Travels in India (Tavernier) 160.1.4

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.