Travels in India (Tavernier) 156.1.8

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.