[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) › 147 # Travels in India (Tavernier) 147: BOOK III Travels in India (Ball) 147 - **Language:** English ### BOOK III ### [147.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.1) The King felt compelled to defend himself against these enemies whose power he feared, and with the vessels of Macao, which were in the roads, sought for some time to resist the Dutch attack. The combat being obstinate on both sides, the Dutch divided their fleet, and while thirteen vessels devoted themselves to the Portuguese, the remainder incessantly battered the fortress, which was carried without much resistance. It is said that on this day the Dutch fired more than 7000 cannon shots, and that the King was so much terrified that he ordered the Portuguese not to fire any more, so as not to further irritate the enemy. The Prince Patinsaloa died during this engagement, and this was a great loss to the King of Macassar, who had become formidable to his neighbours by the diplomacy of this minister, upon whom he entirely relied. As the vessels of Macao found themselves surprised and unprepared for defence, it was not difficult for the Dutch fleet to destroy the Portuguese; they burnt three of their vessels, sent two to the bottom, and took from them a quantity of costly goods; thus it was that the Dutch reimbursed themselves profitably for the cost of the deputation to China. ### [147.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.2) On the 13th of June the King of Macassar, named SUMBACO, through fear of seeing himself reduced to the last extremity, ordered a white flag to be hoisted on another fortress, from whence, surrounded by his wives, he watched the fight. During the truce which they granted him, he sent one of the highest of the nobles of his court to the General of the Dutch fleet to ask for peace, which was only granted to him on condition that he would send an ambassador to Batavia, that he would drive all the Portuguese from the island, and that his subjects should no longer trade with them. ### [147.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.3) As the articles of the treaty were to be ratified at Batavia by the General and his Council, the King of Macassar equipped his galleys and sent there eleven of the grandest nobles of his court with a following of 700 men, and the chief of this embassy was the brother of the late Prince Patinsaloa. They were to present to the General of Batavia 200 loaves (pains) of gold to redeem the royal fortress, and had orders to submit to all the conditions which the Dutch proposed to them, provided that they did not affect the law of Muhammad. The General having received this embassy, which was a great honour for him, and profiting by the opportunity, and the good fortune of his arms, he himself prepared the terms of the capitulation, which were signed by the ambassadors of Macassar and were strictly observed. For immediately all the Portuguese left the country, some passing to the Kingdoms of Siam and Cambodia, and the remainder withdrawing to Macao and Goa. Macao, which was some years ago regarded as one of the most famous and richest towns of the East, was the principal object of the Dutch embassy to China, and as it was the best port which the Portuguese then had in these regions, the design of the Dutch was to ruin it completely. To-day this town, which is at the 22° of north latitude, in a small peninsula of the Province of Canton, which is a part of China, has lost much of its former renown. ### [147.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.4) The Jesuit fathers and the Portuguese merchants were not recompensed by it for the disgrace which they had experienced at Macassar, and they sustained still another blow close to Goa. The Chief of the Dutch factory at Vengurla, which is only 8 leagues from that town, having heard of the ill-success of Dutch affairs in China, thought on his side of a means to avenge it. He was not ignorant of the fact that the Jesuit fathers of Goa and other places in India did a large trade in rough diamonds which they sent to Europe, whither they carried them when returning to Portugal. And in order to conceal this trade they used to send one or two from among their number in the garb of Fakirs or Indian pilgrims; this was easy for them to do, because there are fathers among them who are born in the country, and know the Indian language perfectly. ### [147.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.5) This garb of the Fakirs consists of the skin of a tiger, which is worn on the back, and one of a goat which covers the waist and hangs down to the knees. For cap they have the skin of a lamb or of a kid, the four feet of which hang on the forehead, neck, and ears which are pierced, and in which they insert large rings of crystal. Their legs are naked, and they have large wooden sandals on the feet, and carry a bundle of peacocks’ feathers to fan themselves with, and drive away the flies. One day as I was dining with the Augustine fathers who reside at the Court of the King of Golconda in company with M.M. Lescot and Raisin, one of these Jesuit fathers who had come from Goa entered the chamber clothed in the manner I have described. He told us that he was going to St. Thome on the business of the Viceroy of Goa; upon which I remarked that to travel throughout India it was not necessary to disguise himself, and that other religious persons, to whatever order they belonged, did not disguise themselves in that manner. ### [147.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.6) The Chief of the Vengurla factory seized his opportunity then to revenge himself on the Jesuit fathers, and having learnt that there were two of them going to the mines to buy 400,000 pardos worth of diamonds, he gave orders to two men who purchased some for him, that as soon as the fathers had completed their purchase they should give notice of it to the master of the customs at Bicholim. Bicholim is a large town on the frontier, which separates the territories of the King of Bijapur from those of the Portuguese, and there is no other road but by this place, because one cannot elsewhere pass the river which forms the island of Salsette where the town of Goa is built. The Jesuit fathers, believing that the officer of customs knew nothing of the purchase which they had made, went into the boat to cross the water, and they had no sooner entered it, than they were searched, and all the diamonds found on them were confiscated. ### [147.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.7) I return to the King of Macassar, whom the reverend Jesuit fathers strove to convert, and they would possibly have accomplished their design, except for a condition which he imposed on them, and which they neglected to fulfil. For at the same time that the Jesuits laboured to draw him to Christianity, the Muhammadans on their side made equal efforts to induce him to embrace their law ; and this Prince, who wished to relinquish idolatry, not knowing well which side he should take, told the Muhammadans to summon two or three of their most accomplished Mullas from Mecca, and the Jesuits also, that they should send him an equal number of their ablest men, that he might hear them and instruct himself thoroughly in the respective religions ; both promised to do so. But the Muhammadans made more haste than the Christians, and eight months afterwards, having brought two skilled Mullas from Mecca, the King, as the Jesuits sent no one, embraced the law of Muhammad. It is true that three years afterwards two Portuguese Jesuits arrived at Macassar, but it was too late, and the King was no longer inclined to become a Christian. ### [147.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147.8) The King of Macassar having been made a Muhammadan, the Prince, his brother, was so annoyed that he was unable to restrain himself from giving signs of it by the committal of a deed which resulted in his disgrace. As he knew that the Muhammadans had a horror of pork, which is one of the common articles of food of the idolaters of Macassar, as soon as the mosque which the King built was finished, he entered it one night, and having ten or twelve pigs slaughtered in his presence, he had the blood sprinkled in all directions, and both the walls and the niche where the Mulla places himself to offer up prayers were soiled with it. The King, by the laws of the religion which he had embraced, was obliged to demolish the mosque and to build a new one ; and the Prince, his brother, withdrawing with some other idolatrous nobles, has never again appeared at Court since that time. This is all that I have been able to collect of the most singular facts regarding the Kingdoms of the East included in the territories of the Great Mogul and the Empire of China, of which I also have good memoirs ; but as I know that several persons have written fully regarding them, I think the reader would prefer that I should give him the result of my voyages, and that I should only amuse him with things which I have seen with my own eyes. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.147) · Pramāṇa