Travels in India (Tavernier) 160: CHAPTER XXIX · The Dutch fleet leaves the Island of St. Helena, and the Author arrives safely with it in Holland
Travels in India (Ball) 160
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CHAPTER XXIX · The Dutch fleet leaves the Island of St. Helena, and the Author arrives safely with it in Holland
160.1.1
On the day after the council had been held, the Admiral ordered the three signal shots for parting, to be fired, and at ten o’clock p.m. all the fleet set sail. The English still remained there and we did not know why, unless it was to try to catch one of their sailors, who, having been ill-treated by his pilot, and having one day gone on shore with him to get water, slew him with two stabs of his dagger, after which he escaped into the mountain. If he remained there he must have passed a bad time, there being no house in the island. Three days after our departure from St. Helena the crew commenced to pray every morning and evening, but I remarked that they had not done so during the twenty-two days we spent in the roads; this I thought strange, as if one should not pray to God when out of danger as well as while in danger. On the eleventh day after our departure we crossed the line with a favourable wind. I know that many have written that the heat is insupportable under the line, and that the water and some of the provisions become decomposed, but we experienced nothing of the kind; elsewhere in the voyage we felt much greater heat. I am quite ready to admit that if a calm had caught us under the line, instead of the propitious wind which we experienced, we should have felt the heat more than we did. After some days’ sailing we spent three in passing a bank where the sea is full of a plant, the leaf of which resembles the leaves of the olive.
160.1.2
This plant has fruits like large white gooseberries, but they contain nothing inside. At length, after many more days’ sailing, we sighted the coasts of Iceland, and afterwards the Island of Ferelle, where the Dutch fleet already awaited us, constantly firing cannon shots to intimate to us its position. As soon as the two fleets sighted one another, each vessel fired all its guns, and took up position by its patron, that of the Admiral by the Admiral, that of the Vice-Admiral by the Vice-Admiral, and so of all the others. We numbered eleven vessels, there came also eleven other vessels to meet us, and after each had recognised its mate, the first thing that was done was to send on board the vessels from India a quantity of supplies, as casks of beer, smoked meat, butter, cheese, good white biscuit, and for every vessel one cask each of Rhine, French, and Spanish wines. As soon as the supplies were on board our vessel, the soldiers and sailors took three or four of the casks of beer, which they placed on end close to the mainmast, breaking them open with a cannon-ball, and they were then free to whoever wished to drink. It was the same with the food, for both drink and food were at the discretion of the crew during the remainder of the voyage. On the following day each pilot resigned his charge, giving over the direction to the pilots brought by the convoy.
160.1.3
There were three of them for each vessel, and for that purpose pilots of from sixty to eighty years of age, who knew these seas perfectly, and how the sand-banks had changed during the current year, were selected. On the following day the Admiral of the convoy fired three cannon shots, and hoisted his flag on the poop, to give notice to all the officers of both fleets to assemble in council. All the reports and processes which have been made against those who have misbehaved during the voyage are taken to it, and the whole being examined, according as the council adjudicates the accused are brought from each vessel on the following day, and judgment is pronounced. Formerly they took them to Holland, but when it was so, they found friends who obtained their pardon, and they all got off. But at present all are afraid, as there is no longer chance of pardon. This is the reason why the soldiers and sailors are not guilty of insolence and mutiny during the voyage as they were formerly. There were two of our fleet hung for having stabbed officers; many were sentenced to the stocks and whipping before the mainmast, and the wages of others were confiscated. We passed through a fleet of herring fishers, and they did not fail to bring casksful to each vessel. The captains presented them with rice, pepper, and other spices.
160.1.4
As soon as we had sighted the coasts of Holland, all the soldiers of our fleet who had been with those who went to beseige the Manillas, from joy at beholding their country again, fixed a quantity of large and small wax tapers about the poop and bow of the vessel, where the wind, when they were lit, could not extinguish them. The same was done in five or six of the vessels; this gave out such an extraordinary light that the whole fleet was alarmed. On our vessel alone, there were more than 1700 of these wax tapers, both large and small. The sailors had kept them since they were at the Manillas, from whence they had brought a large quantity, as also from Point de Galle in the Island of Ceylon. For when on shore they pillaged and burnt some convents which were in the country, and as wax is cheap throughout India, and is easily bleached, every religious house always has a large supply of wax tapers on account of the festivals, when numbers are lighted before the grand altar and in all the chapels. Thus the least of the Dutch sailors had thirty or forty of these tapers for his share, and some of them had some as thick as the thigh.
160.1.5
The command was, according to custom, that our vessel, as Vice-Admiral, should go to Zealand. We were on the coast seven whole days without being able to enter Flushing, on account of the sand which frequently changes its position. As soon as we had cast anchor, more than fifty small boats came about our vessel, but keeping a short distance off, being forbidden to come alongside. Each then began to call out and ask the names of persons in order to carry the news of their arrival to their relatives and friends. On the day following that on which we anchored off Flushing, two of the members of the Company came on board to give welcome to all, and to tell them to close their chests and place their marks thereon. They were then carried into a hall of the India House, and the day was fixed upon which each should return to claim what belonged to him. It is the custom that before the chests are given up they are opened in order to be examined, through fear lest they should contain anything contraband.
160.1.6
These two gentlemen summoned the crew on deck between the poop and the mainmast, and taking the captain, whom they placed at their side in front of all, “Gentlemen,” they said to all on board, “on behalf of the Directors we order you to tell us whether the captain has ill-treated you during this voyage.” The crew, who wanted to be on shore, where the majority saw father or mother, brothers or sisters, or friends who awaited them, began to cry out that the captain was a good man, that he knew how to act for the interests of the Company, and his own also, and that if when leaving Batavia God had delivered them from him, they would have been much more happy during the voyage. At once, without another word, they all jumped into the boats and went on shore, where they received many kisses and embraces, and immediately all hastened to the publichouse. It is where most of the soldiers and sailors first go on the occasion of their debarkations, and generally they do not leave it save to claim their baggage or receive their pay, or to join a party. Some of these soldiers and sailors returning from India have been known to expend, in two months’ continual debauch, nearly 1000 écus, which they had had much trouble in earning in fifteen or twenty years’ service to the Company. I have known a sailor at Middelburg, who in a debauch broke glass to the value of 250 livres, when drinking to the health of his friends.
160.1.7
But the publicans do not receive all the money of these people, as the women of pleasure get their share of it too.
160.1.8
The two Directors of the Company, who came on board as soon as the anchor was cast, to give permission to the crew to go on shore, and appoint persons for the protection of the vessel, did me the honour to salute me at once, and I received many expressions of kindness from them. They ordered a collation to be served at the same time, and, drinking to my health, asked me if I had anything to complain of with regard to any of the officers of the vessel. I replied that on the contrary I had every reason to praise them, that they had all treated me with great civility, and that I gave thanks to the Vice-Admiral, to the captain, and to all the merchants of the vessel for the good friendship they had shown me during the voyage. For it should be stated that besides the Vice-Admiral we had a captain under him. The Directors told me that they were much pleased that I was satisfied with the treatment I had received, telling me that if I had any chests I had only to place my mark on them, and that they would take care to have them carried to the Company’s House at Middelburg, where I might come to claim them in four days. It required fully this time for them to discharge a part of what was in the vessel, which could not reach Middelburg with a full cargo. I thanked them for their goodwill, and, having placed my mark on my chests, left the vessel and went by land to Middelburg.
160.2.1
It was the year that the Chamber General was held there, for it is held for four years in sequence at Amsterdam, and two years at Middelburg. The reason of which is, that Amsterdam owns half the Company; Middelburg a quarter; and Rotterdam, Delft, Horne, and Encuse each a sixteenth; the Company not being bound to hold the Chamber in either of these four last, which only make up one-fourth, and have only the right to have a vessel each year between the four, one year at Rotterdam, one year at Delft, and similarly the others. For the same reason Amsterdam has eight Directors, Middelburg four, and the other four towns each his own one; this makes the number sixteen, though they always speak of seventeen Directors, because the President has two votes.
160.2.2
On the fourth day of my arrival at Middelburg I went to the India House, where I found two of the Directors, who were already engaged in delivering the chests to those to whom they belonged, and as soon as they saw me they told me to claim mine; this I did, at the same time handing them the keys of my boxes, so that they might see for themselves whether I carried anything which was contraband. Of these two gentlemen one was from Zealand, and the other from Horne, and the latter took the keys to open my boxes. But the Zealand Director, more civil than he of North Holland, told him I was free, that I was not subject to the Company, and that it had afforded me a free passage. My keys were at once returned to me, and one of the people of the store was ordered to summon some sledges, which are used in Holland instead of waggons, in order to convey my chests. I may say in passing, that it is not only on this occasion that I have remarked that the more one approaches the north the less one meets with civility and honesty among the inhabitants, and that manners follow the harshness and roughness of the climate. The very same evening the Directors did me the honour to send one of their officers to invite me to dine with them on the following day.
160.2.3
Many persons interested in the Company were at the repast, and I believe that they were there less for the good cheer than to hear me talk, thinking that I might know many things in regard to the private trade which the representatives of the Company engage in, in India. They were not mistaken; and I may say that no one could be better informed than I was of the methods which these agents, who have the management of the factories in Persia and India, practise in order to enrich themselves. For they never return to Holland empty-handed, and when they take but 100,000 or 150,000 florins they count it a poor thing. I have known many of them who have amassed up to 600,000 and 700,000 florins; as, for instance, among others the Sieur Nicolas Obrechit, who was chief of the Dutch factories both at Ispahan and Hormuz and other places in Persia, during the years from 1635 to 1640. Those who were his friends and had done trade with him estimated that he carried away more than 15,000 tomans, which are equal to about 690,000 livres, without estimating what he had expended on the gout with which he was afflicted, and the other ailments which oftener arise from relationships with the courtesans of Persia, than from the trouble expended in packing silk, weighing it, examining its quality, and seeing whether it has any bad skeins mixed with the good. The Sieur Obrecht was well able to spend freely, for his profits were large, but such as are rarely permitted or approved of by honest people.
160.2.4
All the spices, sugar, and other goods of the Company are sold wholesale, generally at Hormuz or Gombroon, and amount in value, annually, to 15 or 16 tonnes of gold, each tonne being equal to 100,000 guilders, which are equivalent in our money to 120,000 livres, and the 16 tonnes of gold to 1,920,000 livres. The Sieur Obrecht did not sell all these goods without receiving annually for himself, 80,000 or 100,000 guilders, which the Persian merchants presented to him, underhand, through the broker, so that he might allow the goods to be sold at a low price. But he was not the inventor of this fine means of enriching himself, others practised it before him, and since his time others have employed it, especially the Sieurs Constant and Van Wijk. Moreover, there is also the profit that these gentry make on silk. It is true that for some years past the Company has not esteemed Persian silk so highly as it did formerly, because it has not so great a sale in Japan as it would have had if the trade had continued as it was in the years 1636 and 1637. All the chiefs of the factory who succeeded Obrecht could (not?) have made as much as he did; for in the two above-named years silk was dear in Japan, because the people of China and Tonquin being then at war with the Dutch, the latter prevented them from trading with Japan; and the Chinese and Tonquinese could not obtain silk except through the hands of the Dutch.
160.2.5
Whatever it may cost they must have it to clothe themselves with, as they use no other materials for their garments. It was in these two years, 1636 and 1637, that the Obrechit filled his purse; for instead of 500 or 600 bales of silk, which is the most they receive from the King of Persia, the General of Batavia and his Council wrote to him that whatever the price he must send them 2000 loads. I have alluded, in the first volume of my history, to the agreement made between the King of Persia and the Dutch Company; and I have also made mention, in connection with this subject, of the small success of the negotiation of the Ambassadors of Holstein, of which the Secretary of that embassy has without doubt not boasted in the account which he has given to the public. Therefore, for fear of wearying the reader, I shall not repeat it here, and I shall only ask him to remember that the arrival of these Ambassadors, which caused apprehension and jealousy among the Dutch, was the cause that the latter raised the price of silk so much that they removed all desire in other nations to outbid them. Thus Obrechit, having then received an order from Batavia for 2000 loads of silk, irrespective of cost, and this quantity being all that Persia could supply, as he was shrewd and loved profit beyond all things, he succeeded so well in intriguing with the Armenians and other merchants in Persia that he obtained the 2000 loads of silk which had been ordered.
160.2.6
It is true that beyond the 500 or 600 loads which the Dutch receive from the King, according to the agreement made between his Majesty and the Company, Obrechit was obliged to pay at a high rate for the others ; and he bought them from the Armenians, who sold them to him at the same rate as those they had sold to Aleppo and Smyrna. During these two years there was not a single load of silk for which he did not place 4 tomans in his purse, and he said some loads cost him 60 tomans. It was represented to him that it would be better not to send so large a quantity of silk, as it was so dear, and that the merchants of the country, both Christians and Muhammadans, were laughing at him ; but he only replied that he must obey the Company’s order. One day when I was alone with him we were talking together about my travels, and he told me how astonished he was, seeing that I understood the greater part of the trade of Asia, that I took so much trouble in my long journeys ; that I should do much better by serving the Company, and that if I wished he would send me to the diamond mines on its account ; but I believe it would have been on his own. When I had thanked him for his goodwill, and told him I had no such intention, he replied that I did not know what I was refusing, that I would derive great profit, and that in his factory, with a scratch of the pen, or by changing a figure, he obtained what he wished.
160.2.7
I replied to him that on three or four occasions my horoscope had been cast, and on all occasions it had been agreed that I should live to a good age ; and so, if I was able to acquire wealth, I desired to acquire it honestly and by my labour, as God had ordained for me, in order to be able to possess it with greater security and comfort to my soul for the remainder of my days, and that my heirs might enjoy it peaceably. If we were not to act in this way, replied he, we should be miserable ; for the wages the Company gives us would not suffice to clothe us. On my return from one of my voyages I went to see him at a village bearing his name, situated one league from the Hague. I saw him ill in bed, and suffering from several diseases, and I believe that he often then recalled to mind what I had said to him at Ispahan.
160.3.1
I must now return to the Directors and the members of the Company with whom I dined at Middelburg. Most of them desired that I should inform them of the manner in which the agents of the Company behaved in Persia and India, and the others asked me to speak of my travels. I preferred to satisfy the latter, and avoided all reference to trade. It is true that if I had not had some suspicion of the deception which they played me subsequently, I would possibly have told them many things from which they might have derived benefit. For in the space of the forty years during which I have often visited Persia and India, there have been few persons in the service of the Company who have not told me of all the tricks they made use of in order to acquire money. In return for this confidence, when they were about to return home, I endeavoured to furnish them with a good parcel of diamonds, which occupy but little space. If then I had declared to these gentlemen what I knew of this matter, they would have gained much in studying the record I should have given, and by discovering the knavery of their servants, and by doing rightly by me, their conscience would not be charged as it is, concerning the 17,500 florins which General Vanderlin and his Council seized from me at Batavia.
160.3.2
That which astonishes me most is, as I have elsewhere remarked, that when the General and his Council took from me the value of these 17,500 florins, they made a hundred promises that I should be paid immediately I set foot in Holland, but this was not done in spite of all the steps I could take for its accomplishment. For when leaving the feast that was given at Batavia on the departure of the fleet, I took four witnesses of the fact, namely, our Vice-Admiral and three merchants, to whom, when taking leave of the General and Council, I said aloud in their presence that they would be my witnesses if God permitted us to arrive in Holland or Zealand, and would remember that the General and his Council did not give me on my departure that which they had promised, namely, an order which I could show to the Directors of the Company, by which they would see that 17,500 florins were due and payable to me on my arrival. The General’s response was to take a glass of wine and wish me a pleasant journey, assuring me that the order would arrive in Holland before me. The Directors, to justify their refusal to pay me, told me that the General and his Council had written nothing to them concerning the matter, and that when they received an advice of it they would at once pay it.
160.3.3
I was at length obliged to bring an action against them which lasted two years, before I was able to find, either at Amsterdam or the Hague, a notary who would serve a summons, every one fearing them, as they were both judges and parties to the suit. During these two years I often entered their assembly, where they always gave me some hope, but in reality they were laughing at me. I have hardly ever been deceived when looking a man in the face, as I know almost exactly what is in his mind. I remarked that many of these men had the appearance of loving their own interests and caring little for those of others, and among others there was a young man who represented Encuse, who gazed earnestly at me. After having looked at me for some time he asked why I had been at Batavia, where strangers have no business. I replied to him that all these gentlemen were sufficiently acquainted with it, and that as he was the only one who did not know, his beard was too young to oblige me to explain to him. As their procedure annoyed me, and I was enraged at seeing myself treated so unjustly, I added in speaking to this young man that he would do better at Encuse selling his butter and cheese than where he was.
160.3.4
The President interrupted me gently, and told me that I must offend no one, to which I replied that I had seen too much to render an account of my doings in this manner, and that what I did at Goa and Batavia was at the request of the Chief of the factory at Vengurla, and solely for the purpose of rendering a service to the Company. This discourse being finished, the President asked me to go outside for a short time, which I did. Afterwards, having returned, he told me that he still knew nothing about the matter, and that all these gentlemen believed that I would not remain there, but would still make another journey to Asia, and as I praised the good treatment I had received on their vessels on my return voyage, they again offered me a passage, and would give orders that I should be treated even still better than before; that as soon as I arrived at Batavia I should be paid; that they would send an order to that effect to the General and his Council, and that I might embark on the first vessel which left for Surat or Hormuz, I thanked these gentlemen for all their fine offers, and told them that I preferred to make three journeys by land rather than one voyage by sea. In conclusion, at the end of five years the Directors wrote to my brother (for I had then returned to India) that if he was willing to take 10,000 livres in satisfaction of my claim, he might come to receive them. This my brother did, and he gave them a receipt in full.
160.3.5
I leave the reader to judge of the equity and conscience of these gentry. For either they owed me 17,500 florins or they did not. If they did not, why pay me 10,000 livres? And if they did owe me, why not pay me fully. I am not the only person to whom they have done injustice of this kind. I know many other more serious cases, the recital of which would not be to their advantage. Such was my return from India in the year 1649, the only time I returned by sea, having made, as I have said, all my Asiatic journeys by land, both when going and returning, counting as nothing the short passage in the Mediterranean; and my first journey was wholly by land, from Paris by Germany and Hungary to Constantinople, where I also went on the return from my last journey in the year 1669. From Constantinople I went to Smyrna, where I embarked for Leghorn, and from Leghorn I travelled by land to Genoa, from Genoa to Turin, and from Turin to Paris, where I took the King that beautiful parcel of diamonds of which I have spoken in the discourse on precious stones. His Majesty had the goodness to give me a very favourable reception, which was a glorious conclusion to my long journeys, in which I have always had for my primary object to spare nothing in order to make known to the great monarchs of Asia, that there is one grander than them all, in Europe, and that our King infinitely surpasses them both in power and glory.
160.3.6
My first thoughts on finding myself in Paris, on the return from my sixth journey, were to return thanks to God for having preserved me, during the space of forty years, among so many perils which I had run, by sea and land, in regions so far distant.