Read Nathaniel's nutmeg Online
Authors: Giles Milton
The London merchants proved incredibly resilient to the continued bad news and resolved not only to search for trade 'at other places' but to appoint a far greater number of factors. Yet for all their enthusiasm, most English factories were never more than temporary bases which lasted for only as long as the factor stayed in good health — usually little more than a few months. For if life was unremittingly hard in Bantam, it was often far worse on the island outposts to which Courthope would find himself posted. The steady trickle of letters from the Company's factors contain a litany of complaints and grievances for, notwithstanding the constant threat of sickness and disease, most found themselves afflicted with homesickness and extreme loneliness. For some the loneliness quite addled their minds, as is revealed in an extraordinary letter written by one William Nealson, factor in Firando. Full of riddles, puns and strange allusions it begins: 'Morrow, bully; morrow morrow. To recover my health, I forgot not, fasting, a pot of blue burning ale with a fiery flaming toast and after (for recreation's sake) provided a long staff with a pike in the end of it to jump over joined stools with them.'
Others retained their sanity only to complain bitterly at the treatment they received from their employers. 'At home men are famous for doing nothing;' wrote one disgruntled factor, 'here they are infamous for their honest endeavour. At home is respect and reward; abroad disrespect and heartbreaking. At home is augmentation of wages; abroad no more than the third of wages. At home is content; abroad nothing so much as griefs, cares and displeasure. At home is safety; abroad no security. At home is liberty; abroad the best is bondage. And, in a word, at home all things are as a man may wish, and here nothing answerable to merit.'
The complaint that wages had gone unpaid is frequently heard and one that grieved factors greatly since most had only been lured eastwards by the prospect of making money. More frightening was the ever-present spectre of the grim reaper who demanded a high price from those who settled in the East. The average life expectancy for factors was no more than three years and it is little wonder that many followed the example of William Hawkins in India who brazenly admitted to using his time to 'feather my nest'. Nathaniel Courthope was no exception: in a letter sent from Bantam to London in the winter of 1613 he, along with a number of other factors, was accused of 'purloining the Company's goods, deceiving private men, insolent behaviour, and vanity in wearing buckles of gold in their girdles'. Furthermore, the Company's attention is drawn to 'the great wealth they have gathered suddenly, being worth £500 or £600 each', and the fact that 'they are false and unjust to their masters.'
With the threat of his 'great wealth' being confiscated by the next vessel to arrive in the East — and doubtless concerned that he would be left penniless and without prospects in these distant lands — Courthope repented of his misdemeanours and wrote 'a voluntary confession' of his wrong-doings. It was a shrewd move for he soon found himself back in favour and, in the spring of 1614, was instructed to sail to Sukadana, a port on the south-west coast of Borneo where, it was rumoured, 'the best diamonds in the world [are] to be procured'.
Sukadana was already home to one of the Company's more flamboyant factors, a professional sailor called Sophony Cozucke. Known as 'Sophony the Russe', but more probably Sophonias the Kazak, he had established a base at the only place in the East where diamonds were indeed in plentiful supply. With the help of Courthope,'of whom there is great hopes that he shall do your Worships good service,' the two men set about expanding this lucrative trade and investigating what goods were of greatest value for barter.
The hardships they faced in Sukadana were similar to those facing all factors in such remote spots. As they were totally dependent on English vessels for food and money, it only took one supply ship to be blown off course for a factory to be plunged from prosperity to near-starvation. When the
Darling
re-entered the harbour at Sukadana after a lengthy absence, its captain was alarmed to find the factory 'indebted to the Hollanders, and in a poor, beggarly state, because the junk that was despatched from Bantam first touched at Macassar'. Although in good health, Courthope and Sophony were 'altogether unfurnished with money [and] report that they had in consequence been obliged to refuse 1,000 carats of diamonds'.
Once Courthope had turned Sukadana into a going concern, buying gemstones on the cheap and exporting them to Bantam for re-sale, he was keen to expand his trade. Learning that Borneo was rich in gold, diamonds and bezoar stones, a concretion taken from the stomach of animals which was believed to be an antidote, he despatched Sophony to the island on a reconnaissance mission. His instructions, a copy of which he forwarded to Bantam, ordered 'the Russe' to 'proceed to Landak and confer with the governors of those parts upon what security the English may settle a factory there'. In addition he was 'to learn privately whether they stand in fear of the Sukadanians or not, for if so, I see not how our people can be safely with them'. With characteristic cynicism - a cynicism that would become more pronounced during his long years in the Banda Islands - he ended with a caution: 'Above all, be not flattered with fruitless hopes, but if possible, bring firmans [written confirmation] for what they say or promise.'
The mission was not a success, largely because of the 'savageness of the people ... who lie in the rivers on purpose to take off the heads of all they can overcome'. Sophony and his two companions were attacked by a mob of a thousand men and 'escaped a miraculous danger', only surviving the onslaught when they discovered the natives were 'not used to powder and shot [and] were fain to run ashore'. A second, heavily armed expedition had more success, largely because of the English muskets. 'The force of the whole country,' wrote Sophony, 'was not able to withstand nine men.'
In the summer of 1616, Courthope relinquished his lonely job as chief factor in Sukadana and returned to Bantam. The energy he had put into his work had not passed unnoticed and it was with regret that the Company allowed him to leave. Within months of his departure the diamond trade was 'in hugger mugger', there was much 'stealing and griping' and Sukadana became a haven for 'heavy and unprofitable hangers-on that have meat, drink and money to do harm'.Those in responsibility called for Courthope's return, 'for it is fitting that it be a man that hath experience here'.
The request went unheeded for Courthope was needed for a mission of far greater importance. A new chief factor had arrived in Bantam, a man by the name of John Jourdain who had considerable experience of life in the East Indies and who brought with him an unbounded enthusiasm for the task ahead. He was determined to stake his country's claim to the Banda Islands and, in Nathaniel Courthope, he had just the man for the job.
chapter nine
John jourdain travelled to
London in the winter of 1607 to seek employment as a chief factor with the I East India Company. It is unclear what drove him to this decision for he was involved in a profitable shipping concern in the Dorset port of Lyme Regis and, as son of the town's mayor, was able to involve himself in many overseas business ventures. Perhaps he was lured to the East India Company by the hope of getting rich quick, but a more compelling reason is that relations with his wife were strained and he chose self-imposed exile in preference to a life of domestic unhappiness. By the time he came to write his will, the marital breakdown was complete and he totally excluded her from the management of his estate, leaving her a paltry sum of money. The poor woman's final years were spent 'begging from door to door' and writing endless letters to the East India Company asking for 'some competent yearly means proportionable to her birth and breeding'.
The directors responded by despatching the occasional gift to Dorset — the least they could do for a widow whose husband was to prove the greatest of all the Company factors. Jourdain had long held that the future of the spice trade lay in the Banda Islands and he did everything in his power to promote English interests in the region. Returning home after a stint of more than five years in the East he penned a persuasive document in which he argued the importance of strengthening trading links with these remote islands. He sent this document directly to Sir Thomas Smythe who declared himself most impressed with what he read and called a special meeting in order to make public 'his [Jourdain s] opinion concerninge the contynueinge and pros- ecutinge of trade in the Indies'. After discussing its contents the committee summoned Jourdain to the Company headquarters and listened attentively as he set out the weaknesses of the English in the region and argued that it was essential to 'saufeguards their buysines at Bantam and attempt trade at Banda'. When a number of members protested that this would surely bring them into conflict with the Dutch, Jourdain assured them 'that the Flemings neither dare not or will not sett upon the English'. It was a disingenuous answer for Jourdain had already concluded that future trade in the Spice Islands would inevitably involve coming to blows with the Dutch, a conclusion that had been more than reinforced by his previous trip to the East. Sailing from Bantam in the winter of 1613 he had headed for Amboyna, a clove-rich island under the firm control of the Dutch. Jourdain was only too aware of their presence on Amboyna: graciously introducing himself to the Dutch captain at Hitu, a village on the north of the island, he suggested that instead of buying cloves from the natives, thereby driving up prices, he should buy them from the Dutch at a little over cost price. The captain expressed interest in this proposition but said he would have to clear the matter with his superiors, a response that irritated Jourdain who 'awnswered that this country did nott belonge to the Dutch'.
When he was at last handed the official reply to his
proposition, Jourdain was stunned by its strong language. In a 'skoffing' two page letter, the governor 'marvelled that we would presume to thrust ourselves into a countrye where they had made a contracte with the people for all the cloves growinge upon the iland', and strongly advised Jourdain 'nott to deale with the contrye people for any cloves; which if we did they would seek their uttermost to prevent us'. They proved all too willing to carry out this last threat, for no sooner had native chieftains started to offer the English small quantities of spice than the Dutch sent a warning that 'they would build a castle at Hitu and burn their town.' This was enough to panic the natives who were 'made soe fearfull that they durst not give us any enterteynement'.
When Jourdain finally met the Dutch governor he could scarcely contain his rage, accusing him of deceit, arrogance and lies. The helplessness of his situation was a cause of great amusement to the governor who goaded Jourdain about his failure to buy any spices and made a number of cruel jokes about the diminutive size of the
Darling.
These proved too much for Jourdain, who told the governor that the Dutch followed the English 'as the Jews did Christ' and added, in a threat that would pass into legend at the East India Company, that they would one day answer for their arrogance 'betwixt Dover and Calais'. Still smarting from the insults, he then put to sea and headed to the neighbouring island of Ceram where David Middleton had successfully set up his temporary base.
He stepped ashore only to find himself face to face with Jan Coen, the youthful captain of one of the Dutch vessels and a man destined to become the most ruthless of all of Holland's governor-generals in the East. The first meeting between these headstrong men developed, appropriately enough, into a scrap with both men accusing and abusing each other. Coen upbraided the English captain 'in a chollericke manner'; whilst Jourdain employed characteristically insulting language, the product of many years in the company of mariners. Asked to show his commission, 'I replyed that I wondred much that he should be soe well acquainted with my comission; but seeinge he knewe it so well, his long beard (for he had none att all) could not teach me to followe my comission.' This jest, he knew, would wound Coen's pride for the smooth-faced Dutchman was just twenty-six years old and acutely conscious of his youth. Indeed, he never forgave Jourdain the insult and would spend the next six years plotting his bloody revenge. Coen also took the trouble to send an account of his meeting with Jourdain to his superiors in Amsterdam; an account which praised his opponent in order to boost his own standing. 'Jourdain gave us much trouble,' he wrote, 'and I had many disputes with him; for he is a clever fellow and left no means untried which would in any way serve his designs ... We on our side did everything to frustrate his endeavours, for it would have been all up with us there had he succeeded.'
It was not long before Jourdain found his chance to humiliate the Dutchman for a second time: when Coen boasted that the natives hated the English, Jourdain summoned a great council of local chieftains and, cajoling Coen into attendance, asked them to publicly declare whom they preferred as trading partners. 'In awnswere of which they all with one accord stoode up, sayinge: Our onelie desire is to deale with the English, but we are daylie threatned by the Hollanders ... so we dare not almost to speake with you for fear of their forces which are neere.' The council gave Jourdain the moral victory and even provided him with a little spice, for the natives were emboldened by his presence and began to sell him cloves 'oute of sight of the Hollanders'. When continued Dutch threats caused them to abandon their trade, a disillusioned Jourdain set sail for Bantam.
Here the news could hardly have been worse. The last survivors of Sir Henry Middleton's expedition were on their deathbeds and trade had ground to a virtual standstill because of animosities between rival factors. As Jourdain stepped ashore and probed the trusty Nathaniel Courthope for news it became apparent that discipline had broken down completely. The two groups of merchants in the town, those of the sixth and eighth voyages, were engaged in bitter in-fighting and neither was happy at the arrival of Jourdain who had been named as chief factor by Middleton shortly before his death. Jourdain was aware that 'they did not greatly care for my coming aland, and that they were determined not to receive me as principal merchant' but he did not realise that his presence would create such hostility. 'Not knowing of any civil wars,' he made the mistake of visiting the factors who lived in the lower town before proceeding to those in the upper. The latter group treated this as a snub and greeted Jourdain with open hostility. A headstrong mariner called Robert Larkin, 'though not able hardly to stand on his legs,' proclaimed himself chief factor and consented to speak with Jourdain only if he returned later in the day. Jourdain duly obliged, only to find Larkin 'haveinge lost his paine and sicknes, came runninge forth like a madman, askinge for the bilboes, threatninge that if I would not begone out of his house (as he tearmed itt) he would sett me into them'.
Characteristically, Jourdain took the threats in his stride. 'I laughed to see the world soe much altered,' he noted in his diary, perhaps because he realised that in this total breakdown of authority lay his strongest chance of recovering his position. But when he returned the following morning to demand the keys and accounts, 'they, beeinge armed with guns, halberts and swordes, came out against me as in defiannce, sayinge that they knewe me not for cheife factour, neither should I have any thinge to doe in thatt buysines.' Thoroughly disheartened, Jourdain told them that 'I would not staie in Bantam to trouble them; and I, as much desirous to be rid of their companie, made as much haste as might be to fitt our shipp.'True to his word, the
Darling
was made ready and put to sea within a few days.
Six weeks later an unforeseen event brought Jourdain back to Bantam. As he sailed along the coast of Sumatra, he caught sight of two English vessels which, he discovered, were under the captainship of Thomas Best, commander of the East India Company's tenth fleet. Best was an 'ungratefull, covetous and prowde' man whose rumbustious personality was not always appreciated by his crew. When he learned that the
Darling
was laden with half a cargo of cloves he was struck by the brilliant idea of buying this cargo, thereby saving himself the trouble of sailing to either Amboyna or the Banda Islands. Jourdain was most unhappy about this and suggested a number of other solutions but 'all this could not satisfie the Generall [Best], the cloves smellinge so sweete that we must retourne for Bantam in his companie; and seeinge no remedy, I was content.' Best had, in fact, struck an agreement whereby he would use his authority to reinstate Jourdain as chief factor in return for the cloves on board the
Darling.
No sooner had the men arrived in Bantam than Best put his plan into action. Summoning the English factors to a general meeting 'he propounded that he understoode of some disorders and controversie that there was betwixt the factors of the sixth and eighth voyages, as alsoe of other voyages formerlie.' To much nodding of heads, he now turned on the factors, haranguing them for 'the greate disgrace it was to our nation and the Honourable Companie, our employars, to have so many houses in one place, seperated both in qualitie and friendshippe, beeing all as it were for one Companie; which was a greate scandall to our nation'.
In speaking these words Best had got to the heart of the problem. Although the men in Bantam were all employed by the East India Company, each voyage sought its own profit and not the general profit of the Company. In forcing Jourdain to sell his cloves, Best was behaving no more honourably than the men he was chastising but he did at least have the foresight to realise that the English community in Bantam could only survive if there was some central authority which could override the claims of individual voyages. 'It was fittinge,' he concluded, 'there should be but one head in the countrye.'
Who that 'one head' might be was never in doubt. 'After perswations of the Generall and them all,' writes Jourdain modestly, 'I was content (though against my will) to take the place.' At last Bantam had a chief factor, and one who had a vision for the future of trade in the East Indies.
Jourdain was convinced that the English should now concentrate their activities on the Banda Islands and sent word to the native chieftains that his merchants would shortly be arriving in far greater numbers. But despite his title and influence Jourdain was powerless to decide the final destinations of vessels arriving at Bantam. It was up to expedition commanders to choose which islands they would visit, and Jourdain's authority only extended over a handful of pinnaces based in the Javanese port. It angered him that for more than a year he was unable to send a single ship to the Bandas and he scribbled a strongly worded letter to London complaining that '[because] there is not any ship gone this year they [the natives] will be out of hope; for that they did depend much upon the English this year, which now they will be frustrate of their hopes and hold the Hollanders' words to be true, who tells them that they shall never see any English ship there but once in four years, and then some small ship which can do them no good.'
A small English vessel did touch at Great Banda in the spring of 1614 and its captain, Richard Welden, wrote to Jourdain to inform him of his visit and urge him to send a ship — any ship — to the islands. 'For the Bandanese do much marvel that in so long a time there have come no English shipping there, protesting if they come they will live and die with the English, for now all the Bandanese hath open wars with the Hollanders and have slain many of them.' Welden added that trade in Banda was more profitable than in previous years and that he was resolved to sail there again 'at the first of the next monsoon'.
His letter arrived at a fortuitous time, for Jourdain had recently found himself with two small ships at his disposal. Fitting out the
Concord,
together with a pinnace called the
Speedwell,
he despatched two factors, George Ball and George Cokayne, to explore the possibilities of increased trade with Banda. Ball was instructed to 'confer with the country people concerning the estate of their business; and if you perceive them to be willing of trade ... you may leave there Mr Sophony Cozucke and Richard Hunt, with one English more, and some black that is willing to serve them.' This was a significant development — the first time that someone of influence had proposed a permanent English presence in the Banda Islands.