Punitive Expedition Campaigns
Putmans was determined to assault Lamey 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 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 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.
Read more about this topic: Lamey Island Massacre
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