Travels in India (Tavernier) 21.3.4

21.3.4

On the 15th [January] I showed him my goods, and presented to the Prince, his son, a watch having a case of enamelled gold, a pair of pistols inlaid with silver, and a telescope. All this which I gave, both to the father and to the young lord of about ten years of age, cost me more than 5000 livres. On the 16th I agreed with him as to the price of my goods, and afterwards I went to his Vizir to receive my bill of exchange payable at Kásimbázár. Not that he was unwilling to pay me at Dacca, but the Dutch, who were more experienced than I, warned me that there was risk in carrying silver to Kásimbázár, where one cannot go except by reascending the Ganges, because the land route is very bad and full of jungle and swamps. The danger consists in this, that the small vessels which one employs are very subject to be upset by the least wind, and when the sailors discover that one carries money, it is not difficult for them to make the boat upset, and to recover the silver afterwards, at the bottom of the river, for the purpose of appropriating it.