Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
he ordered me instantly to depart and be gone from this part nor
to offer to approach any nearer nor to anchor on any parts of this
coast or suffer any of my people to go onshore in any part of his gov-
ernment . . .
33
This callous refusal of aid to mariners so obviously in distress
was occasioned by fear and insecurity. The Dutch East India Com-
pany relied for the maintenance of its monopoly on alliances with
local rulers. Many of these alliances, forged by a mixture of force
and diplomacy, were very tenuous and might easily be upset by the
agents of rival commercial nations. The governor of Maccasar, like all
his colleagues in the service, was thus under strict instructions not
to succour foreign merchant ships.
Carteret was furious. He told the governor's men that under
no circumstances would he depart. He accused them of want of hu-
manity. He took them on a tour of the
Swallow's
sick and dead. He
threatened to run his ship ashore if they continued to deny an ally
ally, the Dutch offered a compromise: he might rest up his ship at
Bonthain, a small harbour down the coast and wait there for the
monsoon season. This was agreed, amicable relations were restored
and courtesy gun salutes were exchanged.
But before Carteret had been a few weeks at Bonthain relations
were soured again. He was allowed a house in the town to use as
a hospital but beyond that the movements of his men were strictly
limited. His hosts, so he claimed, made him pay through the nose for
supplies. Worst of all, Carteret became obsessed with suspicion. He
persuaded himself that the Dutch were planning to massacre their
unwanted guests. This fear seemed confirmed when he received a
letter warning him of a plot hatched by the Dutch and one of the Su-
lawesi princes. The 'plot' was, in fact, a fabrication by a local faction
