Storia do Mogor 138.1

138.1

At the time of this expedition I was anxious to quit Goa; but I could not do it in lay clothing. I therefore left in the garb of a Carmelite monk until I had got beyond the district of Goa and had entered the territory of Bijapur, of which Shiva Ji had already taken possession. There I returned to my ordinary costume, and placed myself under the guidance of Divine Providence. I prayed God to deliver me from many perils, above all from robbers. For, a little time before my arrival, they had at a certain place murdered fifteen persons. Nor did they murder me as I passed by, but when they might have done it they saw me to be poor and a foreigner. A few paces farther on I met a traveller near some cattle-sheds who was escaping in haste, and he warned me to press onwards because the people following us were robbers. But, weakened by illness, I could not keep up with the pace of the man, who was acting as my guide in a country I did not know. I passed several chungams, which are places where they collect money from people passing. The severity they exercise upon travellers is great, depriving them of the smallest piece of money to be found upon them, with no tenderness for the poor, taking from them in default of money their shirts, coats, and sheets.