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112 ANOTHER PIECE OF AMBERGRIS book ii
costing
the Viceroy anything. Those who presented it to him on the part of the
sailors and soldiers were thanked for it, and the Viceroy told them
that he recognized their goodwill by so splendid a present which he
would send to the King, who at that time was Philippe the Fourth,1
to whom Portugal was still subject. Thus all the pretenders to the
piece of ambergris were defrauded of their expectations, and neither
from the Viceroy nor the King himself, to whom the ambergris was sent,
did they receive any gift.
I
shall say one other word concerning a piece of ambergris weighing 42
livres. In the year 1646 or 1647 a Zealander, of one of the best
families of Middlebourg, who commanded for the Dutch Company in the
Island of Maurice, which is to the east of that of St. Laurens,2
found this piece on the shore and sent it to the Company. As these
people always have enemies, and there being a mark on the piece as if
some one had broken a portion off, the Commander was accused of having
stolen half, but he cleared himself of this charge at Batavia. But the
suspicion, however, dwelt in the minds of many persons, and the
Commander seeing that they would not give him another appointment,
returned to Zealand on the same vessel on which I was a passenger.
CHAPTER XXIV
Concerning Musk and Bezoar and some other medicinal stones.
Musk and
bezoar being included among the rarest articles of trade, and the most
precious which Asia furnishes us with, I have considered it appropriate
to devote a chapter to them, and present the reader with some remarks
about these two articles.
The best kind and the greatest quantity of musk come
1 Philip IV, King of Spain, 1605-65.
a
Mauritius and Madagascar, the latter having been known to the
Portuguese as St. Lorenzo. Some say the Portuguese landed there first
on the festival of the Saint, others that it was discovered by Lorenzo
de Almeyda in 1506. (Varthema in Hakluyt Soc. ed., 296; Pyrard de LavaL
i. 29 ; Fryer, i. 64.)
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