192 ARRIVAL OF THE SURAAG. [1696. 



at the end of my Eelation, and you'll find the Canticle I 

 speak of.^ 



The 6th of Sejotcmber 1696 the Vessel call'd Suraag arriv'd, 

 and brought Orders to carry us away. Our good and gene- 

 rous Friends, the Officers of the Perseverance, of whom I have 

 already spoken, were so kind as to present our Letters and 

 Tetition to the Directors-GeneraP in Holland,, so that when 

 the Governor found he could detain us no longer, he thought 

 fit to let us know what had happen'd. He told us of it first 

 himself, and bid us prepare to embark. "We expected that 

 according to Custom, when a Sliip arrives, an Assembly"^ 



' Vide infra. 



2 Directors-General. " The administration of the Dutch East India 

 Company is, in Holland, divided between six boards, or cJunnhcrs, 

 having session at different places, viz., cue at Amsterdam, which being 

 the most considerable, is called the presidial chamber ; this is composed 

 of twenty-four directors, of whom eighteen are chosen by the magis- 

 trates of Amsterdam, four by the cities of Dort, Harlem, Leijden, and 

 Gouda, and the two others by the provinces of Gelderland and Friseland; 

 besides these, there are four of the chief proprietors, who in certain 

 cases have session with the directors : the chamber of Middlehurgli is 

 the second in rank ; it has thirteen directors, twelve chosen by the 

 cities oi Zealand, and the thirteenth by the province of Gelderland .... 

 next the chamber of Ddft .... the chamber of Rotterdam .... that of 



Ham the chamber of Enkhidsen. . . . The places where these 



chambers assemble being all seaports, a certain number of ships is dis- 

 patched from each. . . . But the supreme and general direction of all 

 the affairs of the Company is vested in what is called the Assembly of 

 Seventeen, which consists of seventeen directors deputed, eight from the 

 chamber of Amsterdam, four from that of MiddleJnirgh, one from each 

 of the others, and one alternately by each of these four last. This 

 assembly meets three times a year, and is held for six following years 

 at Amsterdam, and the two ensuing years at Middlehurgli. . . . There is 

 likewise a council of the directors, which meets from time to time at the 

 Hague ; . . . being the medium through which the Company communi- 

 cates with the States-General." (Wilcocke, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 89-91.) 



3 Mauritius had been abandoned when Stavorinus visited the Dutch 

 colonies, but his account of the government of an out-station (Amboyna) 

 sufficiently indicates the procedure of the law : — " The council of 

 justice consists of the second, as president, and six members, who gene- 

 rally assemble every fortnight, in a lower apartment of the stadhouse 



