Lamey Island Massacre
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The Lamey or Liuqiu Island Massacre was the slaughter of aboriginal inhabitants of
Liuqiu Island Liuqiu, also known by #Names, several other names, is a coral island in the Taiwan Strait about southwest of the main island of Taiwan. It has an area of and approximately 13,000 residents, the vast majority of whom share only 10 Chinese s ...
(then known as "Lamey" or "Golden Lion Island") off the coast of Taiwan by
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
soldiers in 1636. The killings were part of a punitive campaign in retaliation for the massacre of shipwrecked Dutch sailors in two separate incidents in 1622 and 1631 by natives of the island.


Background

Two years before the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
established a presence on Taiwan in 1624, a Dutch ship named the ''Golden Lion'' (
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
:') was wrecked on the coral reefs of Liuqiu Island. The entire crew was killed by the native inhabitants. Subsequently in 1631 a yacht named the ' was also wrecked on the treacherous reefs, with survivors (numbering around fifty) battling the Lameyans for two days before being overwhelmed and slaughtered to a man. Following the murder of the ' survivors, the island was sometimes referred to by the Dutch as ' ("Golden Lion Island"). There was a desire at the very highest levels of the
Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
not to let the killings go unpunished, with Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies
Hendrik Brouwer Hendrik Brouwer (; 1581 – 7 August 1643) was a Dutch explorer and governor of the Dutch East Indies. East Indies Brouwer is thought to first have sailed to the Dutch East Indies for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in 1606. In 1610, ...
ordering
Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
Hans Putmans to "punish and exterminate the people of ..the Golden Lion Island as an example for their murderous actions committed against our people."


Punitive expedition campaigns

Putmans was determined to assault Liuqiu as soon as possible, at one stage requesting that the warriors of Mattau assist them in punishing the islanders. The first expedition arrived in 1633, led by Claes Bruijn and consisting of 250 Dutch soldiers, forty
Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...
pirates and 250 Aboriginal Formosans. It met with little success, but they did manage to find evidence of the murdered crew of the ''Beverwijck'', including coins, copper from the ship's galley and a Dutch hat. They also learned that a large cave on the island was used by the natives as a refuge in times of trouble. In 1636, a larger expedition under Jan Jurriansz van Lingga landed on the island, this time chasing the Lameyans into the cave. The Dutch and their allies proceeded to block up all the entrances, leaving small holes where pans of
burning pitch Early thermal weapons, which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories, were employed in warfare during the classical and medieval periods (approximately the 8th century BC until the mid-16th ...
and sulphur were placed. Some of the trapped Lameyans managed to crawl out of the holes, where they were captured by the Dutch force. On May 4, after the poisonous fumes had been constantly produced for eight days (during which the cries of those inside could be clearly heard), the cave grew still and the entrances were unblocked. When soldiers entered to investigate, they found the corpses of around 300 men, women and children who had been suffocated by the fumes.


Aftermath

The captured men of the island were put to work as slaves in both Taiwan and
Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...
. The women and children were put up in the homes of Dutch people in Taiwan as servants; some later became wives for Dutch men. There were numerous other raids following this expedition until the island was finally completely depopulated in 1645 when a Chinese merchant who had rented rights to the island from the Dutch East India Company removed the last thirteen inhabitants.


Alternate stories

There have been a number of erroneous accounts of the incident, the most obvious of which is the plaque outside the cave where the massacre occurred. This account is almost completely false from start to finish, as noted by several writers.


See also

*
Taiwan under Dutch rule The island of Taiwan, also commonly known as ''Formosa'', was partly under colonial rule by the Dutch Republic from 1624 to 1662 and from 1664 to 1668. In the context of the Age of Discovery, the Dutch East India Company established its presence ...


References


Further reading

* {{Dutch Formosa 1636 in Taiwan Dutch Formosa Massacres in Taiwan Military history of the Dutch East India Company Massacres committed by the Dutch East India Company Massacres in 1636 Genocides in Asia