Travels in India (Tavernier) 156.1
Travels in India (Ball) 156.1
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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.