Copyright © 2002 by Mike Dash All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Crown Publishers, New York, New York. Member of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. www.randomhouse.com CROWN is a trademark and the Crown colophon is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dash, Mike. Batavia’s graveyard: the true story of the mad heretic who led history’s bloodiest mutiny / Mike Dash. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Batavia (Ship) 2. Cornelisz, Jeronimus. 3. Shipwrecks—Australia.4. Mutiny. 5. Shipwreck victims. I. Title. G530.D27 2002 919.41’3—dc21 2001054775 eISBN: 978-1-4000-4510-5 v3.0 For Penny: my Creesje Contents TITLE PAGE COPYRIGHT PAGE MAP: THE UNITED PROVINCES c. 1628 MAP: ROUTE OF THE BATAVIA MAP: HOUTMAN’S ABROLHOS DEDICATION EPIGRAPH PREFACE Prologue: Morning Reef 1. The Heretic 2. Gentlemen XVII 3. The Tavern of the Ocean 4. Terra Australis Incognita 5. The Tiger 6. Longboat 7. “Who Wants to Be Stabbed to Death?” 8. Condemned 9. “To Be Broken on the Wheel” Epilogue: On the Shores of the Great South-Land FOOTNOTES NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY DUTCH PRONUNCIATION GUIDE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS OTHER BOOKS BY MIKE DASH “I looked at him with great sorrow: such a scoundrel, cause of so many disasters and of the shedding of human blood. Besmirched in every way not only with abominable misdeeds but also with damnable heresy . . . and still he had the intention to go on.” FROM THE INTERROGATION OF JERONIMUS CORNELISZ BY FRANCISCO PELSAERT Preface ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THIS BOOK IS INVENTED. It is closely based on contemporary sources, and direct quotes, where they appear, are drawn from those same documents. In the few places where I have drawn my own conclusions about the thoughts and actions of the Batavia’s passengers and crew, I have indicated the fact in the notes. Jeronimus Cornelisz and his companions sailed at a time when the use of surnames was still rare in the Dutch Republic, and when it was correspondingly common for names to be spelled and written in several different ways within a single document. I have taken advantage of this fact to avoid the possibility of confusion between two similarly named people, where there is contemporary authority for such usage. Thus Daniel Cornelisz, a mutineer, is referred to as “Cornelissen” throughout, to prevent him being confused with Jeronimus; and of the two Allert Janszes who were on the ship, one has become Allert Janssen. It is impossible to make accurate comparisons between prices in the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic and today’s prices, but—roughly estimated—one guilder in 1629 bought the equivalent of $75 in 2001. Place names are spelled as they were in the seventeenth century, thus Leyden rather than Leiden, and Sardam rather than Zaandam. MIKE DASH, London, June 2001