Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/482

138 bUTCII HISTORY Hsli were reconciled to eacK other, and the* latter now saw no harm in subduing the inoffending Ban- danese. The English commissioners only declared their inability, from want of means, to join in a league for their subversion. The Dutch governor- general, happy at their excusing themselves, piouS' ly declared that he would undertake the enterprise with the assistance of heaven, which he boasted had hitherto been so favourable to him. This crusade ended in the total subjugation of the Banda Isles, in the year 16^1, in spite of the efforts of the Eng- lish, who, keeping as little faith with their Euro- pean allies as with the natives, assisted the latter against the former. The island of Lontar alone long resisted ; the natives betook themselves to the mountains, where in time they were starved and hunted down, until at length the survivors, a poor remnant of 800 persons, surrendered themselves, and were transported to Batavia. Such was the termination of the expedition, which a Dutch governor-general of the Indies undertook in reli- ance upon the assistance of heaven 1 The inhabitants of Amboyna, and the other Clove Isles, unable to endure the despotic commer- cial arrangements of the Dutch, were in arms almost as early as the people of Banda, and, as they were more numerous and powerful, their resistance was more formidable and long continued. In the year 161^3 took place the famous massa-