Being But Few Of Us, I Had To Take
My Regular Turn Of Watch With The Rest, And Have Often
Been more in fear
of our own men than of the Javans, so that I had often to snatch up
A
target when I heard them making any noise in their sleep, lest they
might treat me as they did each other. So terrified were we on account
of fire, that though, when we went to sleep after our watches were
expired, our men often sounded their drum at our ears without awakening
us, if the word fire had been spoken, however softly, we would all
instantly run from our chambers; so that I was forced to warn them not
to talk of fire in the night without urgent occasion. I do not mention
these things to discourage others from going hereafter to Bantam: for we
were then strangers, but have now many friends there, and the country is
under much better regulation, and will more and more improve in
government as the young king grows older. In three months time, the town
on the east side of the river was five times burnt down; but, God be
praised, the wind always favoured us; and although the Javans often set
it on fire near us, it pleased God still to preserve us, as there was
little wind, and the fire was put out before it got our length.
Sec. 3. Differences between the Hollanders, styling themselves English,
and the Javans, and of other memorable Things.
About this time there was again a great outcast between the Hollanders
and the natives, owing to the rude behaviour of the former, and many of
them were stabbed in the evenings. The common people did not then
distinguish between us and the Hollanders, calling both of us English,
because the Hollanders had usurped our name on first coming here for
trade, in which they did us much wrong, as we used often to hear the
people in the streets railing against the English, when they actually
meant the Hollanders; so that, fearing some of our men might be stabbed
instead of them, we endeavoured to fall upon some plan to make ourselves
be distinguished from them. And as the 17th of November drew nigh, which
we still held as the coronation-day of queen Elizabeth, knowing no
better, we dressed ourselves in new silk garments, and made us scarfs
and hat-bands of red and white taffeta, the colours of our country, and
a banner of St George, being white with a red cross in the middle. We,
the factors, distinguished ourselves from our men, by edging our scarfs
with a deep gold fringe.
When the day arrived, we set up our banner on the top of our house, and,
with our drum and fire-arms, marched up and down the yard of our house;
being but fourteen in number, we could only cast ourselves in rings and
esses in single file, and so plied our shot. Hearing our firing, the
sabander, and some others of the chief people of the land, came to see
us, and enquired the cause of our rejoicing; when we told them that our
queen was crowned on that day forty-seven years ago, for which reason
all Englishmen, in whatever country they might then happen to be, were
in use to shew their joy on that day. The sabander commended us
mightily, for shewing our reverence to our sovereign at so great a
distance from our country. Some of the others asked, how it happened
that the Englishmen at the other house or factory did not do so
likewise; on which we told them that they were not English but
Hollanders, having no king, and their land being ruled only by
governors, being of a country near England, but speaking quite a
different language.
The multitude greatly admired to see so few of us discharge so many
shots, for the Javans and Chinese are very inexpert in the use of
fire-arms. In the afternoon, I made our people walk out into the town
and market-place, that the people might see their scarfs and hat-bands,
making a shew that the like had never been seen there before, and that
the natives might for the future know them from the Hollanders; and many
times the children ran after us in the streets, crying out, Orang
Engrees bayk, Orang Hollanda jahad: The Englishmen are good, the
Hollanders are bad.
The 6th December two Dutch ships came in, that had taken a rich
Portuguese carak near Macao, by which they got great plunder, and were
enabled so to bribe the regent, that he began to listen to their desire
of being permitted to build a handsome house. About this time the regent
sent for me to lend him 2000 pieces of eight, or at least 1000; but I
put him off with excuses, saying we had been left there with goods, not
money, that the natives owed us much which we could not get in, and that
we were under the necessity of purchasing pepper to load our ships,
which we were expecting to arrive daily.
The 6th February, 1604, Robert Wallis, one of our company, died, and
several others of our men were very weak and lame, owing to the heat of
the pepper, in dressing, screening, and turning it; so that we were in
future obliged to hire Chinese to do that work, our own men only
superintending them. The 16th of that month there came in a great ship
of Zealand from Patane, which made us believe that General Warwicke was
coming to load all his ships here; for which reason we immediately
bought up all the good and merchantable pepper we could get. This ship
had made some valuable prizes, but they had sworn all the English
mariners on board to tell us nothing, on pain of losing their wages,
which we took as very unkind.
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