Keluhan yang disampaikan oleh Penduduk Hunut di Pulau Ambon, 14 Juli 1695

FROM     : DAILY JOURNALS OF BATAVIA CASTLE, 14 July 1695 [BEGINNING WITH FOL. 461-]

Translation of a letter of Complaint written in Malay by Some Inhabitants of Ambon to the Supreme Government on the Netherlands Indies in Batavia, received on 14 July 1695.

We the poor and humble servants of Your Excellencies, Muolo Halut and Malita Humit, in conjunction with all the residents of Humit who have a claim to your protection, with eyes downcast and with the most profound respect, are desirous of presenting our wretched state before the soles of the feet of Your Excellencies because all our lands, villages and gardens have been seized by some of the people of the negori Halun Sawo Mardyka, Nusa Nywa, Hylaliva and Alan, and we find ourselves powerless, as we do not enjoy even the most meagre profit from the said fields to sustain ourselves, as these people possess our lands. One prime instance of their cruelty to and the injustice [they have perpetrated] against us is that they have turned our land into gardens, felling far and wide our mature clove trees and coconut palms and planting [462] saplings in their stead, yea indeed even the sagu plantations as well as those of other fruits, to wit durian, breadfruit or jackfruit, lychee and sugar palms, as well as other trees standing in the fields which were ours, have they claimed in like manner. In the time of former Lord Governors of Ambon, often from one after the other have we sought justice against the aforesaid people, but as they resorted to knavish tricks and mendacious testimonies, we have lost because they have claimed that they were using their own property, namely the gardens of the people of Houmit, even though we, the people of Houmit, did not have the slightest inkling that they were once our people and came from the same origins as we do, because since the Honourable Company drove the Portuguese from Ambon until this very day, we the people of Houmit have given not one of our daughters to the Christian religion nor have we married them to the above-mentioned people.

How can they possibly say that they possess these fields as their own original property, whereas the plain unvarnished truth is that they are making shift with lies and injustice, and hence we are put in the wrong and so far have been unable to obtain justice. If they now claim that, when the Portuguese were in Ambon, they were originally part of our people they are being economical with the truth because at that time war raged continuously (day and night) between the Portuguese and the inhabitants of Hituwa and Nusa Neywy, and we were the allies of the people of Hitutuwa and N[e]ywy. Who filled their ears with the tale that they were originally one people with us? It is all lies. When the Hitunese set out to call upon the help of the Honourable Company, and the same came and defeated the Portuguese in Ambon, we took possession of our lands and fields, and the people of Nusa N[e]ywy, and those of [Myome?] also claimed theirs, just as is happening now. When Lord Governor and Admiral De Vlaming [van Oudtshoorn] ruled Ambon for the Company, they went and made gardens, planting bananas and sweet potatoes and other edible crops in them. However, later they went out and chopped down our plantations, which were mature, and planted young trees in them, thereby violently robbing us of our land and gardens.

At the time the Honourable Mr De Haes was in charge of Company affairs in Ambon [463], we the people of Humit rallied together and summoned the aforementioned people before the court, [a case] which dragged on until the departure of the Honourable Mr De Haes. After this the case was closed and we lost our lands, fields and all which we had and possessed and now have nothing from which to live and Latolukus and Talawawa have even helped themselves to one or two fields from the aforesaid lands, as they have mingled with these said people. Hence we do not enjoy the tiniest income from our lands, and have nothing to eat, unless we beg a sago or other fruit trees from the King of Hituwa, the orang kaya Booy Gigier, and the people, which we then accept, and for their part these people also take a share for [the use of] their plantation, namely one part and we one part, and this is how we keep ourselves and our children.

This is the reason we come, our eyes brimming with tears, to beseech with all due reverence and a thousand entreaties, that Your Excellencies will have compassion on your unworthy servants and subjects and judge fairly and reasonably, in which the least worthy of Your Excellencies’ servants will acquiesce.

Written on Ambon 24 June 1695.

Declared at Muolo Halut, Malita Humit and Latulukut.