Travels in India (Tavernier) 149.1.1

149.1.1

I LEFT Vengurla, a large town of the Kingdom of Bijapur, 8 leagues from Goa, on the 14th of April 1648, and embarked on a Dutch vessel which had just brought silks from Persia and was going to Batavia. It had orders to stop at Bakanor, en route, in order to take in rice, and we arrived there on the 18th of the same month. I landed with the captain, who went to see the King to ask his permission to take the rice; this he gave willingly. It was necessary for us to ascend by the river nearly 3 leagues, and we found the King close to the water, where there were only ten or twelve huts made of palm leaves. He had, in his own, a Persian carpet spread underneath him, and we saw there five or six women, some of whom fanned him with fans made of peacocks’ tails, and the Others gave him betel and filled his pipe with tobacco. The most important persons of the country were in the other huts, and we counted about 200 men, the majority of whom were armed with bows and arrows. They also had with them two elephants. It appeared as if they had some retreat elsewhere, and that they had merely come to this place to enjoy the coolness afforded by the trees and some streams. Having left the King and re-embarked on our boat, he sent us, as a present, a dozen fowl and five or six pots of palm wine. We slept the same evening, after having made a league of way, in a hamlet where there were but three or four houses, but we had taken with us ample provisions from our vessel.