Travels in India (Tavernier) 127.8

127.8

this they continued to do for some nights consecutively. But the Chinese were no sooner aware of it than, in order to deter them from returning, they on three or four occasions poisoned the food which they placed on the graves of their dead; this caused a great disturbance in Batavia. The Chinese occupy a leading position in commerce, and are more cunning than the Dutch, but not being liked by the people of the town, the latter took the part of the soldiers, and accused the Chinese of having poisoned some of them. But they defended themselves from this accusation very cleverly, saying, that if greed had caused these soldiers to die from eating the food which had been left on the graves of their dead, they were not the cause, as it was not for the soldiers that they had left it, and that till then among the great number whom they had interred not one of the dead persons had ever complained of such a thing; thus nothing more was said about it, and the soldiers dared not meddle with them any further.