ceedings. “ All this,** says he, “ I bore with great
patience.” Then he told us with very great concern,
how they fired several of their great shot at the
queen-mother, which frightened her so, that ever
since she continued distracted, and that they would
have taken her prisoner, for what reason he could
not imagine. “ This,” says he, “ I had not patience
to bear.” He likewise told us of one Captain Cock-
burn, and some others, whose names I have forgotten,
who were taken prisoners, and put to
death, and the manner of their suffering. “ But,”
continues he, “ this is not at present our affair.” *
* Voyage to Borneo, p. 74 Captain Beeckman’s own observations
on this subject, and the candid account he renders
of the judicious measures he pursued, are so apposite,'that
I cannot refrain from quoting them, and venturing to offer
his example as a model of the policy which ought, in all parallel
cases, to be followed with the natives of this country.
", During our stay here,” (at Banjarmassin) says he, “ we had
great plenty of fish, fowl, potatoes, yams, cucumbers, deer,
goats’ flesh, &c. brought to our door every morning early, in
small boats, by women, of whom we bought what we wanted,
and that at a very reasonable rate. This was they owned the
greatest opportunity they ever knew of getting so much
money in so short a time; for, when the English factory was
there before, there was always such enmity and inveterate
hatred between them, that the natives declared they never
carried to them the tenth part of what they did us, being
willing to have as little to do with them as possible. It is
most certain they had a great hatred against all that belonged
to that factory, and even the whole English nation, for
their sake, which made us meet with more difficulty than
There is no place in which the different European
companies were so anxious to make monopolies,
and where they were so well resisted, as at
Achin, long the principal commercial state of the
Archipelago, but the trade of which was at last
ruined by the naval superiority ,of the Dutch, and
the destruction of the commerce of every place
that was wont to trade with it, on the final perfecting
of the monopoly system. Commodore
Beaulieu, one of the most sensible and intelligent
persons that ever visited the Archipelago, gives us
an account of the animosity of the European nations
against each other, and their machinations
against the natives, which it is impossible to read
without disgust.- The French had no sooner made
ordinary. It was an imprudent thing of those gentlemen to
have given them occasion of having so barbarous a notion of
the principles and behaviour'of all their countrymen. -It is
true we took all the pairis imaginable, by an honest, civil,
complaisant way of behaviour and dealing, to remove this
great prejudice out of their minds, though I must own we
found it a pretty hard task, they being so prepossessed with
an opinion of our baseness and barbarity. I believe, indeed,
that the great confidence we put in them did contribute not
a little to make them have a greater value for us than for
other strangers. They are certainly the most peaceable
people in the world to one another., quarrelling seldom or
never among themselves, and avoiding above all things any
occasion of giving an affront, because, when once it is given,
it is never to be forgot.”— Beeckman’s Voyage to BorrieQt
p. 101..r :