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276 KING OF BANTAM'S COMMISSION book iii
but
he did not possess sufficient diamonds to cover the handle, and he
desired that I should procure enough to finish it. We then returned
with our money to the English House, and our friends were much
astonished that the King had spent 20,000 rupees, as they believed it
was the most part of his treasure.1
Next
day my brother and I went to see the King again at the hour which he
had fixed, and we found him seated in the same place as on the
preceding day. A Mulla read and interpreted to him something from the
Koran, which was in Arabic. When the reading was finished the King and
the Mulla, rose to pray, after which the King sent for the dagger, the
handle and sheath of which were of gold. The upper part of the handle
was already covered with diamonds, and in the plaque at the end there
was a large one cut into facettes, which, as far as I could judge, was
worth at least 15,000 or 16,000 ecus.1 The King told me that
he had received it as a present from the Queen of Borneo, and that he
had sent it to be cut at Goa, but he valued it much higher than what I
considered it to be worth. All the handle and the sheath were covered
with bezels 1 applied without order, which proved to
me that he did not understand design. The King had no other stones,
neither diamonds nor rubies, nor anything to place in these bezels, and
he wished to induce me to obtain for him some that would fit. I made
him understand that this would be impossible, and that he ought not t'o
limit himself to these bezels ; that when he had acquired the quantity
of stones which were required to cover the dagger, other bezels of the
shapes of the stones should be made, and that in Europe when we begin a
work of this kind we first arrange all the available stones on wax ;
this I exemplified to him at the same time, but that was beyond his
understanding, and he told me that he did not care to destroy a design
which he had himself taken the trouble to arrange, and to have made for
his own use. In spite of
1
As the value of the jewels is stated on page 273 to have been only
12,000 to 13,000 rupees, the transaction was a profitable one for
Tavernier.
2 £3,375 to £3,600.
3 Bezels (chatons in the original), mountings for individual stones.
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