Travels in India (Tavernier) 35: CHAPTER XVI
Travels in India (Ball) 35
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CHAPTER XVI
35.1.1
Route from Goa to Masulipatam by Cochin, described in the history of the capture of that town by the Dutch. After the Dutch Company had despoiled the Portuguese of all they possessed in the island of Ceylon, they cast their eyes on the town of Cochin, in the territory of which the variety of cinnamon called bastard grows, as it had injured the sale of that of Ceylon. The merchants, finding that the Dutch valued their cinnamon at so high a price, began to buy that of Cochin instead, which they obtained very cheaply; and this cinnamon, as it gained a reputation, was carried to Gombroon, where it was distributed among the merchants who came from Persia, Great Tartary, Moscovie, Georgia, Mingrelia, and all the neighbourhood of the Black Sea. There was also a large quantity of it taken by the merchants of Bassora and Bagdad, which supplied Arabia, and by those of Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Constantinople, Roumania, Hungary, and Poland. In all the countries which I have named much cinnamon is consumed, for it is put either in pieces or in powder into the majority of dishes to heighten the flavour. When a dish of rice is served on the table, especially in Lent among the Christians, it is so covered with powdered cinnamon that one cannot recognise what it is, and the Hungarians exceed in this respect all other nations. As for the Turks and other Asiatics, they place the cinnamon in small pieces in their pillaus.
35.1.2
The army which was sent from Batavia to the siege of Cochin disembarked at a place called Belli-Porto, where there was a fort which the Dutch had made with palms. It is close to Kranganur, a small town which the Dutch had taken the previous year, without having conquered Cochin, upon which they had made some attempt. When the army landed it advanced within range of the guns of Cochin, and there was a river between it and the town. The place where the Dutch encamped was called Belle Epine, and having entrenched themselves as far as the nature of the place permitted, they put some batteries in position which could not injure the town, because they were too far from it. They remained in this position until reinforcements came, for three ships only had arrived, and he who commanded these first troops was one of the bravest captains of his time. A few days after the Governor of Amboyna arrived with two ships, and afterwards a Dutch captain brought a number of Chinglas, who are the people of the island of Ceylon. For the forces of the Dutch in India would not be so considerable as they are if they did not make use of the people of the country, with whom they augment the troops which are brought from Europe. Those of the island of Ceylon are good for the trenches, but for an attack they are useless. Those of Amboyna are good soldiers, and 400 of them who came were left at Belle Epine.
35.1.3
The bulk of the army re-embarked, and landed near Cochin in the vicinity of a church dedicated to St. André, where the Portuguese with some Malabaris awaited the Dutch with resolution. When they saw that the enemy landed without any fear they fired a discharge and then fled, but as they only aimed at the boats the Dutch did not lose many men. The Dutch seeing some companies of Portuguese marching on the sea-coast, and others farther inland in the direction of a church which was called St. Jean, ordered some horsemen to go to reconnoitre them, but the Portuguese had fled and had set fire to the church, abandoning all to the Dutch. The latter then approached the town, and a French soldier named Christofle, who was in their pay, seeing a basket attached to a rope which was hung from a bastion, went boldly to see what it had inside, without fearing musket shots. But he was much surprised when he found that it was a poor famished infant which the mother had placed there in order to escape the sorrow of seeing it die of hunger, — for already some time had elapsed since the Dutch had commenced the siege of Cochin, and since any food had entered the town. The soldier, smitten with compassion, took the infant and gave it of whatever he had to eat, at which the General of the army was so indignant, saying that the soldier should have left the infant to die, that he assembled the council of war, and proposed that he should be shot.
35.1.4
This was very cruel, and the Council, moderating the sentence, only condemned him to the lash. The same day ten men of each company were ordered to go to one of the houses of the King of Cochin, but they found no one there, and the previous year it had been pillaged. The Dutch then slew four kings of the country and 1600 blacks, and there escaped only one old Queen, who was taken alive by a common soldier named Van Rez, whom the General of the army promoted to be a captain at once, as a reward. They left a company in this house, but the Queen remained there only six days, as she was given into the custody of the Zamorin, who is the most powerful of the petty Kings of this coast, to whom the Dutch had promised that if they took the town of Cochin they would give him that of Kranganur, provided he was faithful to them. The Dutch then began to entrench themselves and to erect batteries, taking shelter under small forts made of palms, one laid upon another together with earth. They made one of them in the direction of the Church of St. Jean, which is near the sea, with a battery of four pieces of cannon ; and another in the direction of St. Thomas, where there was the hospital for the wounded, and close by that for the sick. They also made a battery of seven pieces of cannon and two mortars in a quarter called Calvetti. Sometimes they threw bombs, sometimes stones, and the stones did by far the most injury to the besieged.
35.1.5
This was the spot where the Dutch lost most men, especially at a small river where they tried to make a bridge with sacks full of clay, in order to be able to pass under cover, on account of a point of the bastion which impinged directly upon the river. The “Pepper House” is a large store surrounded by the sea, and there was no one then inside it. But when the Portuguese perceived that the enemy entertained the design of assaulting it they placed some men there with two guns ; this resulted in the bridge scheme being given up, and resort being had to other measures. Five weeks passed without anything important being accomplished, and the Dutch delivering an assault at night were vigorously repelled, and lost many soldiers through the fault of the Governor of Kranganur, who commanded them, and who was drunk when the attack was made. He was also among the prisoners taken by the Portuguese, and the Dutch General promptly caused the withdrawal in a boat of those soldiers who had survived the assault. Two months later he resolved to make another assault on the same place where the last attack had been made ; and in order to have more men he sent a large frigate to fetch those who were in the direction of Belle Épine. But by accident the frigate struck on a bank of sand and foundered, by which he lost many men. Those who knew how to swim landed near Cochin, not being able to land elsewhere ;
35.1.6
they were only about ten men, both soldiers and sailors, and the Portuguese made prisoners of them all. The General did not on this account relinquish his desire to deliver an assault, and having disembarked all the sailors, he gave to some short pikes, to others hand grenades, and to some swords, with the intention of making an attack on the following night. But a French lieutenant, named St. Martin, representing that if they made the assault by night they might in the darkness fall into the holes which the besieged might have made in the ramparts, and that by day they would run much less risk, his advice was followed and the General postponed the affair till the following day. As soon as the sun had risen he ranged his troops in battle order, and at about ten o’clock began the assault with four companies, each being of about 150 men. The Dutch lost many men in this last attack, and the Portuguese still more, for they defended themselves bravely, being aided by 200 soldiers of the Dutch army who had joined their side in revenge for having been kept out of six and a half months’ pay, in consequence of the loss of Touan ; this made them unwilling to serve the Dutch army longer. Without these soldiers, who constituted an important aid to the enemy, the town would not have held out for two months ; and he who defended it best was a Dutch engineer, who, on account of the bad treatment which he had received on his own side, was constrained to pass over to that of the enemy.
35.2.1
The Dutch, who had entered Cochin on the Calvetti side, and were already masters of a rampart, remained all night under arms; and on the following day the town capitulated, and was given up. The Portuguese came to carry off the bodies of some clerics who were dead; but as for the others, the Dutch had them all dragged to the river by the Chinese who were in their service—both the bodies of the Dutch as well as those of the Portuguese. The wounded were taken to the hospital, and those who had yielded embarked during the night with the engineer, passing without much noise between the ships of the Dutch, replying to those who asked them whence they came that they were commanded by the Dutch, and that they had orders for the ships to maintain a good look-out. This ruse served them well, and though the ships fired some cannon shots after them that did not prevent them from making their escape. The Portuguese, according to the terms of the capitulation, left Cochin with arms and baggage, but as soon as they were outside the gate of the town, where the Dutch troops were in order of battle, they were obliged to give up their arms and to place them at the feet of the General, with the exception of the officers, who kept their swords. The General had promised the soldiers the loot of the town, but not being able to keep his promise for reasons which he explained to them, he led them to hope that he would pay them six months’ wages ;
35.2.2
this a few days afterwards was reduced to eight rupees each. The Zamorin asked for the town of Kranganur, in accordance with the promise made to him, and it was given to him ; but first the General demolished all the fortifications and left him only the walls, at which the Zamorin was much displeased. The majority of those who were well were commanded to go to one of the petty Kings of this coast known as the King of Porakad to treat with him, and it was on this occasion that the Dutch General, who had formerly been, as I have said, a menial servant, showed himself to be of a cruel and barbarous nature. Four days had elapsed, during which the soldiers had been unable to obtain any food for money, and two of them having stolen a cow and slaughtered it, the General, as soon as he knew of it, hung one of them forthwith, and intended to shoot the other, but the King of Porakad saved his life.
35.2.3
The treaty having been concluded with the King of Porakad, the Dutch General held a review of all the survivors both of the sailors and the soldiers, and the number amounted to about 6000 persons, all the rest having died of disease or having been slain. A few days after he commanded some companies to go to lay siege to the town of Cannanore, which yielded at once without any resistance. When they returned the General had a crown made to place on the head of a new King of Cochin, the other having been driven away ; and on the day which he selected for this grand performance he seated himself on a kind of throne, at the foot of which a Malabari called Montani, conducted by two or three captains, placed himself on his knees to receive the crown from his hand and to take possession of a kingdom of very limited extent — that is to say, some small territories in the neighbourhood of Cochin. This General when coming from Holland had been ship’s cook, and this crowning of a miserable Malabari by the hands of a man who had more frequently brandished a pot-ladle than a sword, was without doubt a brilliant spectacle.
35.2.4
In the meantime the ships which had carried to Goa the Portuguese who had surrendered Cochin, returned laden with spoil. This was contrary to the terms of the capitulation, which provided that they should leave the place with arms and baggage, and be conducted to Goa without anything being taken from them. But as soon as they were at sea the Dutch took all that these poor people had, and having strictly searched both men and women, without any respect for sex, returned laden with booty. The General of the Dutch troops which came to the siege of Cochin having returned to Batavia, every one withdrew, and there remained only a sufficient number of men for the protection of the town. A Governor was sent from Batavia who overworked the soldiers in order to fortify the place, and he cut off the town from the gate of St. John to the Church of St. Paul, as also the whole quarter named Calvetti, because it was too extensive to be guarded. A short time after the siege, food became very cheap in Cochin, but that did not last long, for the Governor at once placed a duty on tobacco and various comestibles, so that there was only one man who dealt in them, and he fixed the price as he pleased. This Governor exercised great severity towards the soldiers; he kept them shut up in the town, where they were, so to speak, in a prison; and they could drink neither wine nor suri nor brandy, because the duties were excessive. This suri is a drink obtained from palms.
35.2.5
When the Portuguese held Cochin one could live better on 5 sols than under the Dutch with 10 sols, because the Portuguese did not burden the town with taxes. This Governor, I say, was so severe that for the least fault he banished a man to the island of Ceylon, to a certain place where bricks were made, sometimes for five or six years, and sometimes for life. But most frequently, when one is sent to this place, although the committal is only for a few years, he never leaves it again. There was in the garrison of Cochin a soldier of Aix in Provence named Rachepot, who, for having failed to reply to his name at roll-call, and for having delayed half a quarter of an hour longer than he should, was sentenced to mount the wooden horse for three days. It is a common punishment for soldiers who are guilty of an offence, and is a very severe one. This horse is so sharp on the back that, with the great weight of the spurs which they place on the feet of the victim, at the end of three or four hours he is altogether torn and mutilated. The poor Provençal, knowing that he had been sentenced to this punishment not for three hours but for three days, fearing that he would succumb, instead of giving himself up at the guard-house, concealed himself at the house of a Frenchman, one of his friends, who had been but a short time married. The married soldiers sleep three times a week at their own houses, but the others are obliged to sleep every night at the barracks.
35.2.6
The Governor, seeing that the Provencal did not appear, ordered a drum to be beaten throughout the town, and proclamation to be made that whoever would disclose the place where he was concealed would receive 100 piastres as his reward, and also that whoever kept him concealed without making a declaration would be certainly hung with him. The Provencal having received intimation of this threat, not wishing to ruin the Frenchman with whom he lodged, and having found means to entice five or six of his companions, who were not able to stand any more than he the severity of the Dutch General, escaped successfully on the following night, which was dark and rainy. They passed very close to a sentry, by whom they were not seen, the darkness and the rain being very favourable to them, and if he had said a word they were resolved to kill him. Having travelled all the night, they came to a small river near Porakad, but when the tide ascends this river it is wide and deep ; this obliged these poor soldiers to throw away their clothes, and to retain only their drawers, in order to swim across quickly, as they feared pursuit. Hunger beginning to oppress them, they realised at their leisure, which they had not done when taking flight, the danger they were in of dying ;
35.2.7
for not only did they not know the language of the country, but what was more vexatious, they had always to stay in the open, as the idolaters who inhabit all this part of India would not allow them even to touch the walls of their houses, through fear of being in consequence obliged to throw them down. The superstition of these idolaters goes so far that they dare not touch one another, except in time of war. When by accident they touch any one they are obliged to go at once and wash the body and dip three times in the water, otherwise they dare not eat, drink, nor enter their houses.
35.3.1
The Provençal and his companions met a Portuguese Jesuit Father, who asked them whence they came, and they told him all their misfortunes. Rachepot was more inconvenienced than all the others, having received a musket-shot in the thigh on the occasion of the last assault on Cochin, and the wound, which had not fully healed, having reopened on the road, it was impossible for him to travel without being cured of this wound, which had been insufficiently dressed ; and the Jesuit Father could give him no other aid than to write a word on his behalf in the Malabar language to the King of Godorme, upon a piece of palm leaf, whom the Dutch had driven from his country before they took Cochin. Rachepot, followed by his companions, went to him by the road which the Jesuit Father had indicated, and he was well received by him, and found there a Malabari who understood Portuguese. The King asked Rachepot if he would like to remain with him, and he replied that he was content to serve him, and that his companions, of whom he was, as it were, the chief, would serve him also, not wishing to be parted from one another. The King gave orders that the Provençal's wound should be carefully dressed, and a preparation of oil and butter was immediately applied, from which he experienced relief. The King made him come to him two or three times every day, sometimes to fire a musket, sometimes to wield a hand-pike, asking him much regarding the way they make war in Europe.
35.3.2
Sometimes he took pleasure in making him sing, but the unhappy Provençal could sing but sadly in consequence of the poor cheer which he received; the King having ordered so little for the support of himself and his companions, that it scarce sufficed to buy rice, and that of the blackest kind. But he was obliged to be patient, both to await the healing of his wound and in order to learn something of the Malabar language, without which it would be very difficult for them to traverse the country in order to reach Madras. For from Cochin up to the place where they were, they had experienced much difficulty in making themselves understood by signs, and in their greatest hunger the people of the country offered them nothing to eat but cocoanuts, which were insufficient to satisfy them. On the day of one of the local festivals the King summoned Rachepot and his companions, and in consequence of the festival presented them with four figs each, which he desired them to eat in his presence. The Malabaris told them that the King did them a great honour ; but the poor people, who had so little for their subsistence, would have preferred a measure of rice instead of these four figs. The people of that country go about quite naked, only wearing a cloth which covers their private parts. The King himself is in that respect like the least of his subjects, save that he wears a little gold in his ears.
35.3.3
Rachepot having been completely cured at the end of forty days, resolved to pass on with his companions, and they left one night without saying farewell to any one. They took their road to the south-east for Madras, where they wished to go ; and it is easy to believe that, being without money and only knowing a few words of the language, they suffered much during their journey. They lived on the charity bestowed upon them, and often when they arrived in the villages some of the idolaters fled from fear, because in these mountains they are not accustomed to see white men ; others, who were less timid, came near them and gave them the wherewithal to drink and eat ; and those who were most friendly took them into the neighbourhood in order to let their relatives and friends see them. When they had passed these mountains and began to enter the plain, they travelled in the woods for two and a half days without seeing any one ; and were convinced that they must die. To increase their misery they were attacked in these woods by great numbers of leeches which abound there, so that it became a necessity for them to run in order to give the leeches less time to attach themselves to their legs and thighs, where they assumed proportions sometimes larger than the hand. Thus they dared not rest in any place, but when they met a stream they plunged into the water, and removed the leeches which were attached to their bodies, from whence there flowed much blood in all directions ;
35.3.4
this made them weak and feeble, added to which, as I have said, they found no one to give them food. The leeches of this country are small and slender, and do not take to the water, but live in the grass. These poor people having walked in the woods the first day till two or three hours after nightfall, found a small river which had in the middle a small dry island, where they went to rest till day, not having to fear the leeches then, because they were surrounded by water. On the following day they pursued their journey with the same persecution from leeches, and slept at night close to a tree, where they found a kind of platform, made of wood and elevated about 4 or 5 feet from the ground, which, without doubt, some one had made to protect himself from the attacks of the leeches. This platform served them as camp for this second night, and, day having come, they were again on the road, and at length arrived by midday at a Pagoda, where there were many Brahmins or Banian priests, who, pitying their miserable condition, and having learnt from them that they had found nothing to eat for three days, gave them rice, fruit, and vegetables dressed with butter. But they gave it all from a distance, making a sign to them not to approach, as we do in Europe with the plague-stricken, to whom one throws charity on a handkerchief spread on the road, from which they stand aloof.
35.3.5
As the soldiers had been nearly three days without eating they forthwith took so much food that they all had fever on the following day, so that to cure themselves they had to fast afterwards, dieting being in India the sovereign remedy for all kinds of ills. After they had eaten they wished to pursue their way, but the Brahmins made them understand that the forest extended very far, and that the leeches would take their lives if they did not find some place to protect themselves from these insects, and advised them to remain there the whole night, and that the following day they should start early. This they did, according to their advice. This night heavy rain fell, and one of the Banian priests made a sign to them to follow him to his house. Having arrived there he made them enter a hole under the house, which he besought them not to touch ; and though he brought them food, they were unwilling to eat it for fear of increasing the fever with which they were attacked. When it was quite dark these poor people came out of the hole, and went out upon the terrace of the house in order to sleep more at their ease. To avoid being caught there they did not fail to return to the hole at break of day, and the Brahmin, master of the house, took them again to the Pagoda, where he ordered them to be given food.
35.3.6
He also made them rub their legs with a certain plant the odour of which the leeches could not bear, and gave to each a cloth which contained a kind of chalk of the size of an egg, telling them that when the leeches attached themselves to their legs they need only touch them with this cloth, and that they would fall immediately. It has been proved that salt and fire have the same effect, and the natives of the country, when passing through the places where they know there are leeches, always have a lighted brand in their hands. The soldiers, with the preventative which was thus given to them, travelled with more comfort, and were not tormented by leeches as before. They reached open country at 4 p.m., and passed close to a fortress which belonged to the Banians, who gave them vegetables to eat and whey to drink, — for no water is drunk in this country, as it is very unwholesome. The Banians directed them, as well as they could, on the road to Madras, which they had left in consequence of their having kept too much towards the south. By going more to the east they shortened their journey, and traversed a mountainous country, inhabited by Christians of St. John, of the religion of which I have spoken in my account of Persia when describing Bassora. In the year 1643 these Christians, both those of these mountains and those of Bassora, sent ambassadors to the Viceroy of Goa to obtain permission from him to go to dwell in the island of Ceylon.
35.3.7
They undertook to drive out the inhabitants of the country. But the Viceroy not promising to grant what they asked except on condition that they became Catholics, and they being unwilling to agree, the arrangement which they proposed did not come to pass. A Jesuit Father was sent from Goa to these Christians to work for their conversion, but as he made no progress he preferred to devote his cares to the idolaters, whose language he acquired so perfectly that he spoke it as if he had been born in the country. From time to time he converted some of them, whom he sent to Goa. This he was never able to accomplish with the Christians of St. John, who are thoroughly fixed in their views; and, having passed nearly forty years with the idolaters, who were unwilling that any one should touch either their persons or their houses, it is easy to conclude that he had suffered much during that time, and that no kind of life could be more austere than his. For he had to live like the idolaters, who eat nothing which has had life; and as he travelled from one place to another the food of these countries was insufficient to give him the strength necessary for the fatigues which he had to undergo.
35.4
Rachepot and his companions had the good fortune to meet, on their road one evening, this Jesuit Father, who for his part was much pleased to see them, and having asked them whence they came, they told him all that had happened at the siege of Cochin, the cruel treatment which they had received from the Dutch, and the misadventures of their journey. The Father advised them to go back to Goa, where they might find opportunities to return to Europe by taking service on Portuguese vessels; but seeing that they had resolved to go to Madras, he wrote down the route, not being able to indicate their stages beyond Gingi, a small town inhabited by Muhammadans, except by the miserable hamlets which exist on this route.
On the following day, at their departure, he exhorted them to be of good courage, and gave them 24 measures of rice, which was sufficient for five or six days. Having arrived at Gingi, which is but two or three stages from the place where they left the Jesuit Father, they met four Portuguese who had escaped from Cochin, when they were about to make the capitulation, and to hand over the town to the Dutch. These four unfortunates, who had become renegades, invited the newcomers to join the Muhammadans of Gingi, who asked them if they would serve them, offering them each three pagodas a month. In the extremity of their misery necessity would have compelled them to accept this offer, if they had not spoken at the same time of their being circumcised, and denying their faith; and from fear that they would be kept against their wills, they left quietly, and followed their journey bravely to Madras, which is ten days’ march from Gingi. They still suffered much during so long a journey, living on the charity bestowed upon them, and not being able to communicate save by signs. They were received hospitably at Madras by the Rev. Fathers Ephraim and Zenon, French Capuchins, and as their bodies were all black and burnt by the sun, after five or six days of rest all the skin peeled off them, from which they suffered much.
The English had the kindness to offer them a passage upon one of their vessels which was returning to Europe, but Rachepot allowed his companions to go, and decided to return by land himself, after having rested nearly two months at Madras. During this time the Capuchin Fathers found a means to enable him to earn more than 100 écus, and three suits of clothes with the necessary linen, by the sale of little rings of horse-hair, which he knew how to make very skilfully. He worked devices and letters on them, and these rings were much approved of by the Mestive Portuguese, who never see anything of great value, so that some of them gave a gold ducat for each ring.
Rachepot having saved money, as I have said, went by land from Madras to Surat, from Surat to Agra, and from Agra to Delhi, where I arrived some time after on my last voyage to India. As I saw he was in want, I took him into my service, and I lent him, too, some money on my departure, which has never been repaid to me. It is from him that I learnt all the details of the voyage which I have recounted, but I have also known fifteen or twenty other persons who have taken the same route when going from Goa to Cochin, and from Cochin to Madras.
It is fairly short, and there is no lack of food and good water, but it has otherwise, as I have said, many inconveniences, which are, that it is very little frequented ; the almost inevitable persecution by the leeches is one of the principal, and the superstition of the Banians, not allowing any one to touch their persons nor their houses, is one of the most troublesome, and even if one takes water from their tanks they destroy them immediately, and do not use them any more ; this is the reason why some of the priests always guard them.