l693-] ^N INSIGNIFICANT GUM. 153 



Bargain, only he kept two or three small pieces out of 

 Curiosity. 



Next day somebody having informed him that this insig- 

 nificant^ Gum was really Amber-greece, he went, in all hast, 

 to the Gold-smith to demand the lump of Pitch again of 

 him ; but he answer'd, he had pitch'd his Pails with it, and 

 therefore could not restore it to him. This occasion'd great 

 Heats, and they parted with a great deal of Anger, the 

 former threatening the latter, to complain of him to the 

 Governor. Now, as the Gold-smith that bought this Amber- 

 greece, had several times found of it at Isle Maurice^ and 

 knew that the Inhabitants were forbid either to buy or sell 

 it under severe Penalties, being obliged to carry all they got 



1 In orig. : " pretendue mechante gomme." 



2 Some islets off the north-east coast of Mauritius bear the name of 

 les lies d'Ambre. The value attached to ambergris by Leguat is doubt- 

 less due to the fact of its being a highly esteemed article of trade in the 

 17th century. It is mentioned among the products of the Japanese 

 archipelago, and it was imjDorted into Siam by the Dutch. Thos. Pitt, 

 writing in 1699, from Fort. St. George, Madras, says that "a very 

 stately piece Ambergriese, upwards of 800 oz.", had been sent from 

 Batavia. Cf. Hedges' Diary (Rakl. Soc), iii, 49; English Intercourse 

 with Slam, Tiiibner's Oriental Series, pp. 21, 96 ; and Francis Pyrard 

 de Laval tells us how, in the Maldives, "All wreck found on the 

 sea-shore is immediately brought to the King, for no Subject dares 

 to keep it ; no more than Ambergreese, called by the Maldivians 

 Gonien, which is more plentiful here than in any part of the Indies, and 

 which is so narrowly looked after, that whoever appropriates it to his 

 own use loses a Hand." Cf. his Voyage (Hakl. Soc), vol. i, p. 231, and 

 see Mr. Gray's note, Hid. 



" On this shore there used to be washed a good deal of beautiful 

 Amber, the price of which had been fixed before at two Rix dollars and a 

 bottle of arak per ounce ; but as Herr Lamotius bid five Rix dollars for 

 the ounce, he obtained a piece of six pounds, and afterwards many other 

 pieces which were pretty heavy. They thus entered into an agreement 

 with some Burghers, on account of the Company, and to clinch the 

 bargain these made the Company a present of one pound. This lasted one 

 or two years that the Amber was delivered to the Company, according 

 to the agreement ; but afterwards they themselves begged to be released 

 from it." (Valentyn, o^j. cit., p. 153.) 



