Travels in India (Tavernier) 156.2
Travels in India (Ball) 156.2
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- English
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.