With the Huis the Marquette, Boot, Adriana,
Noordwaddinxveen and Sijbecarspel arrived at Batavia letters dated 19 and 20
January, 13 February, 25 and 27 March, 29 May and 22 June. It was suggested
that areka was to be transport any longer with ships of the company towards
Surat or Bengal, but better could be sold with the same profit to the Moorish
merchants. The Schuitwijk was ordered to transport 240 last rice towards
Ceylon. The demand of 1000 last was to be solved by the so-called
retourschepen. These ships, namely the Huis te Marquette, Adrichem, St. Laurens
and Reijersbroek had an under layer of saltpetre, sugar and sapan wood. A fifth
ship wasn’t needed due to the small amount of textiles bought at Tuticorin, the
common dryness and the sickness among the labourers, which peeled off the
cinnamon. It was suggested that ships not longer would depart directly from
Bengal towards the Netherlands, but to use old (half worn out) ships as
transport towards Galle and there to load new ships. At Batavia wasn’t men
really pleased with this suggestion, men couldn’t see any profits just
disadvantages. The crews of the former mentioned retourschepen, sailing via
Ceylon, were increased with 10-13 Buginezen. The cargo was valued fl. 441.968.
A small retourschip was to sent towards Mocca for the personnel.
Source
J. van Goor. Generale Missiven van
Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden aan Heren XVII der Verenigde Oostindische
Compagnie. Deel X: 1737-1743. The Hague, 2004, p. 67-68.
