The Seventeenth Century 31 



inviolablement observée, d'obhger les mousses à se donner le fouet les uns 

 aux autres, & par là finir la fête: mais aujourd'hui on etoit las; & les mousses 

 ont eu répit jusqu'au premier calme, qu'ils seront foiietez d'importance pour 

 faire venir le vent. 



( Chois/, Journal, p. 31-32. ) 



This voyage of Chevalier Chamnont to Siam and China on behalf of France is one more step in 

 the constant struggles at that time by France, the Netherlands and Britain for temporal control, 

 clerical expansion and for colonies in the Far East. Tachard, a Jesuit father, and the Abbé Choisi 

 (or Choisy) give us two accounts; the latter with more detail of the proceedings. Both teU how 

 Chaumont, the Ambassador, frowned on possible approaches to sacred rites; both emphasize the 

 favoring of the ceremony by the officers and crew alike for raising money for the crew by means 

 of buying freedom from the ducking by a contribution of cash. Choisy is the first to tell how the 

 cabin boys' part is delayed till the next calm, when they get a good whipping to bring on a 

 favorable wand. 



Does the trembling old man suggest adoption of an element from northern folklore? 



The two ships carrying the party sailed from Brest March 3, 1685. Johann Gottlieb Worm's 

 Ost-lndian und Persianische Reisen (Frankfurt, 1745), as quoted later, harks back to Tachard 

 and Chaumont as authority for saying the rite is purely commercial or financial. 



1690 



[Sailing from Brest 24 February 1690] We made great way the first three or 

 four days [after leaving Cape Verde], but the winds begirming to slack as we 

 approacht the heats of the Line, we did not sail so fast as before; being now 

 Passion, or the Holy-week, Father Tachard would omit nothing of the holy 

 exercises practis'd at this time, we sung the Tenebra, we hear'd Sermons, 

 and tho' at sea perform'd all the duties of Christians who have more con- 

 veniency . . . 



In the mean time we insensibly approacht the Line, the passing of which I 

 don't admire people should dread so much, we had nothing now but faint 

 winds, very inconstant, and almost continual Calms . . . 



The way we made this night brought us considerably nearer the Line; 

 which we long'd to pass, almost quite spent with the intoUerable heats we 

 had endured for fiefteen [sic] days time; only those rains which fell helpt to 

 abate the rageing heats, and were a great relief to us; at length, after a great 

 deal of them, accompanied with Thunder and Lightnings Sunday the ninth 

 of April at ten a clock in the morning we past the Lüie, which we so im- 

 patiently long'd for. 



Here the Mariners use an execrable custom of a mock Baptism, which is 

 fitter to be condemned with the utmost severity than describ'd. 



( [Abraham Duquesne, the younger] . A new voyage to the East Indies in 

 the years 1690 and 1691. London: for Daniel Dring, 1696. p. 22-26.) 



One more example of clerical disapproval of the ducking. Note imder 1654 that Dutertre made 

 no objection to it, and in 1685 "Monsieur l'Ambassadeur ne voulut pas qu'on fit aucune des 

 cérémonies qui ont quelque rapport aux choses saintes." 



