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By Root 3645 0

is encouraged to conduct worship on Sundays, but he must never again preach from his own notes; he must restrict himself to reading sermons already delivered by properly ordained predikants in Holland; the wife, Sibilla van der Lex, must not wear sumptuary finery; there must be no loud singing after eight in the evening and none at all on Sunday; and the names of the four visiting sailors who were caught dancing with slaves last New Year's, everyone naked, must be sent with Commissioner van Doorn to the authorities in Java, where they are to be punished for immorality, if they can be found.

'You must stamp out the frivolous,' Van Doorn said, and only then did he ask, 'Is my brother working well?'

'We have him at the vineyard.'

'You said the vines were poor.'

'They are, Mijnheer, but through no fault of his. They reached us in poor condition. They were packed in Germany. Improperly.'

'The ones I bring are from France,' Van Doorn said sternly. 'I can assure you they've been properly packed.' Then, actually smiling at Van Riebeeck, he said, 'I should like to see my brother. Don't say anything about it, but I bring a surprise.'

Willem had been waiting patiently outside the door, a man of thirty-three sitting with his hands folded like a refractory schoolboy. 'Commander wants you,' a servant said, and Willem jumped from his bench, nodded as if the servant possessed great authority, and entered the office. His brother looked resplendent.

'How are you, Willem?'

'I'm very glad to be here. Very glad to see you, Karel.'

'I'm commissioner now. In Java, I'm to be the assistant.'

'Mother?'

'She's fine, we understand. I want you to meet my wife,' he said, and as he spoke a look of either compassion or amusement crept across his countenance and he reached out to take his brother's arm.

They went to a part of the fort which had been specially cleaned and provisioned for meetings during the visit. It was made of fine brick, recently kilned in the colony, with a floor pounded flat and polished with liquid cow manure that had hardened to a high and pleasing gloss. It contained five pieces of handsome dark mahogany furniture carved in Mauritius by a Malayan slave: a table, three chairs and an imposing clothes cupboard that covered much of one wall. Seated on one of the chairs was the noble lady Willem had seen coming ashore some hours before.

'This is your sister, Kornelia,' Karel said, and the woman nodded, refraining from extending her hand.

She did, however, smile in the cryptic way that Karel had smiled only a few moments earlier. 'And this,' Karel continued, 'is Dr. Grotius, who is to conduct the marriages and baptisms.' He was a fearsome man, fifty years old, angular and with a heavy touch of righteousness. He wore black except for a white collar of enormous dimension and greeted everyone who approached him with a bleak nod softened by no change of expression.

'Dr. Grotius has been sent to vitalize religious observances in Batavia,' Karel explained, whereupon the predikant looked directly at Willem and bowed again, as if including him among the persons to be vitalized.

The marriage which Dr. Grotius performed occasioned no difficulty, once he was satisfied that the slave girl who was marrying Leopold van Valck understood the Christian catechism and was willing to abjure the heathenism of Islam, but when it came to baptizing the children, a real confrontation arose, and Commissioner van Doorn was vouchsafed a new perspective on Van Riebeeck, who up to now had been so obsequious.

Baptism of the children who were clearly white presented no problem; their parents acknowledged Jesus Christ and the veracity of the Dutch Netherlands church, but when the slave girl Deborah, with ho husband, offered her dark-skinned son Adam, Dr. Grotius sternly rebuked her, saying, 'Children born out of wedlock can in no way be baptized. It insults the holiness of the Sacrament.'

At this point Kornelia, a self-centered woman, lost interest in theological disputation and demanded to be taken back to the ship. As soon as she was gone Van Riebeeck