Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The ruler and the princes with their followers, dressed in their glittering attire, with their krises girded on, of which
the golden hilts were in the form of Buddha statues and studded with precious stones; all of them were dressed in
red or black and their hair was carefully combed, moistened with fragrant oils. The women were wearing the best
clothes and accessories that they had; most of them wore their hair loose and all had white cloaks. The prince had
his palace burned down and had everything that was breakable destroyed.
When at nine o'clock it was reported to him that the enemy had penetrated Denpasar from the North, the tragic
procession of 250 people started to move; each man and woman carried a kris or long lance, also the children who
had the strength to do it, while the babies were carried in their arms. Thus they walked to the north along the wide
road bordered by tall trees, meeting their destruction.
The prince walked in front, carried on the shoulders by his followers according to custom, and silently … until all
of a sudden, at a turning in the road, the dark line of our infantry was visible before them. Immediately a halt was
commanded and Captain Schutstal ordered the interpreters to summon the arriving party to a halt with gestures and
with words. However, these summons were in vain, and in spite of the repeated warnings the Balinese went over to
a trot.
Incessantly the Captain and the interpreters made signs, but it was in vain. Soon they had to realize that they had to
do with people who wanted to die. They let them approach to a hundred paces, eighty, seventy paces, but now they
went over to a double quick step with couched lances and raised krises, the prince always in front.
A longer delay would have been irresponsible in view of the safety of our men, and the first salvo was given; several
killed men remained at the place. One of the first to fall was the ruler; and now one of the most horrible scenes one
could imagine took place.
While those who were saved continued the attack, and the shooting on our part for self-defence remained necessary,
one saw lightly wounded give the death-blow to the heavily wounded. Women held out their breasts to be killed or
received the death blow between their shoulders, and those who did this were mowed down by our rifle fire, other
men and women got up to continue the bloody work. Also suicides took place there on a big scale, and all seemed to
yearn for their death: some women threw as a reward for the violent death which they desired from them gold coins
to the soldiers, and stood straight up in front of them, pointing at their heart, as if they wanted to be hit there; if no
shot was fired they killed themselves. Especially an old man was busily stepping over the corpses, and used his kris
left and right until he was shot down. An old woman took his task and underwent the same fate, however, nothing
helped. Always others got up to continue the work of destruction.
This scene was repeated later the same day at the palace of the prince of
Pemecutan
. Estim-
ates of the number of people killed that day vary between four hundred and two thousand.
Having defeated Badung, on September 27, the Dutch marched on to
Tabanan
, where the
raja and crown prince surrendered and were imprisoned, where they both committed suicide
rather than face exile.
