Travels in India (Tavernier) 157.1.1

157.1.1

On the day following, at a very early hour, I took a small Chinese boat to go on board, where, having arrived, I found one of the General’s bodyguards, who came to convey to me once more his good wishes for my voyage, and to tell me that Madame la Generale begged me to accept a cask of Rhine wine, and some pots of fruits preserved in vinegar, which she sent me. There were cucumbers, mangos, citrons, and eggs with their shells, which prevent them from becoming salt. I had taken no provisions with me, because some days before our departure the captain of the vessel told me that if I brought any they would not be received on board, he having been forbidden by the General. It is the custom that the General gives 200 écus to each captain of a vessel in order to furnish himself with all kinds of stores, and as I embarked by his advice on the Vice-Admiral, he caused double the sum to be given to the captain on my account, in order to have the honour to cause no expenditure to a stranger to whom he had offered a passage. Madame la Generale, when sending this present, bethought herself, possibly, of that which I had done some days previously for her daughter. Some friends seeing that I had easy access to the principal ladies of Batavia, begged me to intercede for a young man, a native of Paris, who in consequence of dissipation had come out to India as a soldier, and was in danger of the surgeons cutting off his leg, where he had an ulcer.