When I Began To
Recover My Health And Strength, Very Little Of My Money Remained, Every
Thing Was So Scarce And Dear.
Every chicken, and these not good, cost me
seven or eight livres, or from six shillings to six and eightpence, and
all other things in proportion; besides which the apothecaries, with
their medicines, were a heavy charge upon me.
At the end of six months
the siege of Goa was raised, and as jewels rose materially in their
price, _I began to work_[168]; and as before I had only sold a small
quantity of inferior rubies to serve my necessities, I now determined to
sell all the jewels I had, and to make another voyage to Pegu; and as
opium was in great request at Pegu when I was there before, I went from
Goa to Cambay, where I laid out 2100 ducats in the purchase of 60
parcels of opium, the ducat being worth 4s. 2d. I likewise bought three
bales of cotton cloth, which cost me 800 ducats, that commodity selling
well in Pegu. When I had bought these things, I understood the viceroy
had issued orders that the custom on opium should be paid at Goa, after
which it might be carried anywhere else. I shipped therefore my three
bales of cotton cloth at Chaul, in a vessel bound for Cochin, and went
myself to Goa to pay the duty for my opium.
[Footnote 168: From this expression it may be inferred, that besides his
mercantile speculations in jewels, Cesar Frederick was a lapidary.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 331 of 842
Words from 89889 to 90148
of 230997
