Travels in India (Tavernier) 152.1.7

152.1.7

The Dutch did not ill-treat the French, alone, after this fashion, as they did a still more serious injury to the English. The English were the first to realise that the voyage to Japan from Surat, Masulipatam, and other places, was too dangerous to attempt in one stretch, without having some place in which to rest when the winds were contrary. They found it desirable to build a fort in the island of Formosa; and this has spared the loss of many vessels, in addition to the great profit which it brought them. The Dutch being jealous that the English should have seized so good a position as that, being the sole place in all the island where vessels could lie in safety, and as they were unable to take it by force, decided on treachery to accomplish their design. They sent two of their vessels, upon which they put their best soldiers, who feigned to have been very badly injured by a storm, making their vessels appear dismasted and broken in many directions, and all the soldiers pretending sickness. The English, touched by this misery, which was only a sham, invited the chief officers to come on shore in order to refresh themselves; this invitation they immediately accepted, ordering as many of their people as possible to leave the vessel, under pretext that they were ill, and could be treated better on shore than on board.