The Hawaiian gazette., 1868-10-07
The East India Archipelago.

N. 7. Times, written at the time when
Capt. Gibson's affairs we're under consider
alton by the Uuited States Senate. 1t
contains information interesting to us at
this time.
1t appears that in the year 1851 an
American schooner called the Flirt, under
command of Walter NJ. Gibson, sailed
from the United States bound on trading
voyage to Singapore in the East Indies.
BY stress of weather the FLrt was COM
PEELED to anchor in the roads Of Mintow,
the capital of Banca-a large island lying
between Sumatra and Borneo, over which
the Dutch claim jurisdiction. By invita-
ton Of some of the Dutch officials at this
place, Captain Gibson ran his schooner
over to Palembang, a Dutch province of
Sumatra, and came to anchor in the Moo
see river, opposite the city of Palembang,
which lies about sixty miles from the
mouth of this river, in the strait of Banca.
He was here treated with consideration
by De Brauw, the Dutch Governor, and
was allowed to collect all the information
which was available respecting the geo.
graphy of the adjacent country and the
character and condition of the native tribes.
Adjoining the Dutch province of Palem-
bang on the snorth, lies the territory of
JanIbi, governed by native prince called
the Sultan of Jambi. and claimed as de-
dependent province by the Government of
the Netherlands India. Captain Gibson,
DESTROYS to learn something about this ter
ritory, deputed his mate to visit it, furnish
ing him with a credential letter 1t was nee
essary that this letter should be written in
the Malay language, and the Dutch Cover
nor recommended as an amanueDsis, man
who was in the employment of the Gov
eminent police. This fellow wrote the
letter. The mate took it and started on
his journey to Jambi. The police spy fol-
lowed the mate, arrested him, seized the
letter, accused Captain Gibson of treason
in attempting to excite the natives to re-
bel against the authority of the Dutch
Government, and arrested him and all his
crew. The letter produced by the spy, as
that which was found in possession of the
mate, was not the letter which Captain
Gibson dictated, nor was it the letter
which he signed. 1t was a letter written
or dictated by the Dutch Government for
the purpose Of entrapping the American.
Captain Gibson was tried for the alleged
offense and acquitted by the subordinate
tribunals at Batavia, in the Island of Java
But, after eighteen months Imprisonment,
he was arraigned for high treason by the
Supreme Court of Netherlands India, con-
victed, compelled to stand half an hour
under the gallows, sentenced to twelve
years imprisonment and perpetual Danish
ment from the East India Archipelago.
Two weeks after this sentence he escaped
from prison, returned to the United States
and applied to the State Department to
demand indemnity for the loss and injury
he had sustained at the hands of the
Dutch Government Of India. A long and
animated correspondence between the
United States Government and Holland
followed this demand. But the perfdious
Dutchmen are slow to acknowledge the in
justice of their acts, and the correspond
ence resulted only in disclosing many in
teresting facts touching the claims of SOW
ereignty which Holland asserts over most
of the islands of the East India Archipel-
ago.
The matter was then brought before the
Committee on Foreign Relations, who re-
ported that Jambi is a sovereign and indie |
pendent nation, and that the Sultan of |
Jambi is not and never was tributary of |
the Dutch Government. That Captain |
Gibson had right to visit the Sultan of |
Jambi in person, or to send him minister
with such powers and credentials as might |
seem to him proper, and that he had a
right to visit any or all of the native
princes of the Archipelago, so long as he
no law and was guilty of no Of
Tense against persons or property of the
Dutch subjects in India.
In reviewing this history, we are surpris-
ed at the patience and cool deliberation
with which our Government has treated
this outrage upon the rights of an Ameri-
can citizen. Not long ago an American |
was murdered in Canton by a gang of
drunken Cinnamon. Our Consul demands
the surrender af the murderers. Because
it is impossible for the Chinese Govern
ment to surrender them, he orders that
American merchants shall not pay the Gus
lom duties on their exports from China.
Only the other day an accidental insult is
offered to the American flag in the Can
ion River, and Immediately the whole
American squadron in those waters bonn
1ards the city of the Celestial barbarians
But an uroffending American citizen is
seized without cause, is imprisoned, is dis
yraced, his property contiscated, by the
Christian Government OF Holland, and yet
10 American Consul repudiates tribute to
Dutch Custom Houses, and no American
squadron batters down the fort of Palem-
Bang. On the other hand, we spend four
years in interchanging the frigid civilities
If diplomacy with an obtuse and treacher-
rus despotism. whose honor has proved to
De no better than the honor of the Pagan
1arbarians.
But if we never obtain direct satisfac-
ion from the Dutch Government, the adj
Ienture of Capt Gibson is destined, in its
esults, to riddle the assumed title of Hol-
and over the East India Archipelago, and
o open those large and fertile islands to
he enterprises of American commerce.
The bill, if adopted by Congress. will ac-
,omplish this end.
The East India Archipelago. commonly
allied the Malay Archipelago, because the
Inhabitants are chiefly Of the Malay race,
) the most extensive group Of Islands on
he globe. Ii stretches from Acheen