Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/245

EUROPEAN NATIONS. 2g9 There is no place in which the different Euro-* pean companies were so anxious to make mono- polies, and where they were so well resisted, as at Achin, long the principal commercial state of the Archipelago, but the trade of which was at last ruined by the naval superiority of the Dutch, and the destruction of the commerce of every place that was wont to trade with it, on the final per^ Jecting ' of the monopoly system. Commodore Beaulieu, one of the most sensible and intelligent persons that ever visited the Archipelago, gives us an account of the animosity of the European na- tions against each other, and their machinations against the natives, which it is impossible to read without disgust. The French had no sooner made ordinary. It was an imprudent thing of those gentlemen to have given them occasion of having so barbarous a notion of the principles and behaviour of all their countrymen. It » true we took all the pains imaginable, by an honest, civil, complaisant way of behaviour and dealfng, to remove this great prejudice out of their minds, though I must own we foiuid it a pretty hard task, they being so prepossessed with an opinion of our baseness and barbarity. I believe, indeed, that the great confidence we put in them did contribute not a little to make them have a greater value for us than for other strangers. They are certainly the most peaceable people in the world to one another, quarrelling seldom or never among themselves, and avoiding above all things any occasion of giving an aftront, because, when once it is given, it is never to be forgot." — Beeckman's Voyage to Borneo, p. 101.