We Were Well Received,
According To The Customs Of The Country, The Letter Being Laid In A
Basin Of Gold, And Carried By An Elephant, Accompanied By A Band Of
Music, A Numerous Guard Of Lances, And Many Small Flags.
The queen's
court was very sumptuous.
The letter was read, and a free trade allowed
us on payment of the same duties with the Hollanders; and we left the
court without seeing the queen. We were then conducted by Daton
Lachmanna, the sabaudar and officer appointed for entertaining
strangers, to a place where a banquet of fruits was presented to us.
From thence we were led to the house of the Oran-caya Sirnona, where we
had another banquet. Next day the queen sent us meat and fruits aboard.
The 3d July there departed from hence a Dutch pinnace called the
Greyhound, for Japan. The master's mate of this vessel had brought a
letter from William Adams, an Englishman residing in Japan, directed to
the English at Bantam; and by him we sent the company's letters to Mr
Adams, which he promised to deliver with his own hands. We had no other
means of transmitting this letter, as the Japanese were at enmity with
the government of Patane, and had even burnt that place twice within
five or six years.
We had much ado to get leave to build a fire-proof warehouse at this
place, but were at length assigned a place close by the Dutch house,
thirty fathoms long by twenty in breadth, on which we built a house
forty-eight feet long by twenty-four feet wide. Their exactions were
very unreasonable, amounting, besides the charges agreed upon, to 4000
dollars; which, however, we submitted to pay in hope of future
advantages. We were sore afflicted here with sickness, even as if the
plague had raged in our ship. Captain Hippon died on the 9th of July;
and on opening the box marked No. 1, Mr Brown was found his appointed
successor, but as he was already dead, No. 2 was opened, by which Mr
Thomas Essington was nominated, who accordingly assumed the command. At
this place we suffered much injury from thieves, some of which came into
our house one night, where we always had a lamp burning, and stole 283
dollars out of my chest, besides other goods; though there wore fifteen
persons sleeping in the house, besides a large black dog, and a watch
kept in our yard. These circumstances occasioned suspicions against some
of our own people, but we could never come to any certainty.
I and John Parsons, with six more, were left here at Patane to conduct
the business of the factory, and the ship departed on the 1st of August
for Siam. I wished afterwards to have written to Captain Essington at
Siam, to inform him of the bad market I had for our lawns, but had no
opportunity of sending a letter by sea; and not less than four persons
together durst venture by land, on account of the danger from tygers,
and because there were many rivers to cross by the way, owing to which
their demands were very high, and I had to wait an opportunity. In
September, the king of Jor, or Johor, over-ran the environs of Pan or
Pahan, burning all before him, and likewise the neighbourhood of Cumpona
Sina, which occasioned great dearth at Pahan.
The cause of our lack of trade here, where, four years before, I had
seen such quick sales, as if all the world could not have provided
sufficient commodities, was chiefly, that the Portuguese had brought an
abundant supply to Malacca; besides which the Hollanders had filled
Bantam and the Moluccas with goods, and also to the trade carried on by
the Moors at Tanasserim and Siam, and at Tarangh, a haven newly
discovered near Queda, on the western coast of Malacca; the Guzerats,
others from Negapatan, and the English, all contributing to glut the
market, so that the rumour only of such large supplies is sufficient to
keep down the prices for ten years; insomuch that I cannot now clear
five per cent. where formerly I could have gotten four for one. All
these things considered, I dispatched a cargo on the 8th October, in a
junk of Empan, for Macasser, sending John Parsons as chief factor. On
the 9th, two junks arrived from Siam, one of which brought me letters
from Captain Essington and Mr Lucas, saying they had much trouble and
few sales, both because the country was already full of goods, and
because the governments of Cambodia, Laniam, and Jangoma, were preparing
for war against Siam.
The 25th, several junks departed from Patane for Borneo, Jumbi, Java,
Macassar, Jortan, and other places; among which was the junk belonging
to the Orancay Rajah Indramonda, bound for Bantam, and thence by Jortan,
Amboina, and Banda, to Macassar. I cannot imagine how the Hollanders
should suffer these Malays, Chinese, and Moors, and even assist them in
carrying on a free trade over all India, while they forbid it to their
own servants, countrymen, and brethren, on pain of death, and loss of
their goods. It is surely an instance of great ignorance or envy, thus
to allow Mahomedans and heathens to grow rich, rather than their own
countrymen should gain a living, and a sign that the punishment of God
is coming upon them.
The Globe arrived here from Siam on the 11th November, having been eight
days on the passage. She had arrived on the 15th of August preceding in
the road of Siam, and cast anchor in three fathoms at high-water: but
next day, the water ebbing thirteen hours on end, she was left only in
seven feet, fortunately on soft mud, so that she received little injury.
When again afloat, she was removed to another anchorage, where there
were three fathoms at low-water, being four leagues from the bar. The
town lieth on the river, some thirty leagues from the sea.
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