Omygpayo, Hewsamcow; Utee_, who was shortly after crissed for being caught with a woman; the informant, named Boyhoy; Irrow and Lackow, who were fled to Jackatra, neither of whom I had before heard of.  I used every means to get them, but could not, unless I had been at great charges.  Some of them belonged to great men among the Javans, and had taken refuge in their houses, so that we could not get at them:  Yet some of their masters offered to sell them, on which we higgled for their price as one would do for an ox or calf, but they held them so dear that I could not deal with them.  I offered as much for each as would have bought a slave in their stead; but they were fit instruments for their purpose, being practised in all manner of villainy, so that they would not part with them, except for large sums; for all the Javans and Chinese, from the highest to the lowest, are thorough-paced villains, without one spark of grace.  Were it not for the sabander and admiral, and one or two more, who are natives of Clyn, there would be no living for Christians among them, without a fort, or a strong house all of brick or stone.  We did not torture Boyhoy, because he had confessed, but crissed him.

Among the other instruments of the devil on earth in Bantam, there was a kinsman of the king, named Pangram Mandelicko, who kept one of the incendiaries of our house under his protection.  He came one day to our house to buy cloth, when I desired him to deliver up this fellow into our hands, telling him how good it would be for the country to root out all such villains.  “Tell them so,” said he, “who have the government in their hands, or care for the good of the country, for I do not.”  On another time, wanting me to give him credit for cloth to the value of six or seven hundred pieces of eight, because I refused to trust him, he went away very angry, saying at the gate, it was a pity our house was not again set on fire.

The regent or protector gave us all the houses and ground that joined our inclosure, and had belonged to the incendiaries that undermined our house, but made us pay enormously dear for the property.  We bought also from a Pangram, or gentleman, a house which came so near the door of our pepper warehouse as to be very troublesome to us, so that now we had a spacious yard.

The 9th September, the regent made proclamation, that no Chinese should weigh pepper to the English and Hollanders; which proclamation was procured by the Hollanders, for they told us themselves that day at dinner, that the protector owed them 10,000 sacks of pepper; but I said to them that it was not so, as they would not be such fools as to trust them so largely.  I went next morning to an old woman, who was called queen of the land by the sabander and others, and commands the protector, though not even of the royal blood, but is held in such estimation among them for her wisdom, that she rules as though she were queen of