“ ‘Is that clear or not?’ asked my predecessor. The Resident’s sentence ‘fiat execution’ was carried out, as regards the flagellation and branding, and Si Pamaga is now on his way through Padang, to be sent to Java, there to undergo his hard labour. At the same time with him the documents of the procès-verbal arrive at Batavia, to show who the man was upon whose accusation my father-in-law was suspended. That sentence the General cannot annul, even if he would.
“I undertook the Government of the Natal district, and my predecessor left. After some time they acquainted me that the General would come in a war-steamer to visit the North, and also Natal. He arrived with a large retinue at my house, and asked to see the original documents concerning that poor man who had been so extremely ill-treated.”
“ ‘The accusers themselves,’ added he, ‘deserved to be flogged and branded.’ ”
“I did not understand it at all. For the causes of this contest about Jang di Pertoean were then still unknown to me, and I could therefore not conceive, either that my [[246]]predecessor had wilfully and knowingly condemned an innocent person to such heavy punishment, or that the General wished to protect a criminal from a just sentence. I was charged to have Soetan Salim and the Toeankoe taken prisoners. As the young Toeankoe was very much beloved by the population, and as we had but a small garrison in the fortress, I begged to be allowed to leave him at large, which was granted me; but for Soetan Salim, the enemy of Jang di Pertoean, there was no pardon. The population was in great excitement. The Natallers took it into their heads that the General was debasing himself to be a tool of Mandhéling hatred, and it was under these circumstances that I could do from time to time something which he deemed a brave action, above all because he did not give me for escort the small force that could be spared out of the fortress, and the detachment of mariners which he had brought from the ship, when I went on horseback to the places where there were seditious assemblies. I observed, on this occasion, that the General van Damme took good care of his own safety, and, therefore, I do not subscribe to his military renown.
“He formed a council which I might call ‘ad hoc.’ The members were a few adjutants, other officers, the Magistrate, whom he had taken from Padang, and myself. This council was to investigate how under my predecessor the procès had been conducted against Si Pamaga. I had to summon a number of witnesses, whose declarations were [[247]]necessary for the purpose. The General, who of course presided, interrogated, and the evidence was written down by the Magistrate. As the latter understood but little Malay, and nothing at all of the Malay spoken in North Sumatra, it was often necessary to translate to him the replies of the witnesses, which the General, for the most part, did himself. From the sessions of this Council resulted documents that show very clearly that Si Pamaga never had the intention to murder any person whatever; that he had never seen or known Soetan Adam or Jang di Pertoean; that he had not assaulted the Toeankoe of Natal, who did not jump out of the window, and so on. Further, that the sentence against the unhappy Si Pamaga had been pronounced under the pressure of the President, my predecessor, and of Soetan Salim, a member of the Council, the persons who had invented the pretended crime of Si Pamaga, to give to the suspended Assistant Resident of Mandhéling a weapon for his defence, and to give vent to their hatred against Jang di Pertoean.
“The mode of investigation by the General reminded one of a certain whist-party of one of the Sultans of Morocco, who said to his partner:[8] ‘Play hearts, or I will cut your throat.’ The translations also, as he caused the officer of justice to write them down, left much to be desired.
“Whether my predecessor and Soetan Salim had exercised pressure on the Court of Justice to declare Si Pamaga [[248]]guilty, I do not know; but this I know, that General van Damme did exercise pressure on the evidence assigned to prove his innocence. Without as yet knowing the tendency of these proceedings, I opposed them, and went so far that I was obliged to refuse to sign some documents, and in this it was I so offended the General. You understand now the drift of the words, with which I ended the reply to the observations that had been made on my pecuniary administration, and in which I begged to be excused on all benevolent considerations.”
“It was very brave for one of your years,” said Duclari.
“I thought it a matter of course, but it is certain that General van Damme was not accustomed to anything of the kind. I have suffered much from the consequences of this affair. Oh no, Verbrugge, I see what you mean to say, I never regretted it. I must even add, that I should not have contented myself with simply protesting against the manner in which the General examined the witnesses, and refusing my signature to the documents, if I could have guessed at that time, what I learned only afterwards, that all this arose from a determination fixed beforehand to accuse my predecessor in question. I thought that the General, convinced of the innocence of Si Pamaga, allowed himself to be carried away by a praiseworthy desire to save an innocent victim from the consequence of any error in justice, as far as was possible, after the flagellation and the brand. Though this opinion made [[249]]me oppose falsehood, yet for that reason I did not become so indignant as I should have been if I had known that all this was not to save an innocent man, but that this falsehood was designed to annul the proofs that stood in the General’s way, at the expense of the honour and the welfare of my predecessor.”