nearly the whole of santjoemeh had been keeping festival. it was, indeed, no everyday occurrence for the son of the rich opium farmer of the district to marry the daughter of an equally wealthy disciple of mercury. at the union of so many millions the dutch public could not but evince the liveliest interest—and it had done so.
we said: nearly the whole of santjoemeh; for there were some who had not thought it incumbent upon them to grace the banquet and the ball with their presence. van beneden, grashuis, van rheijn, and grenits, had allowed their ethnological curiosity to prevail so far as to induce them to go and witness the nuptial ceremony; but nothing could persuade them to attend the subsequent festivities. they had, on the contrary, determined, while the european population was crowding within lim yang bing’s stately mansion in the gang pinggir, and the natives were swarming all around it, to pass a particularly quiet evening together at the house of their friend van nerekool.
when they entered they found the young judge still seated at his study bending over his work by the light of a reading-lamp.
“hallo!” cried one, “still at it?”
“are the courts so very busy just now?” asked another.
“by jove!” exclaimed a third, “that’s what i call zeal for the service!”
“ornithologically speaking,” laughed van beneden, “our friend charles should be classed with the rara avis. come, come, old fellow, this is no time for working! all santjoemeh is astir—just hear what an infernal row is going on yonder.”
“yes,” remarked theodoor grenits, with a scornful laugh, “they are making noise enough over it.”
“my dear friends,” replied van nerekool, “the greater part of the day i have been very busy indeed; for as leendert just now observed with more truth than he himself was aware, at the present moment we have a great deal of work to get through in the courts; but yet, when you came in, i was occupied in a very different manner.” [459]
“would it be indiscreet to ask what made our host bend his head so anxiously over his desk?” asked theodoor.
“not at all, i was reading a letter i have just received from william; that is what made me lay aside my pen.”
“from william verstork?”
“how is he?”
“is he well?”
“how is he getting on at atjeh?”
these questions crossed one another, and were uttered, as it were, in a breath; for the five young men were warmly attached to the worthy controller.
“yes,” replied van nerekool, “i am glad to tell you that verstork is in perfect health, and that he is getting on uncommonly well in the military world yonder.”
“well, that’s a blessing,” remarked van rheijn, who never liked soldiers, “i am glad to hear it—i don’t at all want to change places with him.”
“and what is his letter about, charles?” asked van beneden.
“his letter is a very long one,” replied van nerekool, “much too long to read to you this evening. the greater part of it, moreover, is devoted to purely private matters; and contains particulars concerning the parents of anna van gulpendam, which i do not think i have a right to communicate to you. he tries to cure me of my love for her, and i have no doubt that his endeavour is exceedingly well meant; but yet the contents of his letter have made me very melancholy, as they make the chasm between us appear deeper and more impassible than it seemed before.
“where can she be?” he continued after an instant’s pause—“if i only knew that then all would not be lost!”
the four friends looked at one another sadly—that letter had evidently touched a string which vibrated painfully in van nerekool’s heart.
“come, charles,” said grashuis, trying to rouse his friend, “you must not give way to that melancholy mood. you must try and accept the inevitable. moreover, who can tell what the future may bring!”
“but she is gone!” cried van nerekool hopelessly, “she has disappeared without leaving a trace.”
a strange smile passed over edward van rheijn’s lips; but he made no direct remark.
at length he said: “baboe dalima also seems to have mysteriously disappeared.” [460]
van nerekool made an impatient gesture as one who would say: ‘what is that to me?’
“i happened lately to be at kaligaweh,” continued van rheijn, “and i chanced to meet old setrosmito there. he tells me that dalima started off some time ago for karang anjer.”
“for karang anjer!” exclaimed van nerekool, “and what—?”
“but from that time to this her family have had no tidings from her,” continued van rheijn.
“have they heard nothing?” asked charles.
“not a single word—indeed her parents do not know whether she is alive or dead.”
van nerekool’s head sunk down despondingly on his breast. “one faint gleam of hope,” he murmured, “and then dark night again!”
for a while no one spoke. at length van beneden, who wished to lead his friend’s thoughts into a different channel, broke the silence:
“does verstork write upon no other subject than this?”
“oh, yes,” replied charles, who was gradually regaining his composure. “let us go into the inner room and i will read you the most interesting portion of his letter. this is not at all the place for a comfortable chat.”
thereupon they left the study, which, with its folios and bulky law-books, did not indeed present a very sociable or cosy appearance.
“sabieio, chairs and cigars for the gentlemen!” cried van nerekool. when all were seated and the fragrant manillas were lighted, he continued:
“gentlemen, what do you say to a glass of beer?”
no very determined opposition being offered to this hospitable proposal, van nerekool again called to his servant, “sabieio, bring us some iced beer.”
thus all having quenched their thirst in the pleasant and cooling beverage:
“now then gentlemen,” said charles, “i will give you the most important parts of william’s letter,” and he began to read as follows:
“?‘do you recollect that when we sat down to dinner together after our day’s hunting in the djoerang pringapoes, i told you of a certain recipe for pills to counteract opium, and how that i also told you what success i had already had with this medicine? grenits, at the time, was not at all inclined to look [461]favourably upon that communication, and took a very gloomy view of the prospect which lay before me. the words he used on that occasion have been continually ringing in my ears; and to this day i remember them as clearly as when they were spoken, he said: “keep that prescription strictly to yourself, and don’t say a word about it to anybody. the colonial secretary, who has but one object in view, and that is to raise the opium revenue as much as possible, might look upon your remedy as an attack made upon the golden calf; and missionaries have before this been impeded in their gospel work, and men have been expelled from the colonies, and official functionaries have been suspended or pensioned off for the commission of much more venial offences than bringing such pills as yours to the opium smokers.” now, charles, you know that although with an eye to the future of the members of my family, who, to some extent, depend upon me for support, i was, for a few moments, depressed at my friend’s gloomy prognostic; yet i soon rallied, and, after a little reflection, began to look upon grenits’ words as the outcome of a passing fit of melancholy induced by our conversation, which had almost exclusively run on opium horrors and opium scandals. indeed, grenits himself could not have intended to paint the future in colours as dark as his words seemed to imply; for you remember that when i laughed and said: “oh, it is not quite so bad as that, i hope,” he replied with a smile, “perhaps not; but your pills will not earn you the netherlands’ lion.”
“?‘ah, no, charles! i never aimed at any such distinction. the little good i have been able to do i have done simply for its own sake and without the least expectation of any recompense. such ambition i have always most willingly left to others; for i know full well that seldom real merit, sometimes the directly opposite, but always a certain amount of pliability and want of back-bone, is rewarded by these outward tokens of official approbation. and the mere thought that i might so much as be suspected of belonging to those invertebrates would suffice to paralyse every effort on my part. the shaft which theodoor thus shot at random missed its mark; yet neither he nor i could, at that time, suspect how much sarcasm lay hidden in his last words or how very much to the point had been his foregoing counsels. now pay good heed to what i am about to tell you.
“?‘i had not been here very long, before i received a document from the chief secretary’s office at batavia. that, in [462]itself, was no very uncommon occurrence. i have frequently had communications from that quarter when information was required on certain civil questions, such as duties and other things of that kind, about which they did not wish to trouble the military governor. but yet, it seemed rather strange to me that, on this occasion, i did not receive the document through the chief of the military department. it was a written paper, yet not a despatch. it looked more like a circular although these are generally either printed or lithographed. now listen to what it contained: “an attempt has been discovered at batavia to import certain pills consisting of or mixed with opium, under the pretence that they are medicinal. the indian government has come to the conclusion that the pills in question must be considered as a preparation of opium, and it, therefore, forbids the importation of this so-called medicine except through its own agents, and the sale thereof excepting by the regularly licensed opium farmers and such apothecaries and chemists as are specially exempt from the provisions of the opium act. you are hereby requested strictly to enforce the government’s decision on this subject.”
“?‘this precious document bore the home secretary’s signature.
“?‘here at oleh-leh i had made attempts with the pills in question to cure the chinese opium smokers of their fatal passion, and my efforts in their behalf had met with marked success. i had further given a couple of hundred of them to the officers of the garrison for distribution among such of their men as might need them. these gentlemen also gave me the most glowing account of the success of the medicine. the trophy of bedoedans in my study was enriched by half-a-dozen pipes; and i must confess, charles, that as often as my eye happened to fall on those instruments of moral ruin, which are hanging there harmless on my wall as the visible tokens of victories obtained, i could not repress a feeling of self-satisfaction. was i now to desist? was i forbidden any longer to attempt the rescue of the infatuated wretches around me? i could not realise it—i could not believe it. surely the government would not refuse to hold out a helping hand to the myriads of wretched victims of opium which swarm all about india! there must be a mistake somewhere. the government must have been misinformed and all that was needed was for somebody to open its eyes to the truth.
“?‘to put these pills into the hands of the opium farmer for [463]distribution would be reducing the whole thing to the most utter absurdity and to ensure failure beforehand.
“?‘i therefore sat down and drew up a carefully detailed statement in which i gave the result of my own experience, the evidence of the missionaries and the favourable opinions also of the officers mentioned above. i added to my document legally attested declarations of these gentlemen as to the salutary effects of the medicine.
“?‘finally, i ventured to suggest, that, in favour of these pills as a bona fide medicine, an exception might be made, and that, as prepared and sent out by the missionary society, they might be excluded from the regulations of the opium law.
“?‘my dear charles, what was i about? oh, yes, as an honest man i had followed the dictates of my conscience; but it was too simple-minded on my part to hope that the government might, in the highest interests of morality, be induced to forego even the smallest scrap of its profits. i was a greenhorn indeed to sit down and pen such a document at a time when money—money—money—is the only question with the government and money-scraping seems to be our highest national virtue; while men resolutely close their eyes to the dirty gutters out of which it is raked together.
“?‘very soon after, indeed by the very next mail, i received a reply to my proposal. it ran thus: “it is not the intention of the government to discuss the proposal contained in your letter of the —th. the pills in question must have lately found their way into other parts of the island as well as into batavia. ostensibly they are designed to wean the smokers from the excessive use of opium; but in reality they only serve to procure that indulgence at a much cheaper rate for those who, either from want of means or for other reasons, cannot procure the drug from the legitimate source. while you were occupying the post of controller in the district of santjoemeh we had good reason to suspect that, in your official capacity, you were not disinclined to evade—we are willing to believe from the best motives—the government regulations with regard to the sale of opium; and that you thus contributed to diminish the public revenue. your last letter incontestably proves that you are pursuing the same practices now. on a public servant who entertains such views of his duty, the government cannot look with much favour; and were it not that i am fully persuaded that you are actuated by the very best motives in pursuing your present line of conduct, and that your well-known [464]family relations make me very loth to adopt decided measures, i would at once propose your dismissal as a man unfit for the public service. i have directed the governor carefully to watch your proceedings and to report immediately to head-quarters the first failure of duty on your part that may come under his notice. i need hardly tell you that the state requires from its servants a very different conception of duty from that of lending a willing ear to every foolish sentiment of morbid philanthropy; and that, therefore, if you give any further cause for dissatisfaction you must not reckon upon any consideration whatever.”?’?”
“it is disgraceful!” exclaimed grenits as soon as van nerekool ceased reading. “a noble-hearted fellow like william verstork to be so shamefully treated!”
“oh, that opium, that opium!” continued grashuis no less indignantly than his friend, “it seems to taint the very life-blood of our nation. has it then come to this that we are to be deprived of every means of stemming the national evil?”
“yes, it is indeed disgraceful!” chimed in van beneden.
“but, my friends,” objected van rheijn, “are you not rather one-sided in your view of the matter and rather too hasty in forming an opinion? may there not be some truth in what the government alleges and might not these pills, under the pretence of being a cure, only be another means for extending the illicit traffic in opium?”
“oh, edward!” exclaimed van nerekool, “how can you bring yourself to suspect william verstork of illicit traffic?”
“and the netherland’s missionary society?” added grashuis.
“pardon me, my friends,” cried van rheijn as he passionately jumped up from his chair. “you misunderstand me entirely, i never meant to suggest anything of the kind. i am just as much convinced as any of you can be that both william verstork and our missionaries are acting in this matter with the most perfect good faith and honour. i was not for an instant thinking of them when i spoke. but might not men without principle and without honour, under cover of these wholesome pills, introduce others made of pure opium and thus defraud the revenue?”
“well,” said grenits doubtfully, “such a thing might perhaps come to pass.”
“and is it not then right and proper,” continued van rheijn, “that the government should guard against possible fraud? [465]under cover of these pills the opium plague might conceivably attain to altogether extravagant dimensions.”
“without the treasury being one penny the better for it,” hastily interposed grashuis. “so long as the revenue is kept up they are not so over squeamish in government circles about the abuse of opium. quite the contrary.”
“and then verstork’s proposal to admit only the pills sent out by the missionary society was fair enough,” added grenits. “it would not be very difficult to protect and encourage the use of the medicine and at the same time guard against adulteration or fraud. but no,” he continued, “that is evidently not what the government wants. not one poor scruple must be taken from the dose of poison which is, in a measure, forced upon the people, and every effort to mitigate the evil must, in spite of the twaddle and cant at the hague, be sternly repressed. my friends, you all recollect our discussions on that subject. in the face of what we have heard and seen can anyone deny or doubt that opium lies as a curse upon our poor indian possessions?”
for a few moments the young men sat silently gazing on the floor before them. alas no! that plain fact could not be denied—all were equally convinced of its truth.
“yes, that opium!” sighed van beneden. “friends, let us change our ground without, however, quitting our subject. it would be a pity to do so just now—just now that we five men are assembled here together in santjoemeh to protest against opium, while, at the same moment, yonder, the trumpets are braying and the cannon is roaring in homage to the millions which that same opium has wrung from the people. at the present moment the pig-tailed children of the celestial empire are gathered together in perfect harmony and concord around their tao peh kong; but such is not always the case. circumstances sometimes arise which kindle the bitterest animosities between these chinese brethren. as i was looking through a pile of papers, not very long ago, i happened to come upon a pretty quarrel which greatly interested me and gave me a deep insight, from another point of view, into the vicious circle in which the question of opium farming revolves. we are now sitting here so cosily and quietly together that i should like to take advantage of this favourable opportunity to tell you the story. i must only beg of you that you will pay no heed either to the names, the places or the dates i may use. i have no right to incriminate the actors in my tale, some of whom are still living. on the other hand, my story would lack [466]interest and vividness were i to speak of n or p and introduce places as x or y. i shall therefore take the liberty of introducing fictitious names. i beg you will bear that in mind.
“in the year—let us put it at ten years ago—there existed in the capital of one of java’s residences—supposing we say in santjoemeh—a mighty opium company, to which we will give the name of hok bie. this company hok bie had cast a covetous eye upon the monopoly in a district adjoining to santjoemeh, which we will call bengawan. but this same district had also attracted the attention of a young chinaman called tio siong mo. this young man was very wealthy, although he had not as many millions at command as had the company hok bie.
“it would lead me too far afield,” continued van beneden, “were i to describe to you all the intrigues and plots which were set on foot, all the bribery and corruption which took place on both sides, to get possession of the coveted prize. suffice it to say that the antagonists exerted their utmost powers; for bengawan was a prize indeed. from the opium farmers’ point of view it was the fattest district in all java—and so it is now, unless i am much mistaken, and at present counts the greatest number of opium dens—though i hardly need add, as a corollary, that it contains the most wretched and poverty-stricken population in the island.
“at first it seemed as if the company hok bie would carry all before it; for it managed to cast serious doubts upon the solvency and credit of its adversary’s sureties, and if they could be discredited, tio siong mo would be excluded from the contest altogether.
“tio siong mo, however, held firm, he fought the bribers with their own weapons; and he found means, somehow or other, to re-establish the credit of his sureties. how? you will perhaps be able to give a shrewd guess at that.”
“oh, yes, yes, go on!” cried grenits, “that is as clear as the sun at noonday.”
“well then, that dodge having failed, the company hok bie began to look round for other means of attack. first it endeavoured to bribe tio siong mo’s sureties and to induce them to declare themselves bankrupts; but that did not succeed. next it made an offer to its competitor of half a million of guilders in cash if he would retire from the contest. half a million! it was a liberal bid, there was no denying that. but no! tio siong mo did not waver a single instant, he [467]flatly refused the tempting offer; for the monopoly of bengawan was worth a much larger sum of money than that.
“on the day of the sale five competitors came forward; but three of these very soon dropped out of the bidding, and the representative of the company hok bie and tio siong mo were left to fight out the matter between them.
“i will not weary you by describing the contest, which was carried on at one time with what seemed the wildest recklessness and at another with the most cunning circumspection. there were some very exciting passages in the battle. at length hok bie bid eighty thousand guilders.”
“eighty thousand?” exclaimed van rheijn. “why, that is not a very large sum.”
“a month, a month, my dear fellow!” said van beneden, correcting him.
“well, a month, so be it,” resumed van rheijn; “that comes to only nine hundred and sixty thousand guilders a year. here in santjoemeh—!”
“for those days it was an exorbitant price,” continued van beneden, “i know all about it, and i can assure you it was an extravagantly high price.”
“well, and what happened then?” asked van nerekool.
“the representative of hok bie had called out eighty thousand, thinking by that bid to disconcert and crush his opponent, for he had made a tremendous leap from sixty to eighty.”
“the deuce!” cried van rheijn, “and then?”
“tio siong mo lost not an instant; but with the utmost coolness he said: ‘another thousand.’
“he spoke these words in a tone of voice which seemed to convey that he simply intended to add a thousand to whatever bid the other party might make.
“hok bie’s representative looked blue; that last bold jump of his had brought him to the end of his tether—he was not empowered to go further. the resident who presided encouraged the competitors to go on. but no one spoke.
“at length was heard the ‘third time,’ accompanied by the fall of the hammer, and tio siong mo had secured the monopoly. it was a large sum to pay merely for the contract; but the young chinaman laughed in his sleeve. he knew well enough that in the dessa bengawan he could screw double that amount out of it. but, as you will see, he reckoned without his host. the company hok bie was furious at having thus been worsted, and resolved to have its revenge. at the very [468]first meeting of the directors four hundred thousand guilders were voted, not only to ensure tio siong mo’s fall, but even to secure him a comfortable little nook in the state prison. two of the oldest members of the board undertook the job.”
“by jove!” cried grenits, who was thoroughly interested in the story. as a merchant, such a piece of business was quite in his line, and he pricked his ears as a young race-horse, impatient for the start, dilates his quivering nostrils. “by jove, i am anxious to hear how they managed that.”
“they managed it very simply, indeed,” continued van beneden, “though it cost them a mint of money. but when it is a question of gratifying his passions, or of pampering his vanity your chinaman is by no means stingy.”
“no,” said grenits, “nor yet when it comes to throwing out a sprat to catch a mackerel.”
“agreed,” said van beneden; “but now let me go on, or else we shall not get to the end of the story to-night.”
“just so,” assented edward van rheijn. “make what haste you can; for i have also my little opium tale to tell—and something else besides that.”
“very good! august, drive ahead!” said grenits.
“there were at that time a couple of opium districts which were contiguous to bengawan, and which lay along the java sea. upon these the company hok bie at once flung itself, the monopoly not having as yet been granted for them.”
“yes, of course,” remarked van rheijn, “having lost the rich district of bengawan, a couple of rather more meagre ones would form an agreeable compensation.”
“upon these,” continued van beneden, not heeding his friend’s interruption, “the company hok bie greedily flung itself, and for the opium privilege of those two districts, it paid the sum of 40,000 guilders a month; though it was clear as day that at such a price it must incur a heavy loss.”
“what then could it have been about to offer the money?” asked van nerekool.
“the company’s object was to get a large strip of the java sea under its control.”
“oho!” exclaimed grenits and van rheijn in a breath—a light was beginning to dawn upon them.
“do you fellows now begin to understand?” asked august with a broad smile. “that’s a good job.
“you must know that the residence bengawan is bounded on the north by these two districts. the consequences of this [469]acquisition soon began to show themselves. the coast of the java sea lay open to the company hok bie, and smugglers soon began to ply diligently between that coast and singapore. the contraband very soon found its way through the two districts to the interior, so that presently bengawan was literally flooded with smuggled opium. to such an extent was this contraband trade carried on, that the drug was readily sold for about one half-penny, a price at which the farmer could not possibly afford to sell it.
“then tio siong mo attempted to brazen it out. he began by punctually meeting his obligations, and every month paid the contract money into the treasury. he did this, poor fellow, in the hope that the european authorities would assist him and protect him against this illicit trade which was robbing the revenue as well as himself. and what were the effects of all his representations to the government—‘schwamm darüber’—even where he did obtain some kind of co-operation from some chief official, he got no support whatever from the subordinates. they all, to a single man, sided with the much more powerful company hok bie, which never left any service unrewarded.
“these punctual payments were all very well so long as tio siong mo could find the money. but, however well lined his chest might be, it was with him—as it always must be where much is going out and little or nothing coming in—a mere question of time.
“in the latter half of the second year of the contract, tio siong mo was declared a bankrupt. he could not possibly cover his expenses, and by that time had fallen in arrears and owed a colossal sum to the treasury, a debt of which little or nothing was ever recovered, because, at the critical moment, his sureties had absconded to singapore. so cleverly did these worthies dispose of their property, that they left nothing but debts behind them.
“?‘the dutch government wields a sword without mercy,’ said the financial secretary; and that same government which, by taking proper measures in its own interest as well as in the interest of their farmer, might have put a stop to smuggling on anything like a large scale, but had neglected to do so—that same government now clapped poor tio siong mo into prison. there he lingered for several years, and quite lately he has been released, it being evident that nothing was to be got out of him. we sometimes say, with regard to horses, that they [470]who earn the corn do not always get it; and this episode i think shows that they who are punished are not always the real culprits.”
“but what ultimately became of the bengawan contract after the farmer’s bankruptcy?” asked van rheijn, curiously.
“of course,” resumed van beneden, “the district had to be put up again after tio siong mo’s failure. who were the new farmers the papers do not tell me; but, from a whining lamentation uttered by the financial secretary, in which he exhorts the judges to the utmost rigour against the luckless bankrupt, it appears that the whole thing only produced forty-one thousand guilders. thus the state, in addition to the large sum owing by tio siong mo, lost a clear sum of forty thousand guilders a month.”
“that’s the style!” exclaimed grenits, “i wish such a thing as that would happen regularly, year by year, in all the districts, then some means would speedily be found to put an end to the opium traffic altogether.”
“and what became of the two coast districts, which the company hok bie had taken?” asked van rheijn, very anxious to get to the bottom of the story.
“what could the company make of them? they could be worked only at a loss, and, as soon as the object it had in view was obtained, it made over the contract to some other company—no doubt at considerable loss. at least hok bie would have no more to do with them.”
“and the moral of the story is?” asked leendert grashuis.
“why, simply this,” said theodoor grenits, “that from whatever point of view you look at the opium-farming system, you are sure to catch sight of something particularly loathsome and disgusting.”
“and that such a rotten system should form one of the principal sources of the netherlands’ colonial revenue!”
“yes,” assented van beneden. “in these latter days it has indeed been raised to that dignity by men in office, into whose hands the indifference of our dutch nation has placed unlimited power.”
