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264 TAVERNIER'S ARREST DEMANDED book iii
the
presents which the kings and great nobles make to the commanders and
the other principal officers of the Company ought to be handed over,
when they go to Batavia, to the charge of the General of the Council as
property belonging to the Company, but they are sometimes allowed to
retain them.1
When
I spoke in this way to these gentlemen of the Council of Batavia, and
told them ingenuously what M. Constant had done during the first days
after his arrival at Gombroon, they wished to know what happened
afterwards, and they told me that they had already been sufficiently
informed of what I had just told them, but wished that I should let
them know what trade M. Constant had done. It was then I began to speak
to them in a different way, and told them I was not dependent on them
and was not their spy ; that if they wished to know so much they should
have ascertained it when he was at Batavia, or they might write to him
in Holland, and would thus be able to satisfy themselves. The
President, who saw that I mocked them, rose from his place to talk with
some of the councillors, and then told me that they would give me four
days to reflect on my reply to the Council, both in reference to the
trade which I had done with M. Constant, and that which I knew he had
done with other persons. Upon this I retired, without replying, and
went to dine with one of the councillors without speaking further of
the matter.
The
four days having expired, I waited for them to send for me, but they
delayed eight days longer, after which they sent an officer to tell me
that the President would expect me at the Council at 11 o'clock. When I
entered the chamber, the Avocat Fiscal delivered a long discourse,
referring to my refusal to reply to the questions which had been given
me in writing, and as for himself he required that I should be placed
in gesselin, i. e. under arrest, until I had replied. 1 replied to that
' that I was not the least astonished at what he said, and that I
believed the gentlemen of the Council would think more than once before
they carried it into execu-
1 As presents in India are sent to the Government's Toshakhana, * wardrobe ' or ' store '.
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