“Tut, tut,” interrupted van Beneden, “that foul source, as you call it—I suppose you mean the opium-revenue—is in no way different from any other tax levied on an article of luxury.”
“Granted,” replied Grashuis, “but, who made the inhabitants of the Indian Archipelago acquainted with that luxury?”
“That’s more than I can tell you,” said the other. “I daresay it is with opium very much as it is with drink; whence did we get the products of distillation? Who first discovered them? I fancy it would be no easy matter to find a satisfactory answer to those questions. One thing, however, is quite certain, that the Dutch nation is not responsible for the discovery of opium.”
“That’s true enough,” replied Grashuis, “but I hardly think that a mere negative certificate of that kind will be accepted as a proof of good conduct.”
“No, certainly not,” interrupted Grenits, “for our conscience, though it is clear of the charge of having discovered the drug, by no means acquits us of the more serious charge of having introduced and imported it, and—”
“Come, that’s all nonsense,” cried van Rheijn, “that is a mere assertion of yours, which will not stand the test of inquiry. If you will look into Band’s well-known ‘Proeve,’ there you will find that the Orientals, such as the Turks, the Persians, the Arabians, and the Hindoos, have been for many, for very many centuries, addicted to the use of opium. It is, therefore, most probable that when the Dutch first came to India, they found the habit of opium-smoking already established.”
“You are quite wrong, my worthy friend,” cried Grenits, interrupting him. “You are quite wrong, for this same Band, whose authority on the subject I am as ready to admit as you are, expressly declares that he has not been able to discover when opium began to be used in Dutch India. Now, this confession is, in my opinion, most significant, coming from so distinguished a statesman as Band. For, surely, if he had been able to prove in his treatise on opium, that its use was common when we first arrived there, he would, for the sake of our national honour, not have concealed so important a fact, but, on the contrary, have made the most of it. But I go further than this. Later on in his book, Band goes on to say that when in the sixteenth century Europeans first began to show themselves in Indian waters, the use of opium was known only in the Moluccas, and that, as regards the rest of the Archipelago, its abuse existed only among a very few foreigners, who had settled down in the different sea-ports.”
“Well,” asked van Rheijn, “but must we not look upon that as the expression of a mere private opinion? What do you say?” he continued, turning to van Nerekool. “Band, you see, was an opponent of the use of opium.”
Van Nerekool was, however, wholly engrossed in his own thoughts, and made no reply to the question. He seemed, indeed, not to have heard it at all.
Grenits, however, at once broke in and said: