English ships come to buy pepper of them ; that
we were not come to quarrel, but to trade peaceably,
and would pay them very honestly, and comply
with all reasonable demands, according to what
should be hereafter agreed on. They inquired
whether we were Company’s ships, to which we
did not readily answer them j but before we did,
they proceeded and said, That if we were, they,
as friends, would advise us to depart the port forthwith,
because their Sultan and Oran-Cays, or great
men, would by no means have any dealings with
us. The next day came on board of us a boat,
with one Cay Raden, Tacka, and Cay Chitra
XJday, being messengers from the king* We received
them as civilly as possible. The first thing
they inquired was, whether we were Company’s
ships, or separate traders; that if the former, we
need not wait for an answer, and that it would be
our best ways to be gone ; desiring earnestly, that
what answer we should return them might be sincere,
for that whatever we said to them should be
told the Sultan. Finding no other method to introduce
ourselves, we were forced to assure them that
•we were private traders, and came thither on our
own account to buy pepper. This we did, believing
we might in time have a better opportunity of making
our honourable O ' masters known,* and of excus- ing the heavy crimes laid on their former servants,
whose ill conduct had been the cause of the factory’s
being destroyed. They asked us why we
came thither rather than to any other place, since
our countrymen had so grossly abused them.” *
The king of Banjarmassin, in one of his conferences
with Captain Beeckman, gave him a narrative of
the conduct on the part of the Company which
led to the destruction of their establishment, which
the honest narrator gives in plain and unequivocal
language. As it affords an epitome of the conduct
which we must always expect in the same
situation when men’s interests and duties are at
complete variance with each other, I shall not
scruple to copy it. “ He also inquired whether
we were Company ships, or separate traders ; and
being answered the latter, he began to lay heavy
complaints on our countrymen, telling us how
that, at their first arrival, they came like us, and
contracted with him in the same manner, obliging
themselves to build no forts, nor make soldiers;
but that, under pretext of building a warehouse,
they mounted guns and insulted him, and his subjects,
in a most base manner ; that he bore it patiently
for a great while, till several of his subjects
were beaten, wounded, and some killed by them,
as they passed by in their boats, on their lawful occasions
; tl\at they forced from them such duties
and customs as belonged only to him, and acted
very contrary to reason or honesty in all their pro-
* Voyage to Borneo, p. 47, et seq.