Storia do Mogor 137.1

137.1

I stopped in Goa a year and three months. It is a place with a climate suited to men from forty up to old age; but it is very unhealthy for young men. Thus a few months after my arrival I fell ill and could never recover my health. Therefore I retired to the convent of the Italian Carmelite priests, where I was well received and attended to for six months, during which I continued unwell. The ordinary diseases of this country are mort-de-chien (cholera)—that is, colic of the bowels with vomiting and laxity—and this complaint is the death of many. The best remedy is to burn with a red-hot iron the middle of the heel until the heat is felt, and by this the pain is allayed and the discharge and vomiting stopped. Other complaints are spleen, the itch, and fevers. This is why the residents of Goa have bad complexions, although they have abundance of food, principally fruits.