A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08Kerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 08
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
vendible are _goobares_; pintadoes or chintz, of four or five colours;
fine _tappies_ from St Thomas; _ballachos_; Java girdles, otherwise
called _caine-goolong_; calico lawns; book calicos; and white calicos
made up in rolls.[147] A _goobar_ is double, and contains 12 yards, or 6
_hastaes_ single; coarse and fine _ballachos_ contain from 32 to 34
_hastaes_, but the finest are always longest. In general, all sorts of
cotton cloths that are broad and of good length are here in good
request.
[Footnote 147: Probably turbans.--E.]
The king's custom, called _chuckey_, is 8 bags on the 100, rating pepper
always at 4 dollars the sack, whatever be its price. _Billa-billian_ is
another custom of this port, by which every ship that arrives here,
whatever be its lading, as cloth or the like, must in the first place
give notice to the king of all the sorts and quantities of commodities,
with their several prices, before landing any of them; upon which the
king sends his officers to look at the goods, who take for him such
goods as he inclines, at half the prices affixed to them, or somewhat
more, as can be agreed upon: Thus, if the cloths be rated at 20 dollars
per _corge_, the king will only give 15 or 16 dollars at the most.
Instead of this, the Hollanders have been in use to pay to the king 700
or 800 dollars at once for the freedom of a ship's loading, to clear
them of this troublesome _billa-billian_. By the custom of the country,
this duty upon 6000 sacks of pepper is fixed at 666 dollars, if you
purchase and load the pepper from the merchants; or otherwise to
purchase so many thousand sacks of pepper from the king, paying him half
or three quarters of a dollar more than the current price at the time.
Even if you have provided a loading beforehand, you must pay this
exaction before you can be permitted to load. _Rooba-rooba_ is the duty
of anchorage, and is 500 dollars upon 6000 sacks. The sabander's duty is
250 dollars on 6000 sacks. The weighers have one dollar on every 100
sacks; and the _jerotoolies_, or weighers belonging to the customhouse,
have a similar duty of one dollar the 100 sacks.
_Jortan_ is a place to the eastwards of _Jackatra_, called likewise
_Sourabaya_, which produces plenty of provisions, together with cotton
wool, and yarn ready spun. There come to this place many junks from
_Jauby_, laden with pepper, and several small proas belonging to this
place trade with Banda; so that some mace and nutmegs are to be had
here.
_Macasser_ is an island not far from Celebes, having abundance of bezoar
stones, which are there to be had at reasonable rates. It has plenty of
rice and other provisions; and as it has some junks which trade with
Banda, nutmegs and mace are likewise to be procured there, but in no
great quantity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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