[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier) › [Travels in India (Ball)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball) › 110 # Travels in India (Tavernier) 110: BOOK II Travels in India (Ball) 110 - **Language:** English ### BOOK II ### [110.1665](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.110.1665) arranged, I drew the packet of English letters from the pocket of my greatcoat, and giving it to one of my servants to place in my bouccha, which is the valise of these countries, he put the bouccha between the side of the vessel and the head of my bed. There had come with us to the ship two small boats, which contained more than sixty bags of silver, some of 50 and others of 100 tomans, all the bags being made in Persia in that manner. Immediately the boats were alongside, \[the crew\] commenced to hoist the bags, one after the other, into the vessel, but did so very slowly, with the object of delaying us the whole night, and to compel me to go to bed. But as they observed that I was unwilling to retire, the captain, the pilot, and the Company’s Broker, to whom, as I have said, the vessel belonged, consulted with the Dutch, and all together conspired to let a bag of 100 tomans fall into the sea when hoisting it into the vessel; this was done in order to have time to accomplish their design. As soon as the bag fell into the sea they sent a boat to Gombroon to fetch a diver, who reached the vessel by daybreak, in order to dive for the sack. Seeing then that the vessel could not leave before the following day at two or three o’clock, I went to lie down, my bouccha being all the time in the same place, half under the head of my bed and half outside. My servants went to rest in the gunner’s cabin, and while I slept alone in that of the captain my bouccha was quietly drawn out, and from it the packet of letters was taken, another well sealed and of similar form and size, which only contained white paper, being put in its place. The bag which they had purposely allowed to fall into the sea in order to accomplish this wicked coup, having been pulled up, we made sail, and arrived at the port of Surat on the 5th of May of the same year. The Dutch Commander having done me the honour to send a barque 2 or 3 leagues out to sea to fetch me, immediately when I landed, which was about midnight, I desired before all things to pay my respects to him, asking two Capuchin Fathers, who were at the port at our debarkation, to deliver to the English President the packet which I had taken out of my bouccha, this service they willingly undertook. But they told me that, as it was an unseasonable hour, and that the President, who was gouty, might be then asleep, they, not considering it proper to awake him, would wait till the morrow to accompany me, when I should be able to deliver the packet to the President myself. But the gout from which he suffered not permitting him to sleep much, it was delivered to him the same hour. The President having opened the packet in presence of the chief officers of his staff, they only found white paper folded like letters inside it. This having been reported to me, I realised at once the bad turn which Van Wuck and his accomplices had played me. What confirmed me further as to this perfidy was, that on going to examine my bouccha I found that a jewel which I had tried to sell to the Governor of Gombroon had also disappeared. Not having been able to agree with him as to the price, he returned it to me some hours before I embarked for Surat, and I had placed it in haste with the packet of letters in my bouccha, where I did not find it on arrival at Surat. Nevertheless the theft of this packet of letters, which had been thus accomplished, incensed the President against me so much that he refused to allow me to justify myself, and I was moreover an object for the rage of many private Englishmen affected by the loss of the letters in the packet, which were addressed to them. They went so far on different occasions as to attempt my life, as I am able to prove by the evidence and affidavits of many men of honour, and particularly of M. Hartman, who was then the second officer in the factory at Surat. So, to protect myself from snares which were set for me, I was obliged to be constantly accompanied by many people, and I was even unable to go to Golconda, where there is a great trade in diamonds, having been warned by my friends that ten or twelve English awaited me in that part of the world in order to do me some injury. The treachery which was thus done to me disturbed all my plans and caused me considerable loss; besides which I was obliged to carry back to Persia a large sum of money, in consequence of my not being able to invest it in India. This is a copy of the letter which I sent on this subject to Batavia, to the General of the Dutch Company and the members of his Council, dated Surat, the 16th May 1665. ### [110.p2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.110.p2) “Gentlemen — I take the liberty to write to you these lines in order to testify the displeasure I have experienced at the affront done me by Commander Henri Van Wuck at Gombroon, who, notwithstanding the letters of recommendation which I had from the Ambassador to the States, an Officer of my King, addressed, one to the Chief Officer of the Company at Ispahan, another to the Commander at Gombroon, and a third to the Commander in this town of Surat, asking all three to assist me as much as possible, except in so far as the Company was interested. But M. Henri Van Wyck has disregarded his, and has done me the most signal affront that a man of honour, as I am, who am an Officer of his Royal Highness, the brother of my King, could ever receive, which was to have my baggage opened, where there were many jewels, some of which have been lost, and to have ordered a large packet of letters to be taken which the Agent of the English at Gombroon entrusted to me to deliver to the President of the English in this town of Surat, having had another packet containing blank paper placed in its stead. I leave you to reflect as to what kind of esteem the President and all the English hold me in at present, and whether I have not good cause for making my complaints and asking justice from you. And, if it should please you gentlemen to send me permission to wait upon you at Batavia, in order to testify, by word of mouth, the displeasure which I feel on account of this which M. Van Wyck has done me in order to accomplish a crime of this nature, and to inform you in detail of the manner in which all this affair has happened, you would oblige me much. At the least, I ask you to give me some satisfaction in respect to the author of the theft, in default of which I shall not fail, as soon as I have, by the grace of God, returned to France, to make my complaints through the King my master, who has honoured me with his protection. and through his Royal Highness, his only brother, to MM. the States, and from their Ambassador, to obtain satisfaction, at whatever cost, of the said Van Wuck, and by this means establish my honour. Moreover, if I return by Ispahan, I shall not omit to inform the King of Persia of it, and shall tell him, after so much honour as his Majesty has done me, and notwithstanding all the passports which I have held from him, that the said M. Van Wuck has treated me in this fashion. I believe also that his Majesty will not be pleased to hear that all the patterns of jewels, which I was to buy and have made for him both in India and Europe, were lost when the packet of letters was stolen. I can also advise him of the plots and conspiracies which M. Van Wuck has had at Gombroon with a Prince, an enemy of Persia, who came to the said place in disguise. Finally, I know enough to make him receive an equal or greater affront than he has done me; and by his receiving it the Company will receive it also. This, gentlemen, is what I am resolved upon if you do not decide to give me complete satisfaction, though I believe I shall not have that trouble. Hoping that you will not omit to do me justice before I leave this country to return to Europe, where as in all other places I shall always be. Gentlemen, your very humble, etc.” It is rare to see treason unpunished, and the principal actors in this plot all had miserable ends. In the following monsoon the vessels which arrived from Surat at Gombroon spread in that region the tidings of the black villany which had been done me; and a short time after, M. Van Wuck having been attacked by a kind of fever, and the Rev. Father Balthasar, Carmelite Monk, going to see him, sought to get him to speak of this affair with which he was so prominently mixed up. But he defended himself of the charge strongly, and making use of an equivocation, said, that if it was true that he had taken the letters, he wished to die without speaking, and not to live three days. He had not in truth committed the theft, but he had arranged for its being done; and he died at the end of three days, and without speaking. His Lieutenant, named Bozan, one of those whom he had sent to escort me to the vessel, and who apparently had opened the bouccha and committed the theft, after a great debauch, having lain down on the terrace of the house to sleep in the fresh air, as these terraces have neither parapet nor anything to prevent a fall, on moving and rolling in his sleep, fell over, and on the following day was found dead on the seashore. As for the Captain of the vessel, who was also in the plot, four or five days after his arrival at Surat, as he pursued his way, a Muhammadan, jealous of his wife, whom he had beaten, and excited to rage against some Franks who separated them, believing this Captain, whom he found alone, was of the band, stabbed him five or six times with a dagger, upon which he fell dead on the ground. Such were the miserable ends of all these people. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.110](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.110) · Pramāṇa