Travels in India (Tavernier) 29.5

29.5

Thus it is not so much for commerce as for supplies which can be got at Vengurla, that the Dutch Company maintain an establishment there. For, as I have said, not only all the vessels which come from Batavia, Japan, Bengal, Ceylon, and other places, and those which sail for Surat, the Red Sea, Hormuz, Bassora, etc., both in going and returning, anchor in the roads at Vengurla, but also when the Dutch are at war with the Portuguese, and are blockading the bar at Goa, where they ordinarily keep eight or ten vessels, they send their small boats to Vengurla to obtain provisions. For they hold the mouth of the river during eight months of the year, and nothing can enter Goa by sea during that time. It should be remarked in connection with this subject that this bar at Goa is closed for a part of the year by sand, cast up here by the south and west winds which precede the great rains, and to such an extent that there is only from a foot to a foot and a half of water for the passage of very small boats. But when the great rains begin to fall, the waters, which increase every hour, remove the sands and open the passage to large vessels.