Storia do Mogor 101.4

101.4

In forty days we got through the forest and reached the waters of Hugli, not far from the sea. The friars made for the harbour of Balasor, where they wanted to beg for alms. I disembarked at Hugli, and went to see the Father Prior of St. Augustin's, named Frey Irao Bautista. Here I found the chief inhabitants of Hugli, all of them rich Portuguese, for in those days they alone were allowed to deal in salt throughout the province of Bengal. The father asked me at once if there had come with me two fugitive friars. I replied that two fathers had come, but they were not fugitives — on the contrary, they were religious persons much to be esteemed; that they had come to gather alms for their convent, and were gone [65] to Balasor. Thus did I repay the troubles they had caused me on the journey. But they did not equally return to me the good I had done them, as I shall relate (II. 67). The Father Prior placed trust in my words, and made ready two cells to receive the friars on their arrival, which came to pass a few days afterwards, when they were well received.