chap, xxvi DUTCH PAY-BILLS 293
of
these ' statements' at 82 per cent., and on the following day, the
transfer was completed, and I paid for them. As I was taking these
papers to my lodgings I met the Avocat Fiscal, who asked me what papers
my servant carried. I told him they were ' statements ' which I had
just purchased at a certain price, to which he replied that it was
rather dear, and that he knew of some amounting to 6,000 guilders, at a
cheaper rate ; these I obtained with his assistance at 79 per cent. I
sought to buy more, but more were not to be found, for a ship's captain
who was returning had bought for himself alone to the amount of upwards
of 100,000 guilders ; many other persons had also done the same, and
the whole amounted in value to more than 400,000 livres.
Five
or six days afterwards, while I was still seeking for something in
which to invest the remainder of my money, I met the Avocat Fiscal, who
asked me if I had bought many of those rekenings. I told him that I had
not found any more, and that I had only the two parcels he knew of,
amounting to about 17,500 guilders ; upon which he told me with many
compliments that he was much distressed for those who had bought them,
because the General and his Council had ordered him to make them give
back all these rekenings, as it had been decided that it was not just
that a poor man should lose so much of his wages. I told him that I
would willingly give them back into the hands of the parties from whom
I had purchased them, provided that I was repaid my money at the same
time, and that I would get them over from Bantam, where I had sent them
with my baggage, as I intended to return in a few days in order to go
to England with the English President, who had civilly offered me a
passage. At 6 p.m. one of the General's halberdiers came to tell me
that the General wished to speak to me. I immediately went to him and
he asked me forthwith why 1 had not given these rekenings to
the Avocat Fiscal when he asked for them in the names of himself and
his Council. I Teplied to him coldly that I was unable to give him that
which I had not got, and that they were in Bantam. ' You intend
exchange value of the latter was about Is. 9 1/2d. At 1s. 9d. the 11,000 guilders represented a sum of £9,625,
