Mrs Crommelin was being very rude to Jean Nepveu. In the past they had been good friends, but since he had become interim governor she was very unfriendly towards him. The Crommelins had been granted leave, but were still in Suriname and were still living in the governor’s palace, where Jean Nepveu had to work every day in the office. Governor Crommelin himself had turned into a grumpy old man, and the staff and slaves in the palace didn’t know where they stood. Should they obey Misi Crommelin or the new governor?
Oh, yes, and have you heard how Klaas Doesburgh’s coloured concubine managed to send her slave to the Doesburgh’s house on the Waterfront with the message that Klaas must go straightaway to the concubine’s house because one of her children was ill, and he had gone, too, to the great annoyance of Mrs Doesburgh. What an impertinence of that coloured! It gets worse and worse with those types. And Sarith got bored and annoyed at these parties. She didn’t feel like them any more. She wanted a man; she wanted to get married! She was twenty-one already. An old spinster, without a husband on the horizon. How was it possible for her to be in this situation when she was so much prettier than all the others?
A few months later, at the end of September, Uncle Levi received a last letter from Elza from Holland, which went as follows …
Amsterdam, 2 August 1769
Dearest Papa,
When you receive this letter we will be just about to leave or will already be at sea. We board in the first week of October. In this way we’ll be out of these parts before the autumn storms begin. If everything goes well, we’ll arrive in Paramaribo the last week of November or the first week of December. I shall be very glad to be back in our own home, especially since Gideon will be getting a little brother or sister around the middle of January. I don’t mind which, as long as he or she is healthy. Oh, Papa, you must congratulate Esther and Jacob on the birth of their fourth son. For Esther’s sake I had hoped that it would be a daughter this time round, but well, four sons is also quite something. And what a worthy kaddish they’ll have said for them later on! How are things with Rebecca and Abraham and their little Zipporah? Is Rebecca already expecting again? It was really fine that you were able, after all, to send Leida to the town for two months to be with Amimba. Have you seen Amimba’s son yet? Rutger and I had a good laugh when we read in your letter that the child has been named Rutty, after Rutger.
It has been really hot here, sometimes hotter than at home. I stayed for three weeks with Gideon at Annette and her husband’s country house. Annette is Great-uncle Frederik’s third daughter. They have four children, from four to eleven years old. We went there in a carriage: a huge country house near Bussum. Really nice. Sometimes I felt I was at home, at Hébron.
Gideon has kept himself amused. The nieces and nephews played with him a lot, and it was usually so warm that he could wander around in next to nothing, just as at home. He really liked that – he so hates all those clothes on his body.
He’s now beginning to talk and says, amongst other things, something like ‘Masha’. Both Maisa and Afanaisa claim that it is her name he’s saying. Rutger was also in the country for two weeks. Niece Marie is sorry that we’re leaving. She says that the house will feel empty without us. I think that Alex is also sorry that we are returning. Rutger sometimes allowed him to go out on his own. I think he knows Amsterdam like the back of his hand. He will miss all the conversations with the acquaintances he’s made here. He’s been so happy to have been able to speak to a white person without anyone disapproving, and to be able to come and go wherever he wants. When you hear him talk, he seems like a real Amsterdammer.
Well, Papa, that was it then. Do greet the whole family, have a big kiss from me, and goodbye for now.
From your Elza
Uncle Levi was staying along with Rachel and Sarith at the house of Jacob and Esther de Ledesma, on the occasion of Yom Kippur. That was traditionally a day of fasting followed in the evening by an extensive dinner. For this the table would be covered with a beautiful Jewish table cloth. The best porcelain, crystal and silverware were brought out and polished up for the day. Everything bright and shiny. The table bore so many plates and dishes that a hundred people could have feasted. Elza’s letter was again the talk of the day, especially that she would soon be returning and was expecting another baby.
Sarith sat with a vexed look on her face, staring straight ahead. She was getting irritated, and every time Elza’s name was mentioned she wanted to scream. Now Sarith knew one thing for certain: that she must be married by the time Elza and Rutger returned. She didn’t know yet to whom, but it didn’t really matter to whom, she just had to have a man and be married. Just had to!