Travels in India (Tavernier) 160.1
Travels in India (Ball) 160.1
- Language
- English
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.