then,'
he said, ' to go to Europe ? ' ' Yes,' I replied, ' and the President
of the English has done me the honour to give me a passage and the use
of his table.' I added that it was very true that the long journey
which I was about to make to Surat, and thence to the diamond mine,
where my usual trade was, would cause me much loss, and that if he had
so willed it he might have enabled me to save all this time and avoid
the dangers inseparable from these long journeys, by allowing me to
embark, as I had asked, on one of the vessels which sailed for Bengal,
Surat, or Hormuz ; that it would have caused no injury to the Company,
and that I believed such courtesy the General and his Council should
not have refused me, since I had come to Batavia only in their service.
When I had finished speaking all the members of the Council looked at
one another, and the General whispering to M. Caron, told me that as I
was resolved to go by sea, their vessels were as good as those of the
English, and that I should enjoy equally good treatment, and he offered
me a passage by one of them. This offer, which I did not expect, amazed
me a little, and I did not at first know whether I ought to accept it
or not. But at length I accepted, fearing that by refusing it they
might detain me for another year without being able to sail in any
direction, a friend having told me in confidence that the design of the
General and his Council was to so arrange, that, either from Batavia or
from Europe, I should not return to India again, and that by this means
they hoped to prevent the Commanders or chiefs of the factories, which
they have both in India and Persia, from making further use of me to
invest for them in diamonds the money of which the Company was
defrauded.1 It was this which led me to accept the passage,
for which I thanked the General and his Council. Subsequently the
General told me to select the particular vessel I preferred to go by,
and that when I informed him he would order a cabin to be prepared for
my own special convenience, but if I would take his advice I should go
on the Vice-Admiral,2 because of the good company
1 The object of the Dutch was in short to deport Tavernier, whom they regarded as a dangerous interloper. a The second ship of the fleet. (Fryer, i. 71.)
