EUROPEAN NATIONS. 2^7 tory's being destroyed. They asked us why we came thither rather than to any other place, since our countrymen had so grossly abused them.'* * The king of Banjarraassin, in one of his conferences with Captain Beeckman, gave him a narrative of the conduct on the part of the Company which led to the destruction of their establishment, which the honest narrator gives in plain and unequivocal language. As it aiFords an epitome of the con- duct which we must always expect in the same situation when men's interests and duties are at complete variance with each other, I shall not scruple to copy it. " He also inquired whether we were Company ships, or separate traders ; and being answered the latter, he began to lay heavy complaints on our countrymen, telling us how that, at their first arrival, they came like us, and contracted with him in the same manner, obliging themselves to build no forts, nor make soldiers ; but that, under pretext of building a warehouse, they mounted guns and insulted him, and his sub- jects, in a most base manner j that he bore it pa- tiently for a great while, till several of his subjects were beaten, wounded, and some killed by them, as they passed by in their boats, on their lawful oc- casions ; that they forced from them such duties and customs as belonged only to him, and acted very contrary to reason or honesty in all their pro-
- ^^.Wn^ ^o Borneo, p. 47, et seq.
