Travels in India (Tavernier) 35.1
Travels in India (Ball) 35.1
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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.