Domesticating Amboyna

Abstract

Despite the resolution in the Treaty of Westminster (1654), the Amboyna massacre became entrenched in English culture as a familiar cultural touchstone. Three further wars with the Dutch led to new Amboyna pamphlets. Amboyna also became part of internal political disputes in which Tories wrote Amboyna pamphlets to attack Whig rivals. In a wide-ranging exploration of multiple genres of popular and print culture, including plays, advice manuals, fiction, and library catalogues, this chapter analyzes the many ways in which Amboyna became domesticated in English culture. By the end of the seventeenth century it had shed its political significance as a symbol of ingratitude and instead became a consummate tale of cruelty. It also endured as a tale of unrequited injury. British authors such as Dryden, Defoe, and Swift were part of this process. By the end of the eighteenth century, with a final True Relation, it had become a legend.