Page:Max Havelaar Or The Coffee Sales of the Netherlands Trading Company Siebenhaar.djvu/299

 carry off girls—just like that young German at Busselinck & Waterman’s—and that I attached no value whatever to his opinion, for that now I had personally heard from a Resident how matters stood, and therefore had nothing to learn from Mr. Shawlman.

There were several other people from the East present that evening, amongst others a gentleman who was very rich, and still made much money out of tea, which the Javanese prepared for him for little money, and which the Government bought from him at a high price, in order to encourage the industry of those Javanese. That gentleman also was very angry with all the discontented people who are always talking and writing against the Government. He hadn’t words enough to praise the administration of the colonies, for he said he was convinced much money was lost on the tea they bought from him, and that therefore it was true generosity on their part to keep paying so high a price for an article that in reality had little value, and that he personally did not like (for he always drank Chinese tea). He also said that the Governor-General who had extended the so-called tea-contracts was, in spite of the calculation which proved that the Country lost so much in these transactions, such an able and good man, and especially such a faithful friend to those who had known him earlier. For that Governor-General had taken no notice whatever of the gossip about the losses on tea, and had, when the repeal of those contracts was mooted, I believe in 1846, done him personally a great service by decreeing that they should still continue to buy his tea. “Yes,” he exclaimed, “my heart bleeds when I hear such noble people slandered! If it had not been for, I and my wife and children would now have to walk instead of driving.” Then he had his carriage called, and it looked so spick-and-span, and the horses were so well-fed, that I can quite well understand how one may burn with gratitude for such a Governor-General. It warms ones very soul to set eyes on such sweet emotions, especially on comparing them with the cursed grumbling and whining of creatures like that Shawlman.