238 DUTCH EMBASSY TO CHINA book iii
credit
he might obtain permission to trade in China. But the Jesuits, who knew
the language and were acquainted with the nobles of the Court, in
consequence of the long sojourn they had made in the country, in order
to prevent the Dutch Company from gaining a footing, to the prejudice
of the Portuguese nation, represented many things to the Emperor's
Council to the disadvantage of the Dutch. They told them that in Ceylon
they had broken the promise they had given to the King of that island
to make over to him the places which they jointly captured from the
Portuguese ; that they were not people of good faith ; and that they
had likewise fooled the King of Achin after the capture of Malacca, and
many other Princes in the Molucca islands ; that after having taken, by
terms of capitulation, the country of some of them together with their
persons, promising to maintain them all their lives according to their
dignity, they had not treated them with any further consideration once
they got them into their power, but had transported them as slaves to
the Island of Maurice 1 to cut ebony wood. All these
things and many others of the same kind having been represented to the
Emperor's Council, the Dutch deputy was immediately dismissed, and left
China without having accomplished anything. He learnt from a letter
which a spy wrote to him after his departure, the bad turn which the
Portuguese Jesuits had played him, and on his return to Batavia he
reported it to the General and his Council, who were much annoyed, and
resolved to take ample vengeance. According to the accounts which the
Deputy handed in, the cost of the voyage amounted to 50,000 ecus ;2
and the Council reflected how they could recover double that amount
from the Portuguese. They were aware^of the trade which the Jesuit
fathers conducted annually in the island of Macao and the Kingdom of
Macassar, and that they fitted out on their own account as many as six
or seven vessels laden with all kinds of Indian as well as Chinese
goods. The Dutch calculated the time when these vessels should arrive
at Macassar, and on the 7th of June 1660 there appeared at that port
two of the Company's vessels, which came in advance to facilitate the
withdrawal 1 Mauritius. 2 £11,250.
