Watchandi Man. Robert Hallsworth
mind to a degree where it was primed to receive the heretical and revolutionary views of Cornelizs.
When the opportunity came to join the VOC, he had seized it readily, wide-eyed with dreams of adventure and romance on the high seas and in the Spice Islands. When he was sent to join the Batavia on her maiden voyage, he was elated to think it would be his and the ships, first voyage, never dreaming for a moment that it would also be the last for both of them.
Part of his on-board duties was to act as a steward in the great cabin, serving meals and wine to the officers and certain passengers. His own mess deck was forward with the crew and other boys, both places affording him ample opportunity to listen in to adult conversation from differing viewpoints. But it was the radical views of the under merchant Jeronimus Cornelizs, that drew his attention most of all.
Cornelizs was a follower of the views expressed by the great Dutch painter, Johannes Van Beeck, otherwise known as, Torrentius.
Torrentius had been branded a heretic, arrested and tortured and only escaping execution through the patronage of King Charles I of England. His views, gathered from several different groups of radical free thinkers who were challenging the established dogma of the Roman Catholic Church in 17th century Europe. They denied the existence of hell and believed the pursuit of happiness to be the only intrinsic good!
Cornelizs was even heard to say,
‘All I do, God gave the same unto my heart’, implying that he was incapable of sin.
This philosophy, it seemed he took to be justification enough for the bloody massacre he would instigate on the islands. His ideas nourished the already twisted mind of the young Jan Pelgrom, and he hung on every word that spilt from the evil mouth of Cornelizs, taking them back to his own mess to share with some of the other young and impressionable seamen. Some were reserved, hostile even to it, while others listened with interest.
One such was Pieter Arentzs, of similar age to Pelgrom; he was, nevertheless, a boy seaman in the tough, seamen’s world of the VOC. But he was a fast learner and was well on the way to becoming a first-class seaman until the time his hunger had overcome his discipline, and he had stolen a loaf of bread from the galley, and it had cost him a flogging.
The pain and humiliation had chastened his behavior, but it had also left him bitter and resentful, with a surly attitude to authority, which he struggled to hide. He too found comfort in the rebellious and hedonistic doctrine of Cornelizs.
Pieter shared this similar outlook with Jan, and they became friends, a relationship which was strengthened after Pieter’s flogging when Jan had been the only one to offer him help and comfort.
Despite this however, when the mutiny came on the islands, it was the memory of his punishment that held him back from joining in with Cornelizs’s gang and it was his stealth and cunning as well as his physical prowess, he was an excellent swimmer, that had enabled him to avoid becoming a victim himself.
It was this swimming ability that had made him one of the first choices when Pelsaert had returned and formed a team to attempt to recover the treasure and cargo that lay scattered about on the reef after the Batavia had been wrecked.
It was also his knowledge of what was left, unrecovered, that had formed the basis of yet another plot, the one to rescue his friend Jan and recover the remains of the treasure.
For it was Pieter who had given the nod to Jan Pelgrom that Wouter Loos had noticed, just before they were cast adrift in their little boat.
After Pelsaert had returned to the Abrolhos in the Sardam and exacted such terrible justice on the perpetrators, Jan had been rounded up with the rest of them, while Pieter was free. At night he would use his stealth to sneak up on the makeshift compound where the prisoners were held, seeking out his friend, Jan.
They would talk in whispers of their desperate plans, he told him of the treasure that still lay waiting, unrecovered on the reef. When Pelsaert had announced that, he had commuted Pelgroms death sentence to one of being marooned on the mainland, Pieter had vowed to return and rescue him. A plot was hatched, Pieter would go on with Pelsaert to Batavia, and there he would seek out a Javanese fisherman or diver with a boat and offer him a share of the treasure. They would then return, rescue Jan, dive on the reef and recover as much as they could and then set themselves up as privateers in the Indies.
With a boat of their own, they would prey on the ships and storehouses of the VOC and have their revenge. Such were the plans that danced around in Jan Pelgroms head as he sat on the beach with Wouter Loos, it was these thoughts that had caused the outburst that had unsettled Loos so much. Finally, he now addressed his companion,
‘I don’t know what crazy thoughts you have in that addled brain of yours, but right now we need to move’.
‘First, I suggest we pull the boat up the beach as far as we can, secure it and then go for a walk up that creek, see if we can find a place to camp and hopefully, freshwater.’
Together they went, and it wasn’t long before they found both. The water in the creek was salty at first, but as they moved upstream, it became quite drinkable, which was a great relief to them both. Then as they moved further along, they came to a sandy beach with small shady trees with spiky leaves, a bit like pine. The dead, dried leaves which had fallen to the ground formed a carpet which was pleasant to walk on; overall, it offered promise as a campsite.
‘This doesn’t look too bad’ said Wouter, ‘What do you think’? Jan just shrugged his shoulders, noncommittally,
‘Let’s go back to the boat and bring some rope and canvas’.
Jan was reluctant to be told what to do by the older man, but he had to admit it was the best plan, and grudgingly went along with it. They trudged back through the soft sand and brought back as much as they could carry.
‘I don’t like the idea of leaving the boat on the beach where we can’t see it’ said Wouter, ‘Let’s see if we can drag it over the sandbar and into the creek’.
‘I don’t think it’s worth the effort’ retorted Jan ‘it’s not much of a boat, anyway, just a makeshift thing, Pelsaert called it a Sampan, what’s that supposed to mean anyway?’.
‘It the Asian name for a Schouw,’ replied Wouter,’ just a flat-bottomed thing, for use in rivers mainly, not much use in the sea, we were lucky to get ashore in it actually.’
‘So, what’s the point in keeping it’ said Jan
‘Because it just might be useful in this creek, fool!’ retorted Wouter,
‘and, I heard them talking about a much bigger river north of here too. It may not be much, but it’s all we’ve got, so come on!’
Jan pulled a face and mumbled under his breath, but reluctantly set too, to help.
It was hard work dragging the boat across that sandbar, but eventually, by removing the more substantial items and carrying them across first, they managed it and paddled off upstream to their camp.
Drawing the boat up on the bank, they started to unload some of the gear, they spread their bedrolls on the carpet of leaves and a piece of canvas tied between branches for a cover.
Gathering up brushwood, of which there was no shortage, and using their flints, they soon had a fire going on the sandy bank and prepared a meal.
Their supply of dried pork, fish and peas was meagre fare, but then no worse than the shipboard allowance and at least they had a plentiful supply of freshwater to wash it down with, there was even a bottle of Genever gin which was a welcome surprise.
Sitting around the fire afterwards, puffing on their clay pipes, they gazed at the star-filled night and contemplated their future.
Even this was an improvement on shipboard life, which was one of constant movement, of being wet and cold from the ingress of the sea, and, being confined, for much of the voyage, to the lower decks, taking the brunt of the rubbish and sewage that drained through from above.
Added to that were the shipwreck