upon the defenders. All this was only in jest
among the Javans with their pikes; but our men and the Hollanders were
in earnest with their shot, and were therefore forced to be kept
asunder.

Meeting the Dutch merchants in the evening, I asked one of them if he
thought that Holland were able to wage war with England, that they
should make such contention with our men, striving who should go
foremost? I likewise told them all, that if the English had not once
gone before, they might have gone behind all the other nations of Europe
long ago. But they answered, that times and seasons change: And
doubtless, owing to their great numbers here in India, they hold
themselves able to withstand any other nation in the world. I cannot,
however, say what may be the opinion of their states at home, and of the
wiser of their nation.[128]

[Footnote 128: In this business of the Dutch, wherein many shewed their
pride and ingratitude, as the fault I hope is not in their nation, but
only personal, I have mollified the author's style, and left out some
harsher censures. _Beati pucifici.--Purch_. in a side note.]

Always, a little before the shews began, the king was brought out from
his palace, sitting on a man's shoulders bestriding his neck, and the
man holding him by the legs. Many rich _tirasols_, [parasols or
umbrellas,] were carried over and round about him. His principal guard
walked before him, and was placed within the rails, round about the
pageant. After the king, a number of the principal people followed,
seeming to have their stated days of attendance. The shews were in this
manner: First came a crew armed with match-locks, led by some
_gentleman-slave_; then come the pike-men, in the middle of whom were
the colours and music, being ten or twelve pans of tomback, carried on a
staff between two people. These were tuneable like a peal of bells, each
a note above the other, and always two people walked beside them who
were skilled in the country music, and struck upon them with something
they held in their hands. There was another kind of music, that went
both before and after; but these pans or _gongs_ formed the principal.
The pike-men were followed by a company of targeteers carrying darts.
Then followed many sorts of trees with their fruit hanging upon them;
and after these many sorts of beasts and birds, both alive, and also
artificially made, that they could not be distinguished from those that
were alive, unless one w