Instead of conducting a public in- quiry, he made the decision to carry out a “secret investigation to discover those acts carried out by high-placed officials and people, colleagues and compatriots who I have always held in esteem and for whom I always had felt kindness.” Van Rees called more than fifty men to appear in person before him between 31 May and 19 July 1848, to describe what they saw, what they did, who was present, and what they said.81 Some were inter- viewed in Dutch, some in Malay. Most strikingly, the transcripts were verbatim, conveying vibrant movement, rumors careening across the city, people accosting one another on horseback and on foot about whether they planned to go to the gathering, and what they understood it to be. Some stated outright that they were excited by the prospect, others that they were curious, and still others that they went under threat. Some di- rectly denied “with passion and impertinence” that they had actually car- ried out the actions attributed to them. Others simply crafted their ac- counts to place blame for their presence on what they were told would happen if they did not show up.

Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ E…, loc. 493