Travels in India (Tavernier) 156: CHAPTER XXVI · The Author renders the last duties to his brother, who died at Batavia, and has fresh difficulties with the General and his Council
Travels in India (Ball) 156
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CHAPTER XXVI · The Author renders the last duties to his brother, who died at Batavia, and has fresh difficulties with the General and his Council
156.1.1
Finding myself without hope of being able to go to visit the King of Japara, I resolved to embark in a small vessel which belonged to one of the citizens of Batavia, and traded along the whole length of the western coast of Sumatra. It is where the principal part of the trade of this island, which consists of very poor gold and pepper, is carried on. What induced me to go was the opportunity it afforded of disposing of some diamond rings made according to the custom of the country. For although these people have for sole garment only two or three ells of calico, they, nevertheless, always like to have some diamond rings or earrings, and they pay well for them. When at the port, about to embark, a small barque arrived from Bantam with my brother, who was very ill with a bloody flux, which arose from the debauches he had indulged in with the King of Bantam. The sight of him in this condition caused me to give up my voyage in order to do what I could for his cure, but all my cares and all the remedies which could be applied availed nothing, and at the end of thirty days God took him from this world. In order to bury him I was obliged to follow the somewhat strange customs, which the Dutch have invented to cause an expenditure of money by the heirs of a defunct person. The first is to those who go to pray at the interment, for the more prayers one employs the more honourable is the interment.
156.1.2
If one engages only one he pays him but 2 écus, but if he takes two he must pay 4 écus to each; if he takes three, each ought to receive 6; and if he employs twelve, the payment goes on increasing in the same ratio. As I wished that the thing should be done in an honourable manner, and was ignorant of this pleasant custom, I engaged six of these persons, and when it came to paying them I was astonished to find that each one asked for 12 écus, and that I had to pay 72 for this single item. As for the pall which is placed on the bier, it has to be hired at the hospital, and it is a right which the poor enjoy who derive profit therefrom. The commonest is of cloth, and the three others of velvet, one without fringe, another with fringe, and a third with fringe and large tassels at the four corners. This causes an expenditure of from 5 to 30 écus, and I paid 20 for the one which was placed on my brother’s bier. A cask of Spanish wine, which was drunk at the interment, cost me 200 piastres. I gave 26 for three hams and some ox tongues, and 22 for some pastry. It is also the custom to send on the following day some money to enable those who have carried the body to the ground to rejoice, and as there were eight of them I paid them 20 écus. It cost 16 for the place in the cemetery where the body was interred — 100 écus being asked for interment in the church.
156.1.3
Thus the whole funeral cost me 1223 livres of French money, and after I had paid this sum it made me resolve, for my own part, not to die in a country where it cost so much to be interred. I praised God that notwithstanding the troubles which I had experienced in Batavia, and of which I have only as yet told a part, and the small dissipations which one cannot altogether avoid in this country, I have taken such good care of myself that I have never been inconvenienced by the least headache, nor a bloody flux, which is the ailment that carries away many people. That which in my opinion has contributed most to my health is, that I do not think I have ever suffered from sorrow on account of any misfortune which has happened to me. I have sometimes made great profits, and I have sometimes also experienced severe losses ; but when in unpleasant circumstances I have never been more than half an hour in deciding what course I should adopt in the future, without thinking more of the past, having always in my mind the thought of Job, that God gives and takes away as it pleases him, and that one should render thanks for all that happens to us, whether it be good or evil.
156.1.4
Seeing that the two voyages which I had proposed to myself to make, one to Japara and the other to the coast of Sumatra, in order to dispose of some jewels which remained in my hands, had been prevented, I at length resolved to sell the jewels at Batavia with the least possible loss, and then seek to invest the money in something which would yield me a profit in Holland. My jewels having been sold, three or four of my friends told me that as I had ready money I could not invest it better than by buying rekenings from the Company’s servants. These rekenings are their accounts of the balance the Company owes them, which are paid when they return to Holland. But as there are many of them who, after their term of service is completed, remain at Batavia and become citizens there, or in other places where the Company has settlements, as Malacca, the island of Ceylon, the coast of Coromandel, and other places, each has his account closed with what balance the Company owes him. In order to obtain this money, since they are habituated there, and do not think of ever returning to Europe, they sell these statements of account to those who have money and are returning home, and the Company pays them in Holland. Those who buy these accounts get them as cheaply as they can — thus, for 100 piastres they generally give but 60 or 70, or at the most 80, being allowed by the notary to sign a declaration that the seller is content, and had received his payment.
156.1.5
Whenever these poor people sold their statements of account thus, to reasonable persons, it was a convenience to them ; but most frequently they sold them to hotel keepers and publicans, from whom they did not obtain more than 40 or 50 per cent at the most. When the latter had thus purchased up to 2000 or 3000 écus, they placed the “statements” in the hands of a notary to resell them to the commanders who were returning to Holland, and who generally gave for them 85 or 90 per cent, contenting themselves with being thus able to conceal what they have taken from the Company, while they have been chiefs of the factories.
156.1.6
The Company freely borrows all the money of those who are willing to lend it, and gives them 25 per cent interest, but the commanders and other officers take care not to lend it the full amount which they have amassed, because they may be asked by what means they have gained so much money, and be obliged to render an account ; for some of them, as I have said, on their return to Holland take with them from 400,000 up to 500,000 livres. I dealt then with one of these notaries of Batavia who had about the value of 11,000 guilders of these “statements” at 82 per cent, and on the following day, the transfer having been completed, I paid for them. As I was taking these papers to my lodging I met the Avocat Fiscal, who asked me what papers they were which my servant carried. I told him they were “statements” which I had just purchased at a certain price, to which he replied that it was a little too dear, and that he knew of some amounting to 6000 guilders, at a cheaper rate ; these I obtained with his assistance at 79 per cent. I sought to buy more, but more were not to be found, for a ship’s captain who was returning had bought for himself alone some to the amount of upwards of 100,000 guilders; many other persons had also done so, and the whole amounted in value to more than 400,000 livres.
156.1.7
Five or six days afterwards, while I was still seeking for something in which to invest the remainder of my money, I met the Avocat Fiscal, who asked me if I had bought many of those rekenings. I told him that I had not found any more, and that I had only the two parcels of which he knew, amounting to about 1,500 guilders; upon which he told me with a great compliment that he was much distressed for those who had bought them, because the General and his Council had ordered him to make them give back all these rekenings, as it had been decided that it was not just that a poor man should lose so much of his wages. I told him that I would willingly give them back into the hands of the parties from whom I had purchased them, provided that I was repaid my money at the same time, and that I would get them over from Bantam, where I had sent them with my baggage, where I intended to return in a few days in order to go to England with the English President, who had civilly offered me a passage. At 6 p.m. one of the General's halberdiers came to tell me that the General wished to speak to me. I immediately went to him and he asked me forthwith wherefore I had not given these rekenings to the Avocat Fiscal when he had asked for them in the names of himself and his Council. I replied to him coldly that I was unable to give him that which I had not got, and that they were in Bantam.
156.1.8
"You intend then," he said, "to go to Europe?" "Yes," I replied, "and the President of the English has done me the honour to give me a passage and the use of his table." I added that it was very true that the long journey which I was about to make in order to reach Surat, and from thence the diamond mine, where my usual trade was, would cause me much loss, and that if he had so willed it he might have enabled me to save all this time and avoid the dangers inseparable from these long journeys, by allowing me to embark, as I had asked, on one of the vessels which sailed for Bengal, Surat, or Hormuz ; that it would have caused no injury to the Company, and that I believed such courtesy was a thing which the General and his Council should not have refused me, since I had only come to Batavia in their service. When I had finished speaking all the members of the Council looked at one another, and the General having whispered to M. Caron, told me that as I was resolved to go by sea, their vessels were as good as those of the English, and that I should enjoy equally good treatment, and he offered me a passage by one of them. This offer, which I did not expect, amazed me a little, and I did not at first know whether I ought to accept it or not.
156.1.9
But at length I accepted, fearing that by refusing it they might detain me for another year without my having power to leave in any direction, a friend having told me in confidence that the design of the General and his Council was to so manage it, that, whether from Batavia or from Europe, I should not return to India any more, and that by this means they hoped to prevent the commanders or chiefs of the factories, which they have both in India and Persia, from making further use of me to invest for them in diamonds the money of which the Company was defrauded. It was this which led me to accept the passage, for which I thanked the General and his Council. Subsequently the General told me to select the particular vessel I preferred to go by, and that when I informed him he would order a cabin to be prepared for my own special convenience, but if I would take his advice I should go on the Vice-Admiral, because of the good company which would be on board, and that I should find old friends whom I had known in Persia and in the territories of the Great Mogul. I tendered him my thanks for having placed me in such good company ; but after he had made this obliging offer he added that it was absolutely necessary that I should place all the rekenings which I had bought, in the hands of the Avocat Fiscal, and that without having done so I should not be permitted to leave Batavia.
156.1.10
He received no further reply from me than that which I had already given, that the rekenings were at Bantam, and that I should have them sent for, provided he returned my money, on which he told me that for what I had disbursed, when I was about to leave, he would give me an order from himself and the Council to be paid in Holland by the Company. Some days passed without the matter being mentioned to me, save that once or twice I met the Fiscal, who asked me whether I had not yet obtained the rekenings from Bantam. My last reply was that I had written about them to the English President, who had my box in his house, and that I had asked him to send them to me ; but that he had replied that I must go for them in person, or at the least should send a man with an order in my own hand, and without that he could not send back my box. The truth was that it would have been difficult for him to send them, for the whole were with me, and I wished to see whether the time would not come when I should be asked no more about them. However, all those who had purchased these rekenings, merchants as well as captains and other persons who were returning this year, were put in prison, and the Council took from them, by force, all their papers, deposed them from their offices, and they were sent to Holland as common soldiers.
156.2.1
Four or five days before the fleet left, the Avocat Fiscal came to tell me that he had the General’s command to arrest me if I was still unwilling to place in his hands the rekenings which he had already so often asked me for. Having replied that I had nothing to give him, he said, "be so good then as to follow me;" this I did willingly. He conducted me to a beautiful place on one of the bastions, called “sapphire,” where there is a pleasant house devoted to the amusement of the officers, and where the majority of the respectable people of the town came to visit me, and sent me presents of the best wines. On the following day two Councillors came to see me, and told me that they knew not to what to attribute the objection which I had to place in their hands that which they asked for, especially as they, with good grace, offered me an order for payment on the Company in Holland. I replied that it was not with a sufficiently good grace, and that when I saw the order I should make it my business to get back the rekenings. Two or three days more passed, during which the vessels commenced to set sail, this caused these gentlemen, both those of the Council of India and those of the town, to come to see me, to the number of eight or ten.
156.2.2
The Major, a very respectable man, was in their company, and he promised me that as soon as I had got the papers and handed them to the members of the Council to calculate the amount, he would so arrange it that the General would give me the order to be paid in Holland on my arrival there. Seeing that the vessels were about to leave and that I could not do otherwise, I told them that they must allow me to go to Bantam; this they were unwilling to agree to, preferring to send some one on my behalf to bring them. Having given my word, they told me that I might go out on parole, and that they were much distressed by what had happened. I replied that they had reason to be distressed, because that having the honour to belong to a great Prince, who was the late M. le Duc D’Orleans, who did me the honour to love me, he would be able to resent fully the injustice which they had done me, and complain of it to the “States.” At length, forced by their unjust pressure, and by the necessity of leaving with the fleet, of which I did not wish to lose the opportunity, I gave them my rekenings, and from day to day I went to see if they had counted them, so as to give me the order which they had promised.
156.2.3
For the Vice-Admiral on which I was to embark remained more than fifteen days after the other vessels, because it was desired to send news by it, to Holland, of what had been accomplished by a fleet which the General had sent to take possession of the Philippines by capturing them from the Spanish. The bad weather experienced by these vessels when going there was the reason that three or four were lost; and they were obliged to return without accomplishing anything. It is the custom, when the vessels are about returning to Holland, that the General entertains all the principal officers of the fleet with the Council and the most important personages of the town, and he did me the honour to send to invite me also. The repast commenced at 2 p.m., and at four tables there were fully sixty persons of both sexes. I was seated between the Major and the Secretary of the Grand Council; they were both men of worth, whose conversation was agreeable. We had been seven or eight hours at table, and they had already asked the General if it pleased him that the comedy should commence, which the youth of the town were to enact; whereupon I reminded the Major that he had promised me that as soon as I had delivered my papers to the Council they would give me an order to be paid on my arrival in Holland. I told him that the Secretary, to whom I had spoken in the morning, had given me reason to hope that I should have it before dinner;
156.2.4
but the same Secretary then said in my ear that I need not expect it, and having finished speaking he rose from the table in order to go to the comedy. I then asked our Vice-Admiral and three or four merchants who were returning to Holland to bear in mind what I should say to the General and his reply to me, to serve me as witnesses before the Directors of the Company when we arrived in Holland. In the entre-acts of the comedy every one took a glass and drank healths, and the General having a glass in his hand, and addressing our Vice-Admiral, “it is to your health,” said he, “and that of M. Tavernier, whom may God vouchsafe to bless and protect on sea during this journey, as he has done in all the others which he has made by land.” I replied that I thanked him, and that I sincerely hoped that God would bless our journey, but that I should not make it without displeasure and without resentment for their failure to keep their promise—neither he nor his Council having kept the promise which they had made me to give an order on my handing them my rekenings, which amounted to 17,500 guilders. That now, when they had the papers which they asked for, they mocked me; but that I assured them I would publish their proceedings throughout the world. The General replied to this that I should not trouble myself, and that I might be cheerful during the voyage, as the order which he had promised me would be in Holland as soon as myself, and that I should have no cause to complain of them.
156.2.5
Though but ill satisfied with the General, I took leave of him, and did not await the remainder of the comedy, being anxious, amongst other things, to prepare for my departure.