Cows were costlier in Kerala than children
Edward Barlow began writing a Journal,in captivity.He was held captive by a Dutch fleet in 1672,while he was working in the East India Company's merchant ship,The Experiment ,and taken to the Dutch stronghold of Batavia on Java.
He was confined there for a year,and to occupy his time,he began to draw and write up a journal of his voyages.Thereafter,he kept up his journal of his travels,until the end of his career.An extremely good draftsman,there are 127 coloured drawings in his manuscript,now at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.They are beautiful miniatures with accurate depictions of the ships portrayed,together with details of their armaments,rigging and flags.There are convincing action scenes with added vignettes of topography,fish,birds and animals.There are 55 pencilled outlines of ports and coast lines,in addition.The manuscript,has 225,000 words.The story of his first voyage for the Company -when he travelled to Mumbai,Surat,Goa and Malabar, is a graphic account of a seaman's life in the 17th century.
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| Journal of Barlow 1659-1703 |
From his Journal,we get details of his voyages to Valapattanam,Tanur,Ponnani, and Calicut.
Born near Manchester in 1642,Barlow grew up in a deprived house hold,according to Roy Moxham,who wrote,The Theft of India.His father was a poorly paid worker on the land and had six children.Barlow did odd jobs as a boy,on the land and in coal pits.This enabled him to buy clothes to replace the rags that had prevented him earlier from attending church.He left school at 13,after a rudimentary education,for an apprenticeship in the bleaching of textiles.Through a relative's friend,he gained a new apprenticeship,as chief master's mate of a Royal Navy ship,the Naseby.He was serving in it when it brought back Charles II at the Restoration.He worked on other war ships until 1662 and then moved to the merchant navy.He travelled to Portugal,Spain and Brazil.He swapped job between royal and merchant ships.
In 1672,on his second voyage for the Company,Barlow went to Java and Taiwan.He didn't know that war had been declared between England and the Dutch republic.Barlow's ship,The Experiment was intercepted by the Dutch and we got the Journal,as I said before.
Barlow made his first visit to the East as an ordinary sea man aboard the same ship.It was a 250 ton ship,with a crew of 60 and armed with 22 cannons,bound for India.It left England,together with two other Company ships in March 1670 and arrived at Bombay in September.There were some women on board ,who had come out to join their husbands in the Company's service.Several discovered that their husbands were already dead.
The ship took a few days to offload some of its cargo.Barlow noted that most of the people insider the fort were Indian Muslims or Portuguese-the Portuguese being paid he same as the English.He describes the strangely attired Indians outside the fort.
A week later,the ship discharged the rest of the cargo at Swally,near Surat.The shore was lined with the booths and tents of the local merchants.One of these merchants was engaged by each of the crew to purchase what they had brought to India and to sell them what they would carry home.
The ship then sailed to Goa.Barlow notes that although it had few commodities of its own,Goa's position and deep harbour made it a convenient place for trade.Since the Dutch had captured many of the Portuguese bases,there was little business.A laden ship went back to Portugal only every two or three years.
After leaving Goa,the ship continued down the coast to the Company's factory at Karwar,where it dropped off money and letters from England.Three days further south,it went up an estuary to the recently established Company base at Valapattanam.Some lead was off loaded for the Company to use in exchange for spices.Barlow bought some coconuts to take home to England as curios.He writes that the local people would not sell them cows,but that for a small sum,you may buy their children.One of the ship's men jumped into the water and disappeared ,presumed to have been taken by crocodiles.
From Valapattanam,the ship went south to Tanur and Ponnani to load the pepper that had been bought by the Company's factors.At first the Indians were wary of them,thinking they were Dutch-for there are few in all East India of the country people but are fearful of them and cannot abide or love any of them,having been so absurd and their goods taken from them in so many places.
The ship was hit by an unseasonable storm.Barlow,being superstitious and distrstful of foreign religions,imagined this was a result of the inhabitants offering up as sacrifice one of their sons or daughters to their God,the Devil,and that Hellish Fiend,being offended at something,caused him to raise such a horrible tempest.
Going back north,the ship called at Calicut a few scattering houses,being destroyed by wars.Prostitutes were available cheap.Barlow was more shocked to see both men and women,some of the women heavily pregnant,wearing only a loin cloth.They collected a Company factor who wanted to go to Valapattanam.They also took on board three Dutchmen who were deserters from the Dutch East India Company at Cochin.At Valapattanam,they dropped the factor off and took on board the man he was replacing to carry him up to Karwar.
On 15 January 1671,Barlow watched India,disappear from sight.
Between 1670 and 1703,Barlow made nine voyages to India and the East.He rose to be chief mate.He was disappointed at not being made the captain.In 1683 he had a fight with the captain at Sumatra.he was put ashore and had to work his passage back to England.In 1692,while in India,he had severely caned a sea man for insubordination.The man had subsequently died.On the ship's return to England,his widow engaged a lawyer.Some of the dead man's ship mates supported her and,to avoid going before the courts,Barlow had to give her a sum of 50 pounds,a huge sum then.
Barlow was married in 1678 to a maid servant of a friend in London.Two days after the marriage,he sailed for Jamaica.While he was away,his wife was caught in a house fire and miscarried.In 1695,their youngest child died of consumption.In 1705,Barlow was finally made the captain of an East Indiaman.Under his command,the Liampo left Portsmouth for the Red Sea.Before he left,Barlow made his will,leaving everything to his wife and children.Off the Mozambique coast,his ship was lost.Fortunately,his Journal was not on board.Hence this short note on him.
Please read,Life and Loves of Catherine Cooke in Kerala
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