Travels in India (Tavernier) 43.2

43.2

I have also sought on all occasions to serve them, and especially when I went to the mine, by purchasing diamonds for them with private money of which they did not wish the Company to know anything, because it is forbidden to them to embark in private trade, and moreover they understood but little about the purchase of precious stones. But although these small services which they asked me to render them had been without profit, that did not save me from being subjected one day, on account of one of them, to some unpleasantness at Batavia, from which I did not escape without trouble, as I shall hereafter describe in the sequel of my history. I have also been very careful in all the places where the Dutch have settlements, and where I made any sojourn, to contribute as far as possible to the amusement of their ladies. As I never came from Persia to India without bringing good wine and fine fruits, and always had some one with me who understood cooking better than the Dutch in India, and knew how to make good soup and to bake, I entertained them often with collations, where pigeons in pyramids, flavoured with pistachios, were not lacking. All the amusements of the country, which I have sufficiently described, followed these small collations; and the ladies gave me to understand that they were much pleased with these parties, to which I invited them with their husbands.