Max Havelaar 1732 Studios

Dutch · The Novel

Hoofdstuk 18

Chapter 18

181 sentences · 260 notes

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  1. 1

    He has been murdered. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

    Hyhehij · pronoun, nominativesubject of passive vermoord
    ishas beenzijn · auxiliary verb, present, singularpassive auxiliary of vermoord
    vermoordmurderedvermoorden · verb, past participlemain verb of the sentence
    ACHTTIENDEeighteenthachttiende · ordinal numeralmodifies HOOFDSTUK
    HOOFDSTUKchapterhoofdstuk · noun, neuter, singularhead of chapter title
  2. 2

    It was afternoon.

  3. 3

    Havelaar stepped out of the room and found his Tine in the front gallery, waiting for him with the tea.

  4. 4

    Mevrouw Slotering came out of her house and seemed about to make her way over to the Havelaars, but all at once she turned toward the gate and there, with rather violent gestures, waved back a man who had just stepped inside.

  5. 5

    She stood there until she had made sure he had withdrawn outside again, and then walked back across the lawn toward Havelaar's house.

  6. 6

    "I really do want to know at last what this means!" said Havelaar, and when the greeting was over he asked, in a bantering tone, so as not to let her think he begrudged her a little authority on a plot of ground that had once been her own:

  7. 7

    "Come now, mevrouw, do tell me why you send away like that the people who set foot on the grounds?

  8. 8

    Suppose that man just now had been someone with hens to sell, or something else the kitchen might need?"

  9. 9

    A pained look came over Mevrouw Slotering's face, one that did not escape Havelaar's notice.

  10. 10

    "Ah," she said, "there are so many wicked people about!" "Surely, there are everywhere.

  11. 11

    But if one makes things so difficult for people, the good ones will stay away too. Come, mevrouw, do tell me plainly why you keep such strict watch over the grounds?"

  12. 12

    Havelaar looked at her, and tried in vain to read the answer in her moist eye.

  13. 13

    He pressed a little harder for an explanation ... the widow burst into tears and said that her husband had been poisoned at the house of the district chief at Parang-Koedjang.

  14. 14

    "He wanted to be just, Mijnheer Havelaar," the poor woman went on, "he wanted to put an end to the abuse under which the population groans.

  15. 15

    He admonished and threatened the Chiefs, in assemblies and in writing ... you must have found his letters in the archive?"

  16. 16

    This was so.

  17. 17

    Havelaar had read those letters, copies of which lie before me.

  18. 18

    "He spoke again and again with the resident," the widow continued, "but always in vain. For since it was common knowledge that the extortion was carried on for the benefit and under the protection of the Regent, whom the resident was unwilling to denounce to the Government, all those conversations led to nothing but the maltreatment of those who complained.

  19. 19

    That is why my poor husband had said that, if no improvement came before the end of the year, he would turn directly to the Governor-General.

  20. 20

    That was in November.

  21. 21

    Shortly afterward he went off on a tour of inspection, took his midday meal at the house of the Dhemang of Parang-Koedjang, and shortly after that was brought home in a pitiable state.

  22. 22

    He cried out, pointing to his stomach: "fire, fire," and a few hours later he was dead — he who had always been a model of good health."

  23. 23

    "Did you send for the doctor from Serang?" asked Havelaar.

  24. 24

    "Yes, but he treated my husband only briefly, since the latter died soon after his arrival.

  25. 25

    I did not dare confide my suspicion to the doctor, because on account of my condition I foresaw that I should not be able to leave this place soon, and I was afraid of revenge.

  26. 26

    I have heard that you, like my husband, set yourself against the abuses that hold sway here, and that is why I have not one untroubled moment."

  27. 27

    "I had wanted to keep all this from you, so as not to alarm you and your wife, and so I confined myself to guarding the garden and grounds, that no strangers might gain access to the kitchen."

  28. 28

    Now it became clear to Tine why Mevrouw Slotering had gone on running her own household, and had refused even to make use of the kitchen, "which was, after all, so spacious."

  29. 29

    Havelaar had the controller summoned.

  30. 30

    Meanwhile he addressed to the physician at Serang a request for an account of the symptoms attending Slotering's death.

  31. 31

    The answer he obtained to this question was not in keeping with the widow's suspicions.

  32. 32

    According to the physician, Slotering had died of an "abscess on the liver." It has not become clear to me whether such an ailment can declare itself so suddenly, all at once, and bring on death within a few hours.

  33. 33

    I believe I am bound here to take account of Mevrouw Slotering's statement that her husband had always been healthy before. Yet even if one attaches no value to such a statement — because the notion of what counts as health, especially in the eyes of laymen, is highly subjective — there still remains the weighty question of whether a man who today dies of an "abscess on the liver" could yesterday have mounted a horse with the aim of inspecting a mountainous tract of country that in some directions is twenty hours wide.

  34. 34

    The physician who treated Slotering may have been a capable doctor, and may nonetheless have erred in judging the symptoms of the illness, unprepared as he was for the suspicion of foul play.

  35. 35

    Be that as it may, I cannot prove that Havelaar's predecessor was poisoned, for Havelaar was not given the time to bring this matter to light. Yet I can indeed prove that those around him held him to have been poisoned, and that this suspicion was bound up with his eagerness to take a stand against injustice.

  36. 36

    The controller Verbrugge stepped into Havelaar's room.

  37. 37

    The latter asked curtly:

  38. 38

    "What did Mijnheer Slotering die of?"

  39. 39

    "That I do not know."

  40. 40

    "Was he poisoned?"

  41. 41

    "That I do not know, but ..."

  42. 42

    "Speak plainly, Verbrugge!"

  43. 43

    "But he tried to take a stand against the abuses, as you do, Mijnheer Havelaar, and ... and ..."

  44. 44

    "Well? Go on?"

  45. 45

    "I am convinced that he ... would have been poisoned had he stayed here any longer."

  46. 46

    "Write that down!" Verbrugge wrote those words down.

  47. 47

    His statement lies before me!

  48. 48

    "One more thing. Is it true, or is it not true, that there is extortion going on in Lebak?"

  49. 49

    Verbrugge did not answer.

  50. 50

    "Answer, Verbrugge!"

  51. 51

    "I dare not." "Write it down, that you dare not!"

  52. 52

    Verbrugge has written it down: it lies before me. "Well!"

  53. 53

    "One more thing: you dare not answer the last question, but you told me recently, when there was talk of poisoning, that you were the sole support of your sisters at Batavia, did you not? Does the cause of your fear lie there, perhaps — the ground of what I have always called half-heartedness?"

  54. 54

    "Yes!"

  55. 55

    "Write that down."

  56. 56

    Verbrugge wrote it down: his statement lies before me!

  57. 57

    "Very well," said Havelaar, "now I know enough." And Verbrugge was free to go.

  58. 58

    Havelaar stepped outside and played with little Max, whom he kissed with particular tenderness.

  59. 59

    When Mevrouw Slotering had gone, he sent the child away and called Tine into his room.

  60. 60

    "Dear Tine, I have a request to make of you!

  61. 61

    I should wish you to go to Batavia with Max: I am bringing charges against the Regent today."

  62. 62

    And she fell upon his neck, and for the first time was disobedient, and cried out, sobbing:

  63. 63

    "No, Max, no, Max, I will not do that ... I will not do that!

  64. 64

    We eat and drink together!"

  65. 65

    Was Havelaar wrong when he maintained that she had no more right to blow her nose than the women of Arles?

  66. 66

    He wrote and sent off the letter of which I give a copy here.

  67. 67

    Having sketched out somewhat the circumstances in which this document was written, I think I need not point out the resolute fulfillment of duty that shines through it, any more than the gentleness that moved Havelaar to take the Regent under his protection against too heavy a punishment. Yet it will not be so superfluous to draw attention here to the circumspection that led him to utter not a word about the discovery just made, so as not to weaken the firmness of his accusation through uncertainty about a charge that, however serious, was as yet unproven.

  68. 68

    His intention was to have his predecessor's body exhumed and examined scientifically, as soon as the Regent had been removed and his following rendered harmless. But the opportunity to do so was not granted him.

  69. 69

    In the copies of official documents — copies that otherwise correspond word for word with the originals — I believe I may replace the absurd titulary with simple pronouns.

  70. 70

    I trust to the good taste of my readers that they will be content with this alteration.

  71. 71

    "No. 88.

  72. 72

    Confidential.

  73. 73

    Urgent.

  74. 74

    Rangkas-Betoeng, 24 February 1856.

  75. 75

    To the Resident of Bantam.

  76. 76

    Since taking up my post here a month ago, I have occupied myself chiefly with inquiring into the manner in which the Native Chiefs discharge their obligations toward the population in the matter of statute-labor, poendoetan, and the like.

  77. 77

    Very soon I discovered that the Regent, on his own authority and for his own benefit, had men called up far beyond the number of pantjens and kemits lawfully due to him.

  78. 78

    I wavered between the choice of reporting officially at once and the wish to bring that Native officer back from this practice through gentleness — or later, if need be, through threats — so as to attain the twofold aim of putting a stop to that abuse and at the same time not treating that old servant of the Government too harshly straightaway: chiefly out of regard for the bad examples that, I believe, have often been set before him, and in connection with the particular circumstance that he was expecting a visit from two relatives, the Regents of Bandoeng and of Tjanjor — or at least from the latter, who, I understand, is already on his way with a large retinue — so that he was, more than at other times, under temptation; and in view of the strained state of his finances, being as it were under the necessity of providing, through unlawful means, for the preparations needful for that visit.

  79. 79

    All this inclined me to leniency regarding what had already taken place, but by no means to indulgence for the future.

  80. 80

    I insisted on the immediate cessation of every illegality.

  81. 81

    Of that preliminary attempt to bring the Regent to his duty through gentleness, I have given you private notice.

  82. 82

    It has become evident to me, however, that with brazen effrontery he flings everything to the winds, and I feel myself bound by my oath of office to inform you:

  83. 83

    that I ACCUSE the Regent of Lebak, Radhen Adhipatti Karta Natta Nagara, of abuse of authority, through the unlawful disposal of the labor of his subjects, and SUSPECT him of extortion, through the exaction of deliveries in kind, without payment, or against arbitrarily fixed, insufficient payment; and that I furthermore — suspect the Dhemang of Parang-Koedjang, his son-in-law — of complicity in the said acts.

  84. 84

    In order to investigate both matters properly, I take the liberty of proposing to you that you instruct me:

  85. 85

    1. to dispatch the aforesaid Regent of Lebak to Serang with all speed, and to see to it that, neither before his departure nor during the journey, he should have any opportunity, through bribery or in any other way, to influence the testimony I shall have to gather;

  86. 86

    2. to place the Dhemang of Parang-Koedjang under provisional arrest;

  87. 87

    3. to apply the same measure to such persons of lower rank as, belonging to the Regent's family, may be supposed capable of exercising influence on the integrity of the inquiry to be set on foot;

  88. 88

    4. to have that inquiry held at once, and to furnish a detailed report of its outcome.

  89. 89

    I further take the liberty of submitting for your consideration that the arrival of the Regent of Tjanjor be countermanded.

  90. 90

    Finally, I have the honor — needlessly, for you, who know the Division of Lebak better than is yet possible for me — to give the assurance that, from a political point of view, the strictly just handling of this matter presents not the least difficulty, and that I should sooner fear danger were it not brought to light. For I am informed that the humble man who, as one witness told me, is poessing under the vexation, has long been looking for deliverance.

  91. 91

    The strength to perform the difficult duty I discharge by writing this letter I have drawn, in part, from the hope that I shall be permitted, in due time, to bring forward this and that in extenuation of the old Regent, with whose position — caused though it is by his own fault — I nevertheless feel a deep compassion.

  92. 92

    The Assistant-Resident of Lebak,

  93. 93

    MAX HAVELAAR."

  94. 94

    The next day there answered him ... the resident of Bantam?

  95. 95

    Oh no — Mijnheer Slymering, in a private capacity!

  96. 96

    This answer is a priceless contribution to the knowledge of the manner in which government is carried on in Netherlands India.

  97. 97

    Mijnheer Slymering complained "that Havelaar had not first informed him by word of mouth of the matter raised in letter No. 88." Naturally — because there would then have been more chance of "hushing it up." And furthermore: "that Havelaar had disturbed him in his pressing duties!"

  98. 98

    The man was surely busy with an annual report on peaceful peace!

  99. 99

    I have that letter lying before me and cannot believe my eyes.

  100. 100

    I read again the letter from the assistant-resident of Lebak — I set him and the resident of Bantam, Havelaar and Slymering, side by side ...

  101. 101

    That Sjaalman is a common vagabond!

  102. 102

    You must know, reader, that Bastiaans is again often absent from the office, because he has the gout.

  103. 103

    Now, since I make it a matter of conscience not to throw away the funds of the firm — Last & Co. — for in principle I am unshakable, the day before yesterday it occurred to me that Sjaalman writes a tolerably good hand after all, and since he looks so poverty-stricken, and so might well be had for a modest wage, I judged myself bound to the firm to provide for Bastiaans's replacement in the cheapest way.

  104. 104

    So I went to the Lange-leidsche-dwarsstraat.

  105. 105

    The woman of the shop was at the front, but did not seem to recognize me, although I had recently told her very plainly that I was Mijnheer Droogstoppel, coffee broker, of the Lauriergracht.

  106. 106

    There is always something offensive in such non-recognition, but because it is rather less cold now, and because the last time I had on my fur-lined coat, I put it down to that, and do not take it to heart ... the affront, I mean.

  107. 107

    So I said once more that I was Mijnheer Droogstoppel, coffee broker of the Lauriergracht, and asked her to go and see whether that Sjaalman was at home, since I did not wish, as recently, to have anything to do with his wife, who is always discontented. But that secondhand-dealer woman refused to go upstairs.

  108. 108

    "She could not be climbing stairs all day long for that beggarly lot," she said; "I should just go and see for myself." And then followed yet another description of the stairs and landings, which I did not need in the least, for I always recognize a place where I have once been, because I always pay such close attention to everything.

  109. 109

    This I have trained myself to in business.

  110. 110

    So I climbed the stairs and knocked at the familiar door, which gave way.

  111. 111

    I stepped inside, and since I found no one in the room, I had a look around.

  112. 112

    Now, there was not much to see.

  113. 113

    A pair of half-trousers with an embroidered border hung over a chair ... what need have such people to wear embroidered breeches?

  114. 114

    In a corner stood a not very heavy travelling trunk, which I gauged in my mind by its handle, and on the mantelpiece lay a few books that I glanced over.

  115. 115

    A strange collection!

  116. 116

    A few volumes of Byron, Horace, Bastiat, Béranger, and ... can you guess? A Bible — a complete Bible, with the apocryphal books in it!

  117. 117

    That I had not expected of Sjaalman.

  118. 118

    And it seemed to have been read in, too, for I found many annotations on loose sheets of paper that bore on the Scriptures — he says that Eve came into the world twice ... the man is mad! — well, it was all in the same hand as the papers in that accursed bundle.

  119. 119

    The book of Job in particular he seemed to have studied diligently, for there the pages gaped open.

  120. 120

    I believe he is beginning to feel the hand of the Lord, and that this is why he wishes to be reconciled with God through reading in the holy books. I have nothing against it.

  121. 121

    But while I sat waiting, my eye fell on a lady's workbox standing on the table. Without any harm in it, I looked the thing over.

  122. 122

    Inside were a couple of half-finished children's stockings, and a heap of silly verses. Also a letter to Sjaalman's wife, as the heading showed.

  123. 123

    The letter had been opened, and looked as though someone had crumpled it together in a fit of temper.

  124. 124

    Now it is a fixed principle of mine never to read anything not addressed to me, because I do not consider that decent.

  125. 125

    And so I never do it when I have no interest in the matter. But now I had a prompting that it was my duty to look this letter over for once, because its contents might perhaps enlighten me as to the charitable purpose that had brought me to Sjaalman.

  126. 126

    I reflected on how the Lord is always near to His own, since here, unexpectedly, He had given me the chance to learn something more about this man, and thus guarded me against the danger of doing a kindness to an immoral person.

  127. 127

    I pay close attention to such pointings of the Lord, and this has often been of great use to me in business.

  128. 128

    To my great astonishment I saw that this wife of Sjaalman's was of genteel family — at any rate the letter was signed by a relative whose name is of standing in the Netherlands — and I was indeed delighted at the fine contents of that writing.

  129. 129

    He seemed to be someone who labors zealously for the Lord, for he wrote "that Sjaalman's wife ought to have herself divorced from such a wretch, who left her to suffer poverty, who could not earn his bread, who was moreover a scoundrel because he had debts ... that the writer of the letter was moved by her condition, although she had brought this lot upon herself through her own fault, since she had forsaken the Lord and clung to Sjaalman ... that she ought to return to the Lord, and that then the whole family might perhaps join hands to procure her some sewing-work. But before all else she must part from this Sjaalman, who was a true disgrace to the family."

  130. 130

    In short, no more edification was to be had in church itself than stood in that letter.

  131. 131

    I knew enough, and was grateful that I had been warned in so marvelous a way.

  132. 132

    Without this warning I should surely have fallen victim once again to my good heart.

  133. 133

    So I resolved once more to keep Bastiaans on after all, until I find a suitable replacement, for I do not like to turn anyone out into the street, and we cannot spare a single clerk at the moment, because there is so much going on with us.

  134. 134

    The reader will surely be curious to know how I got on at the last meeting of the circle, and whether I found the triolet.

  135. 135

    I was not at the circle.

  136. 136

    Remarkable things have happened: I have been to Driebergen, with my wife and Marie.

  137. 137

    My father-in-law, old Last, the son of the first Last — back when the Meyers were still in the firm, but they have long been out of it — had so often said that he wished to see my wife and Marie for once.

  138. 138

    Now the weather was fairly good, and my dread of the love-story Stern had threatened me with suddenly brought that invitation back to mind.

  139. 139

    I spoke about it with our bookkeeper, who is a man of much experience, and who after mature deliberation advised me to sleep on my plan.

  140. 140

    I resolved on this at once, for I am quick in carrying out my decisions.

  141. 141

    The very next day I saw how wise that advice had been, for the night had brought me to the notion that I could do no better than to put off the decision until Friday.

  142. 142

    In short, after maturely weighing everything — there was much for it, but also much against — we went, on Saturday afternoon, and returned on Monday morning.

  143. 143

    I would not relate all this so circumstantially if it did not stand in close connection with my book.

  144. 144

    In the first place, I am anxious that you should know why I do not protest against the absurdities Stern certainly trotted out again last Sunday. — What sort of tale is that, about a man who would hear something if he were dead?

  145. 145

    Marie spoke of it. She had it from the little Rosemeyers, who are in sugar. — In the second place, because I have now afresh gained the certain conviction that all those tales of misery and unrest in the East are downright lies.

  146. 146

    So one sees how travel puts a man in a position to fathom matters properly.

  147. 147

    On Saturday evening, that is, my father-in-law had accepted an invitation from a gentleman who had formerly been a Resident in the East, and who now lives on a great country estate.

  148. 148

    There we went, and truly, I cannot praise the kind reception enough.

  149. 149

    He had sent his carriage to fetch us, and the coachman wore a red waistcoat.

  150. 150

    Now it was still a bit too raw to look over the grounds, which must be magnificent in summer, but in the house itself one wanted for nothing more, for there was an abundance of everything that gives pleasure: a billiard-room, a library-room, a covered iron glass-gallery for a hothouse, and the cockatoo sat on a perch of silver.

  151. 151

    I had never seen anything like it, and at once made the observation how good conduct is always rewarded after all.

  152. 152

    That man had thoroughly minded his affairs, for he had a good three orders of knighthood.

  153. 153

    He possessed a splendid country estate, and besides that a house in Amsterdam.

  154. 154

    At supper everything was truffled, and the servants at table too wore red waistcoats, just like the coachman.

  155. 155

    Since I take much interest in Indies matters — on account of the coffee — I brought the conversation round to that, and very soon saw where I stood.

  156. 156

    That Resident told me that he had always had it very good in the East, and that there is therefore not a word of truth in all those tales of discontent among the population.

  157. 157

    I brought the conversation round to Sjaalman.

  158. 158

    He knew him, and indeed from a very unfavorable side.

  159. 159

    He assured me that they had done very well to drive that man away, for he was a very discontented person who always found fault with everything, while there was besides much to censure in his own conduct.

  160. 160

    That is to say, he was forever carrying off young girls, and then bringing them home to his own wife, and he did not pay his debts, which is surely most improper.

  161. 161

    Since now, from the letter I had read, I knew so precisely how well-founded all those accusations were, it gave me great pleasure to see that I had judged the matter so rightly, and I was very satisfied with myself.

  162. 162

    I am known for this, indeed, at my pillar ... for always judging so accurately, I mean.

  163. 163

    That Resident and his wife were dear, open-handed people.

  164. 164

    They told us a great deal about their way of life in the East. It must really be quite pleasant there.

  165. 165

    They said that their estate near Driebergen was not half so large as their "holding," as they called it, in the interior of Java, and that fully a hundred people were needed to keep it up.

  166. 166

    But — and this is surely a proof of how beloved they were — those people did all of it entirely for nothing, and solely out of affection.

  167. 167

    They also told us that at their departure the sale of their furniture had fetched fully ten times more than its worth, because the Native Chiefs are so eager to buy a keepsake of a Resident who has been good to them.

  168. 168

    I said this afterward to Stern, who maintained that it happened through compulsion, and that he could prove it from Sjaalman's parcel. But I told him that this Sjaalman is a slanderer, that he had carried off young girls — just like that young German at Busselinck & Waterman — and that I attach absolutely no value to his judgment, for I had now heard from a Resident himself how matters stood, and so had nothing to learn from Mr. Sjaalman.

  169. 169

    There were still more people from the East there, among others a gentleman who was very rich, and still earned a great deal of money from tea, which the Javanese have to make for him for little money, and which the Government buys from him at a high price, in order to encourage the industry of those Javanese.

  170. 170

    That gentleman too was very angry at all the discontented people who continually speak and write against the Government.

  171. 171

    He could not praise the administration of the colonies enough, for he said he was convinced that much was lost on the tea they bought from him, and that it was therefore a true magnanimity to go on paying so high a price for an article that is really of little worth, and that he himself did not even care for, since he always drank Chinese tea.

  172. 172

    He also said that the Governor-General who had renewed the so-called tea-contracts, in spite of the reckoning that the Country loses so much on those dealings, was such an able, honest man, and above all such a faithful friend to those who had known him in earlier days. For that Governor-General had paid no heed at all to the talk about the loss on the tea, and had done him a great service, when there was talk of canceling those contracts — in 1846, I believe — by ordaining that they should simply go on buying his tea.

  173. 173

    "Yes," he cried out, "my heart bleeds when I hear such noble men slandered! If it had not been for him, I should now be going on foot with my wife and children." Then he had his barouche brought round, and it looked so trim, and the horses were so well filled out in the flesh, that I can well understand how one glows with gratitude for such a Governor-General.

  174. 174

    It does the soul good to fix the eye upon such lovely sentiments, especially when one compares them with that accursed grumbling and complaining of creatures like that Sjaalman.

  175. 175

    The next day that Resident paid us a return visit, and so did that gentleman for whom the Javanese make tea. They are the very best of people, and yet of considerable standing!

  176. 176

    Both at once asked us by which train we expected to arrive at Amsterdam. We did not understand what this was meant to signify, but later it became clear to us, for when we arrived there on Monday morning, there were at the station two servants, one with a red waistcoat and one with a yellow waistcoat, who both at once told us that they had received orders by telegraph to fetch us with a carriage.

  177. 177

    My wife was flustered, and I thought of what Busselinck and Waterman would have said if they had seen it ... that there were two carriages at once for us, I mean.

  178. 178

    But it was not easy to make a choice, for I could not bring myself to slight either party by refusing so kind an attention.

  179. 179

    Good counsel was hard to come by. But I extricated myself once again from that most awkward predicament.

  180. 180

    I put my wife and Marie in the red carriage — in the coach of the red waistcoat, I mean — and I went and sat in the yellow ... in the yellow carriage, I mean.

  181. 181

    How those horses ran! On the Weesperstraat, where it is always so filthy, the mud flew right and left as high as the houses, and, as though chance were speaking once more, there walked that shabby Sjaalman, stooped over, with bowed head, and I saw how, with the sleeve of his threadbare little jacket, he was trying to clean his pale face of the spatters.

The particulars

The text
Max Havelaar, Multatuli. The Novel.
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Public-domain Dutch (Multatuli, d. 1887; published 1860). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
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Two whoopie pies and a pine. An inside joke.