two
Ropes, whereof one hangs at the Sterne, the other at the fore-part of
the Boat : and so letting this contrivance fall into the Current, along
the Rocks, where the Hemp being turned about, and engaged in the Coral,
there need sometimes many Boats to draw away the Instrument.
Bezoar, he saith, is not only found in Golconda, in the Province of Renquery, in the Maw of Goats, whereof some are at times furnisht with a dozen a piece : but also at Macassar, in the Isle of Celebes, in the body of Apes : bigger than those found in Golconda. He mentions, that the people in those parts, to find whether a Goat hath any of those Bezoar-stones in its body, do beat his belly with their hands and rub it, till all the stones in the Animal come together, and tell them as you do stones in a bag, &C.1
The English Edition of the ' Histoire des Joyaux '.
Since the foregoing pages were printed I have had the good fortune to obtain a copy of a small volume entitled The
History of Jewels, and of the Principal Riches of the East and West,
Taken from the Relation of Divers of the most Famous Travellers of our
Age ; Attended with Fair Discoveries conducing to the Knowledge of the
Universe and Trade.2 Although not stated to be a translation, the identity of its contents with those of Chappuzeau's Histoire des Joyaux, as shown by the above abstract, admits of no doubt that it is the same work in an English dress.
Neither
Chappuzeau nor Tavernier are mentioned in it ; but the internal
evidence conclusively proves that it must have been largely founded on
Tavernier's original memoirs. If it be the case that Chappuzeau
appropriated these without acknowledgment, it would also appear that
the English editor pirated Chappuzeau's book.
A general resemblance of facts alone would not prove Tavernier to have been the original author, but the History casually
refers to certain dates in connexion with places where we know
Tavernier to have been in the same years. Thus on p. 26 reference
ismade to Mir Jumla and his occupation at Gandikot in the year 1652,
i. e. when Tavernier visited him (see vol. i, p. 227). On p. 23 the
depreciated condition of the diamond mines at Kollûr in the year 1660
is referred to, and Tavernier alludes (see ante, p. 59) to a
falling off in the number of miners since his first visit, and we have
otherwise seen that he had visited the mines in 1660 (see vol. i,
Introduction, p. xix. On p. 123 the facts stated in reference
1 For account of Bezoar, see ante, pp. 115 ff. of vol. ii.
s London, printed by T. N. for Hobart Kemp, &c, 1671, small 8το, pp. 128.
