Chap. II. from J. B. Tavernier. 849 
aboard, to feed upon this Sorrel, which purged them in 
fuch a manner, that in a few Days they become fo fat, that 
by that Time we came to Holland they were hardly to be 
eaten. That Sorrel has the fame Operation upon the Men, 
who boiling their wild Swines-Fiefh, Rice and Sorrel to- 
gether, make thereof a kind of Pottage, fo excellent, that 
it keeps their Bodies open, by an infenfible Purgation. 
There are two Places upon the Coaft of St. Hcllens where 
Ships may come to an Anchor •, but the beft is that where 
we lay, by reafon the Ground is very good, and becaufe 
the Water that falls from the Mountains is the beft in the 
Ifland. In this Part of the Wand there is no Plain, for the 
Mountain defcends to the very Shore of the Sea. It is not 
fo good anchoring in the other Road •, but there is a very 
handfome Plain, where you may fow or reap whatever you 
pleafe. There are great Store of Citrons, and fome Oran- 
ges, which the Portugueze had formerly planted there ; for 
that -Nation have that Virtue, that wherever they come they 
make the Place the better for thole that come after them, 
whereas the Butch endeavour to deftroy all things when- 
ever they fet Footing. I confefs the Commanders are not 
of that Humour ; but the Seamen and Soldiers are, who cry 
one to another, we fhall never come here any more, and, 
out of Greedinefs, will cut down a whole Tree inftead of 
gathering the Fruit. 
Some Days after their Arrival, came in a PortuguezeVeffe 1 
-from Guinea , full of Slaves, who were bound for the Mines 
of Peru , fome of the Dutch that underftood the Language 
of the Negroes, told them how miftrably they would be ufed, 
and thereupon the next Night two hundred and fifty of 
them threw themfelves into the Sea ; and indeed, it is a 
miferable Slavery ; for fometimes after they have undermin- 
ed fome Places for fome Days together, the Earth being 
loofe, falls down, and kills four or five hundred at a time ; 
befides that, when they have been mining a-while, their 
Faces, their Eyes, and their Skins change Colour, which 
proceeds from the Vapours that arife from thofe Concavities *, 
nor could they fubfift in thofe Places, but from the Quan- 
tity of ftrong Water which they give both to the Men and 
"Women. There are fome that are made free by their Ma- 
ilers, who labour, however, for their Living •, but between 
Saturday Night and Monday Morning, they fpend all their 
Wages in ftrong Water, which is very dear, fo that they 
always live miferably. 
Being ready to depart the Ifland of St. Hellens , the Ad- 
miral called a Council, to advife which Way to fteer ; the 
greateft Part were for fleering more to the Weft than to 
the South, becaufe the Seal'on for failing was far fpent •, and 
for that, if we fteered towards the Weft, we Ihould find 
the Wind more proper to carry us into Holland but we 
had no fooner paffed the Line, but we found the Wind 
quite contrary to what the Mariners expedled, fo that we 
were forced to fteer to the fixty-fourth Degree of Altitude 
with the Ifland, and fo return by the North into Holland. 
17. The next Day after the Admiral had called a Council, 
we weighed Anchor, and fet Sail about ten o’Clock at 
Night. Three Days after our Departure from St. Hellens , 
the Seamen were called very duly to Prayers Morning and 
Evening, though all the Time we flayed in the Road they 
never minded any fuch Matter, which made me wonder to 
find they Ihould be more devout when they were out of 
Danger than when they were in Jeopardy. After feveral 
Days failing, we difcovered the Coaft of Iceland , and then 
the Ifland of Terella , where we joined with the Dutch Fleet 
that flayed for us. Here it is that the Commander in chief 
calls to an Account all the Mariners for their Mifdemea- 
nors during the whole Voyage. Our Ship was bound for 
Zealand , but we were forced to lie out to Sea feven Days 
before we could get into Flujhing , before the Sand had 
changed its Place. 
Coming to an Anchor before Flujhing , two of the Direc- 
tors of the Company came a-board to welcome us home, and 
to advife us to lock our Chefts, and put our Marks upon 
them for all Chefts are carried into the Eafl- India Houfe, 
where, when the Owners come for them, they are ordered 
to open them, left they fhould have any contraband Goods 
therein •, thereupon I fet a Mark upon my Chefts, and went 
afhore, after I had given a good Charader of the Captain, 
Numb.- 57. 
and his Civility to me all the V oyage, and thence proceed- 
ed by Land to Middlehurgh. 
Four Days after I came to Middlehurgh I went to fetch 
my Chefts, and finding the two Diredors there, one a Zea- 
lander, the other of Horn, who came firft a-board us, I 
produced my Keys, and offered the Chefts to be opened 1 
but the Zealander , more civil than the Horner , delivered 
me my Keys again, and taking my Word, told me, I was 
free to take away my Goods ; and indeed, I have ever 
okferved that the Northern People are always more rude 
and ungenteel than the Southern. As for the feventeen 
thoufand five hundred Florins whichthe General of Bata - 
via promifed me fhould be paid me upon my Arrival in 
Holland , I received fo many Delays and put-off’s, that I 
was at length forced to commence a Suit that lafted two 
Years ; nor could I get a publick Notary, either at Am- 
fierdam , or the Hague, that would make me out a Proteft, 
every one fearing the Direftors, who were both Judges 
and Parties. At length, after five Years wrangling and 
jangling, the Direftor wrote to my Brother at Batavia (for 
I was then again returned to the Indies ) that if I would ac- 
cept of ten thoufand Livres, he might receive it for me, 
which he did, and I was forced to give an Acquittance for 
the whole. 
This is the Return which I made from the Indies in the 
Year 1649, and the only time that ever I returned by Sea, 
having performed all the reft of my Travels by Land, not 
counting my Ihort Voyages through the Mediterranean for 
any thing •, and as for my firft Travels, I performed them 
all by Land from Paris through Germany- and Hungary , as 
far as Confiantinople, whither I returned again in the Year 
1669. From Confiantinople I went to Smyrna , thence I 
failed for Leghorn from Leghorn , I travelled by Land to 
Genoa, thence to Turin, and fo to Paris. 
The perfebl Acquaintance which our Author had 
with all the Cuftoms of the Indians, expofed him to a great 
Number of Enquiries on his return home ; and he was very 
often preffed, not only by the moft confiderabie of the 
French Minifters, but even by the King himfelr, to put the 
Anfwers he gave to thofe Enquiries into Writing; and 
thefe were afterwards reduced under feveral Heads, and 
now make the feveral Chapters in his Travels ; and this 
Account of them may ferve to reconcile the Reader to the 
feeming Incoherency of thofe Difcourfes. Among thefe 
there is one more remarkably curious in relation to the Cu- 
ftom that Hill prevails in the Indies , of Women burning 
themfelves on the Demife of their Hufbands, and alfo of 
Men’s fubmitting voluntarily to Death, upon extraordinary 
Occafions. This Differtation, as I judged it, could not 
but be very agreeable to the Reader, and at the fame time 
inftruftive, I thought it not amifs to add here at the 
End of his Travels, the rather, becaufe it has no fort of 
Connexion with any Part of his Relation, but is, as I ob- 
ferved before, a feparate Difcourfe upon that particular Sub- 
ject, in which he has related what occurred to him thereon 
during his long Stay in the Indies , which renders it more 
perfedt in its kind than any thing I have ever met with on 
the Subject ; and therefore I have given it at large, and en- 
tirely in the Words of our Author, which are as follows. 
It has been a Cuftom Time immemorial, among the In- 
dians, that a Woman fhould only marry one Hufband, and 
in cafe of his Deceafe, continue a Widow to the Time of 
her Death. As foon, therefore, as the Mailer of a Family 
is dead, his Wife retires to bewail her Hufband fome Days ; 
after which they {have her Head, and ihe lays afide all the 
Ornaments which Ihe had worn during the Time of her 
Marriage, taking off at the fame time from her Arms and 
Legs the Bracelets which her Hufband put on when he 
efpoufed her, in token of her Submiffion, and her being 
chained to him, and all the reft of her Life Ihe lives 
flighted and defpifed, and in a worfe Condition than a 
Slave, in the very Houfe where ihe was Miftrefs before. 
This unfortunate Condition cauies them to hate Life, fo 
that they rather chufe to be buried alive with the Body of 
their deceafed Hufband, than to live the Scorn and Con- 
tempt of all the World *, befides that, the Bramins make 
them believe, that in dying after that manner, they fhall 
revive again with him in another World, with more Ho-. 
10 G nour 
