chap, xxiv A SALE TO THE KING 279
of which I have elsewhere spoken, and another large fruit called pompone,1
which is also red inside, the flesh being soft like a sponge, and very
good. The servant who brought these fruits told us that as soon as we
had taken our food we were to go to see the King ; this we did, and we
found him again in the same place with the old betel pounder, who from
time to time made him open his mouth and gave him some with her fingers
in the way I have described. There were five or six captains seated
round the room, who were looking at some fireworks which the Chinese
had brought, such as grenades, fusees, and other things of that kind to
run on the water ; for the' Chinese surpass all the nations of the
world in this respect.2 As soon as I saw the King in a
condition to speak to me I presented to him his dagger in the same
state as he had given it to me, and told him that Batavia was not a
place where one could obtain precious stones, and when I did find some
they wanted double their value for them ; that this commission could
not be fulfilled except by someone who went to Goa, and that I could
have accomplished it when at Goa, or at Golkonda, or, better still, at
the diamond mine, where parcels of stones of all shapes and sizes are
procurable and might be cut with but little loss to suit the bezels.
Upon this the old woman took the dagger, carried it into the harem, and
the King never spoke to me about it again. Afterwards I showed him the
jewels I had brought, and I sold a parcel of them as advantageously as
on the first journey. As the sun was setting, which is the time when
the Musalmans say their prayers, the King told us to return on the
following day, and said he would arrange for payment being made to us.
On arriving at our lodging we found one of the servants of the English
President, who came to invite us to have supper with him, and taste
some new liquors which had arrived from England on the Company's
account. For during the twenty days we spent at Batavia two vessels had
arrived, laden with French and Spanish wine,
1 More properly pommelo, Citrus decumana (L.), the shaddock of the West Indies. (Ibid., 721 f.)
' On Chinese fireworks see J. D. Ball, Things Chinese, 3rd ed., p. 238 ff.
