Travels in India (Tavernier) 154
Travels in India (Ball) 154
- Language
- English
154.1
The Author returns to Batavia, and some days afterwards goes again to visit the King of Bantam, giving an account, in connection therewith, of the dangerous extravagances of some Fakirs, or pilgrims, on their return from Mecca My brother and I, after having supped this evening with the English President, went on board a barque between 11 o’clock and midnight, for the land-wind that we required generally blows at night, and on the following day between 10 and 11 o’clock in the morning we arrived at Batavia. I remained there twenty days, merely to make the King of Bantam believe that I had not misrepresented the matter, and that during that time I had been looking for what it was impossible to find. As I had nothing to do then, these twenty days appeared very long to me; for at Batavia there is scarcely any other amusement but gambling, and all the gain goes in drink; this did not suit me. During the day, on account of the great heat, one cannot even think of taking exercise, this can only be done towards the cool of the evening, and it is moreover necessary to make it very short, because as soon as the sun sets they close the gates, unless the General or Madame or some of the Councillors of India are outside the town in their gardens. During these twenty days M. Cant, one of the Councillors of India, died, and was buried with great honour.
154.2
A company of infantry attended and bore a large standard, upon which were the arms of the defunct, although when he first came to India he held the most degraded office in the vessel. A stick, at the end of which there were attached spurs, was borne behind, though, to say the truth, I do not believe he had ever mounted a horse save to go for exercise outside the town. One of the captains carried his sword, another his helmet, and his body was borne by eight military officers. The son-in-law of the defunct followed with the General, after whom walked the gentlemen of the Council ; a number of people followed from the fort and town. The four corners of the pall with which the bier was covered were carried by four captains, and all these honours were rendered to him in consideration of the good services which the Company had received from him — as the General and members of the Council proclaimed ; but the people used a very different language, and complained bitterly of the great injustice which he had done, both to sailors and soldiers. Having passed these twenty days at Batavia, I resolved to carry back the dagger to the King of Bantam, without having looked for the diamonds or other stones, for if I had remained years I should not have found any suitable for these bezels. My brother accompanied me again, and I took with me some jewels which the King had not yet seen.
154.3
Having arrived at Bantam we intended to go first to visit the English President, but, before we had done so, there came to us one of the King’s officers, who told us that he had been instructed that we should be lodged in one of the houses which the King has in the town. These houses are made of bamboos, which are, as I have elsewhere said, hollow canes, and which, though they are as hard as iron, nevertheless split like our osiers, and it is of them that the Indians make nearly everything. We had not spent more than half an hour in this house when the King sent us some pateches, which are very sweet water-melons, and are red as scarlet inside. There were also mangoes, of which I have elsewhere spoken, and another large fruit called pompone, which is also red inside, and the flesh is soft resembling a sponge, and is very good. He who brought these fruits told us that as soon as we had taken our repast we were to go to see the King; this we did, and we found him again in the same place with the old betel pounder, who from time to time made him open his mouth and then gave him some with her fingers in the way I have described. There were five or six captains seated round the room, who were looking at some fireworks which the Chinese had brought, such as grenades, fusees, and other things of that kind to run on the water; for the Chinese surpass all the nations of the world in this respect.
154.4
As soon as I saw the King in a condition to speak to me, I presented to him his dagger in the same condition as he had given it to me, and told him that Batavia was not a place where one could obtain precious stones, and when I did find some they wanted double their value for them. That this commission could not be fulfilled except by some one who went to Goa, and that I could have accomplished it when at Goa, or at Golconda, or, better still, at the diamond mine, where one meets with parcels of stones of all shapes and sizes, which one might cut with but little loss to suit the bezels. Upon this the old woman took the dagger and conveyed it into the harem, the King never having spoken to me of it since. I showed him subsequently what jewels I had brought, and I sold a parcel of them as advantageously as on the first journey. As the sun was setting, which is the time when the Muhammadans go to say their prayers, the King told us to return on the following day, and said that he would arrange for our payment being made. On arriving at our lodging we found one of the servants of the English President, who came to invite us to go to have supper with him, and taste some new liquors which had arrived from England on the Company’s account. For during the twenty days which we had been at Batavia two vessels had arrived, which had brought French and Spanish wine, and especially a large quantity of beer.
154.5
We remained till midnight with the President, who manifested much joy at seeing us again. On the following day at 10 o’clock a.m., when going to the palace, together with my brother and a Dutch surgeon, who was prescribing for one of the King’s wives, we passed along a road where one has the river on one side and on the other a large garden enclosed by a palisade, and there were intervals between each pair of posts. Behind the palisade there was concealed a rascal of a Bantamese who had returned from Mecca and was running a muck, which means in their language, that when some one of the lower class of Muhammadans, who has returned from Mecca, takes it into his head to seize his crease in hand, which is a kind of dagger with generally half of the blade poisoned, he runs through the streets and kills all whom he meets who are not of the Muhammadan faith, until he is himself killed. These enraged persons think they do a service to God and to Muhammad by killing the enemies of his law, and that in consequence they will be saved. As soon as they are killed the Muhammadan mob inter them as though they were saints, and every one contributes to give them splendid tombs. Often some great mendicant who dresses himself as a Dervish makes a hut close to the tomb, which he is careful to keep tidy and on which he places flowers.
154.6
According as donations are given he adds some ornament, because the more beautiful the grave is, so much the more worship and sanctity does it acquire, and by so much the more do the donations increase. I remember that in the year 1642 there arrived at Suwali, which is the port of Surat, a vessel of the Great Mogul which returned from Mecca, where there were a number of these Fakirs or Dervishes. For every year the Great Mogul sends two large vessels there to carry pilgrims, who thus get a free passage. At the time when these vessels are ready to depart the Fakirs come from all parts of India in order to embark. The vessels are laden with good articles of trade, which are disposed of at Mecca, and all the profit which is made is given in charity to the poor pilgrims. The principal only is retained, and it serves for another year, and this principal is, at the least, 600,000 rupees. It is considered a small matter when 30 or 40 per cent only is made on these goods, for some yield cent per cent. Added to which all the principal persons of the Great Mogul’s harem, and other private persons, send considerable donations to Mecca. I have mentioned at the end of my account of the seraglio of the Grand Seigneur the rich and magnificent present which the Great Mogul sent to Mecca in the year 1644, over and above the ordinary presents which he makes annually.
154.7
There was one of these Fakirs who returned from Mecca in the year 1642, and having landed at Suwali he forthwith showed signs of diabolical fury. He had no sooner said his prayers than he took his dagger and ran to attack some Dutch sailors, who were on shore discharging goods from four vessels which were in the port. Before they saw him and were able to put themselves on their defence, this maddened Fakir wounded seventeen, of whom thirteen died. The khanjar which he had was a kind of dagger, the upper part of the blade of which was three fingers wide, and as it is a very dangerous weapon I give the figure of it here. At length the Dutch soldier who was on guard at the entrance to the tent where the Commander and the merchants were, gave this madman a shot from a gun through the body, of which he fell dead. Forthwith all the other Fakirs who were in the place, and even the other Muhammadans, carried off the body and interred it, and at the end of fifteen days a handsome tomb had been built (over it). It is broken each year by the English and Dutch sailors when their vessels are in port, because they are then strong ; but as soon as they have departed the Muhammadans have it rebuilt and place about it many standards. Some also say their prayers at it.
154.8
Returning to the Fakir of Bantam. This rascal was concealed, as I have said, behind the palisades, and as my brother and I and the Dutch surgeon went along, all three, side by side, having come opposite to him, he thrust out his spear, thinking to transfix one of the three in the body. By God’s grace he was too quick, and the point passed in front of all three of us. The Dutchman being on my left on the river side, and slightly in advance of my brother and me, the point of the spear cut his high hose and immediately he and I caught hold of the handle, the Fakir pulling with all his might to recover his spear. My brother, who was on my right on the palisade side, being young and strong, leaped over it, gave him three sword cuts in the body of which he died on the spot. Immediately a number of Chinese and other idolaters who were close by came to kiss my brother’s hands and to thank him for having slain this enraged Fakir. From thence we went to see the King, who had already heard of what my brother had done, and testified his approval by making him a present of a waistband. For the Kings and Governors, although they are Muhammadans, are very well contented at some one’s slaying these wicked men, knowing well that they are desperadoes of whom it is well to be rid.
154.9
The King paid me for what he had purchased on the preceding day; but he was unwilling that my brother should return with me, because of a great rejoicing which he was going to make, and at which he wished him to be present. It was on account of four large vessels which he had had built and intended to launch. Never had any King of Bantam built such large ones, and for five or six days there was to be nothing but feasts, dances, and fireworks. Thus I took leave of the King, who presented me with a beautiful embroidered waistband, and we went to take supper and sleep at the Dutch surgeon’s house.
154.10
On the following day I went to bid farewell to the English President, who kept me for dinner. While waiting for it to be served, he showed me two strings of diamonds which had come to him from England, and two services of silver, the whole being worth, perhaps, 25,000 écus. He wanted to sell me all, but I only bought one of the strings of diamonds for 2600 reales, for the stones on the other string were too foul; and as for the vessels of silver, if money had still been coined at Batavia I would have certainly been able to buy them. They coined there formerly, but all contained more than ten per cent of alloy. This was done on account of the Chinese, who preferring silver to gold, as I have elsewhere remarked, because having no silver mines in their own country, they used to carry into China as much as they could of the silver money which was coined at Batavia. These were reales, half reales, and quarter reales, which have no other mark than that of the Company, as is to be seen in the figure which I give here. On one side was a vessel, and on the other a V, an O, and a C, interlaced, these three letters signifying in Dutch Vor Ost Indien Compagnie, i.e. for the Company of the East Indies. This lasted for some years; but in the end all the nations of the East, who had trade with the Dutch, commenced to weary of it, especially the people whose sovereigns did not coin silver money;
154.11
for in fact there are very few who coin after one passes beyond the Empire of the Great Mogul, and it is still bar silver only which comes from Japan. As for gold, there are many Kings who coin it, as the King of Pegu, the King of Achin, and the King of Macassar; and besides their golden money, they have also copper and tin money. The Chinese—who are careful in all things—in selling their goods calculate according to the standard of the silver; for all that they receive in foreign countries, when they have arrived in their own, they reduce to their own standard, and make it into ingots. The principal part of the profit derived from these reales which are coined at Batavia, went into the purses of the General, the Councillors, and the Master of the Mint. The "States-General" having had notice of it, considered it very singular that the gentlemen of the Company had assumed authority to coin money without having asked permission, and forbade the Company to continue to do so. They condemned them likewise to a large fine, and to make a careful search for all these reales, in order to give an equal number of good ones to those who had received the bad ones. On this voyage which I made to Batavia, when in the island of Ceylon, I sold some jewels to a lady of Point de Galle, who paid me with these reales.
154.12
When about to depart, an officer of the Company came on board to ask if I had not received some of these reales, and added that if I had he would give me good ones, piece for piece, without my losing anything ; this he did forthwith.