Baroe
sent him a piece of this root * about 3 feet long, garnished with gold
at both ends, and with rings of gold in the middle. The Viceroy having
received it made great account of it, and causing it to be cut up into
several pieces presented them to certain of his friends. He sent two to
Surat to Mr. Fremlin, the English President, who showed them to me, and
when I placed a piece of the root on my tongue I found the taste very
bitter.
As
for silver mines, there are none in the whole of Asia,* save only in
the Kingdom of Japan. Some years ago very rich mines of tin were
discovered at Delegore, Sangore, Bordelon, and Bata ;3 this
has done some injury to the English, because there is no longer need of
their tin as formerly, sufficient being now produced in Asia. Tin is
only used in this country to tin cooking-pots, kettles, and other
copper utensils.4
CHAPTER XXVI
Account of a notable act of perfidy done to the author when he was about to embark at Gombroon for Surat.
In the month of April 1665, I was about to leave Gombroon, and on the point of embarkation for Surat in a vessel belonging
1
De Lacerda speaks of the Baroe, probably the Barue of Livingstone, to
the west of Sena and north of Manica, the Bambire, or people of Baroe
(Sir R. Burton, Lands of Cazembe, 44).
2
Tavernier is here in error, as there are undoubted sources of silver in
India and on the confines of Assam and Burma, which have been largely
worked. (See Economic Geology of India, ch. iv, ' Silver'; Watt, Diet. Economic Products, vi.
part iii, 239 f.) Silver certainly occurs also in other parts of Asia.
(See pp. 212, 220, below.) For its occurrence in Burma see Scott &
Hardiman, Gazetteer, Upper Burma, part i, vol. ii, p. 303 f.
3 Ball identified these places with Delhi, Salangor, Billiton, and Banka. But Col. G. E. Gerini (Journal Royal Asiatic Society, 1904,
p. 720 f.) points out that Delegore is Ligor; Sangore, Senggora or
Singora ; Bordelon, P'hattalang ; Bata, Pate, on the east coast of the
Malay Peninsula, between Siam and Patani.
4
The artificer is known as the Qala'Igar. Copper vessels, to be safely
used, must be tinned at least once a month, the vessel to be heated and
the tin (qala'i) applied by means of sal-ammoniac (W. Hoey, Monograph on Trades and Manufactures of Northern India, 162 f.).
