Chap. II. from J. B. Tavernier. 84 1 
Middle of every Skain fomething to add to the Weight •, 
the fecond is, by not giving good Weight, when the 
Broker receives it from the Workmen, or Merchant that 
delivers it. There is but one Cheat in the Quality 4 that is, 
by putting three or four Skains of a coarfer Commodity 
than that which is uppermoft, into one Mein, which in a 
great Quantity, mounts high, for there are fome Cottons 
that are worth an hundred Crowns the Mein. Thefe two 
Cheats being often ufed by the Butch Company, there is 
no Way but to weigh your Commodity in the Prefence of 
the Dutch Commander, and his Council, and to examine 
every Mein Skain by Skain ; when this is done, they who 
are ordered to be at this Examination, are obliged to fix to 
every Bail a Ticket of the Weight and Quality ; for if 
there be a Failure, they who fix the Ticket are obliged to 
make good what is wanting. I have told you, that when 
the Workmen have made up the Indigo Pafte into Lumps, 
with their Fingers dipped in Oil, they lay them in the Sun 
a drying. Now thofe that have a Defign to cheat the Mer- 
chants, dry them in the Sand, to the End, that the Sand 
Licking to the Indigo, may increafe the Weight. Some- 
times they lay up their Pafte in moift Places, which makes 
it give, and confequently renders it more heavy , but if the 
Governor of the Place difcovers the Cheat, he makes them 
feverely pay for it •, and the beft way of Difcovery is, to 
burn, fome Pieces of Indigo, for the Sand will remain. 
The Brokers are, as it were, the Matters of the Indian 
Families, for they have all Goods at their Difpofah The 
Workmen chufe the moft aged, and moft experienced, who 
are to endeavour equal Advantages for the whole Tribe 
they undertake for i every Evening that they return from 
their Bufinefs, and that, according to the Cuftom of the 
Indians , who make no Suppers, they have eaten fome 
little Pieces of Sweet-meats, and drank a Glafs of Water, 
the eldeft of the Tribe meet at the Broker’s Houfe, who 
gives them an Account of what he has done that Day, and 
then they confult what he is to do next. Above all things 
they caution him to look to his Hits, and to cheat, rather 
than be cheated. 
We will clofe this Section with a remarkable Paffage re- 
lating to our Author’s perfonal Hiftory, which is very wor- 
thy the Reader’s Notice, though it does not immediately 
relate to Trade, the rather, becaufe the Tranflation that 
has been publilhed of his Travels, gives us but a very indif- 
ferent Account of it, notwithftanding the Author has taken 
great Pains to relate it very circumftantially, as he thought 
it would give a true Pidture of the Nation it concerns. In 
the Month of April 1665, he embarked at Gambron in 
Terfia , for Sural in the Indies , on Board a Butch Packet 
Boat •, which Opportunity the Englijh Agent took to charge 
him with a large Packet of Letters for the Englifo Prefident 
at Surat , in which alfo were included fuch as belonged to 
private Perfons in that Fadlory, and in other Places of the 
Indies. This Circumftance was taken Notice of by one 
Mr. Cafembrot , a Dutchman , who had travelled through 
Terfia by Land, and was to go in the fame Veffel with our 
Author to Surat , and he communicated this Piece of Intel- 
ligence to Mr. Henry Van-Wuck , who was then the Butch 
Chief at Gambron , and he immediately formed a Projedt 
for ftealing this Packet, in order to difcover the State of 
the Englijh Affairs •, but in the firft place went on Board the 
Ship, and enquired of our Author, if he had any fuch 
Packet, who very innocently told him the Truth. After 
having thus opened the Matter, and obferved that the 
Dutch Captain and Pilot were in the Secret, we fhall purfue 
the Account in the Author’s own Words: Mr .Cafembrot, 
fays he, having feen the Size of the Packet, gave Van- 
Wuck a Defcription of it, and fo both together they con- 
trived another of the fame Form and Bignefs, as near as they 
could. When I came on Board I took the Englifo Packet, 
and locked it up in my Boucha, which is the fort of Cloak- 
bag that is ufed in that Country, and laid it behind my 
Bolfter. There were two Shallops fent on Board ns, wherein 
there were fixty Bags of Silver, containing fome fifty, fome 
an hundred Tomans apiece. Thefe Bags they unladed 
very leifurely to gain Time, watching when I fhould be 
gone to Bed ^ but when they faw that I did not go to reft, 
the Butch confuked together, and agreed to let fall a Bag 
N U M i, 56, 
of Tomans into the Sea, and fo came all aboard, fendirU 
away a Shallop to Gambron for a Diver. When I found 
that the Veffel would not fet fail, till two or three Hours 
after Day-light, I went to reft, my Boucha lying in the 
fanae'Tlace half out, and half withinfide of my Bottler ; but 
when my Servants were gone, and I alone, and afleep in the 
Cabin, they cunningly ftole my Boucha, took out the Eng- 
lijh Packet, and left the other, which they had counter- 
feited, in the Place, being only fo many Letters of blank 
Paper. Coming to Surat the 6th of May following, 1 gave 
the Packet, as I thought, which I had received from the 
Englifo Agent at Gambron , to two Capuchin Friars, to de- 
liver to the Prefident at Surat •, but when the Prefident 
came to open the Packet before feveral of the Company, 
there was nothing but white Paper made up in the Form 
of Letters, which when I heard, too much to my Sorrow, 
I underftood the villanous Trick that Van-Wuck Tad put 
upon me. 
I wrote a fmart Letter of Complaint to the Butch Ge- 
neral in Batavia , but finding no Redrefs, I was forced to 
undergo the hard Cenfure of the Englijh , who would not 
permit me to juftify myfelf. However, as it is rare to fee 
Treachery go unpunifhed, the Complotters all died mi- 
ferably, Van-Wuck fell into a violent Fever, and being 
charged with the Theft, thinking to defend himfelf with an 
Equivocation, faid, that if he took the Cloak-bag, he wifhed 
he might die without fpeaking a Word. In three Days ended 
his Life, juft in the fame manner, and at the fame time 
that he had imprecated upon himfelf-, Bozan , his Lieutenant, 
after a great Debauch, going to fleep upon the Terrafs of 
the Cabin, where he lay for Coolnefs (there being no Balu- 
fters) rolling and tumbling in his Sleep, fell down, and the 
next Day was found dead in the Sea. The Captain, four 
or five Days after his Arrival at Surat, being met in the 
Streets by a Mohammedan , who was jealous of his Wife, 
and being miftaken by him for one among feveral Franks 
that had parted them, and kept him from corredting his 
Wife fome few Days before, was ftabbed by him in three 
or four Places with a Dagger, which killed him outright ; 
and this was the End of thefe treacherous People. 
23. We may gather from this remarkable Paffage the 
Reafon why our Author had always a ftrong Diflike to the 
Butch for it is not probable, that after fuch a Tranfadtion, 
they could either forget him, or he them ; but it feems not 
a little ftrange, that this Account fhould be fo much fof- 
tened in the Englijh TranOation, and no Notice taken that 
the Perfon who did him this Injury was the Butch Chief 
at Gambron , to whom he was particularly recommended, 
and a long Letter likewife omitted, which he wrote to the 
Butch Governor at Batavia. In a Work like this, where 
we profefs to make a Collection of Voyages and Travels, 
fuch Pieces ought to be left out, as refer only to particular 
Men j but the Rule is certainly otherwife, in Reference to 
Books that are given to the W r orld as exprefs Tranflations ; 
for which Reafon I am inclined to think, that there is fome- 
thing myfterious in this Omifiion, and that the Author of tire 
Englijh Tranflation was a better Friend to the Butch than 
M. Tavernier , and therefore did not think fit to truft fuch 
an unlucky Story as this with an Englijh Reader, efpecially 
at that Jundture ; for this Verfion of our Author’s Travels 
was publifhed in the Reign of King Charles II. not long 
after the Clofe of the laft Butch War. 
I am the rather inclined to think this, becaufe, at the 
End of the fifth Book of M. Taverniers Travels, there is 
a very curious Relation of a grofs Affront offered to King 
Charles II. by the Dutch Fadlory at Gambron , who burnt 
his Pidture in the moft ignominious Manner, which is alfo 
left out in the Englijh Tranflation, and of which the Reader 
fhall, God willing, have an exadt Verfion in the fucceed- 
ing Volume of this Work. At prefent, it is fufficient that 
we mention thefe things, becaufe they will ferve to explain 
feveral Paffages in the fucceeding Sedlion, which contains 
the Remainder of our Author’s Indian Obfervations, toge- 
ther with an Account of his Return by Batavia in a Butch 
Ship to Europe , in which occur a Multitude of curious Cir- 
cumftances, and many remarkable Paffages, in refpedl to 
the Hiftory and Trade of the Indies , that are no where elfe 
to be found, 
19 E 
SECT. 
