, and 121 0 and 123 0 of Longitude, fo that it con- 
tains about fifty-five Leagues in Length from North to 
South, and thirty from Ead to Wed. It is a Spot fo 
delicious, 
