Storia do Mogor 199.4

199.4

I know quite well that some in reading this History will comment on my leaving the Mogul country so many times and then going back. Some will say to themselves that in those lands there must be some delectable fields which caused my return there. But in reality, granting that by God's favour I did have the luck to attain some good fortune, yet never had I any desire to settle there. For, of a truth, they have nothing that can delight or win people from Europe, or make them desire to live there. The country is not good for the body, much less for the soul ; for the body, because it is requisite to live ever on the qui vive and keep your eyes open, since no one ever says a word to be relied upon. It is continuously requisite to think the worst and believe the contrary of what is said ; for it is the habit there absolutely to act according to the proverb of my country, ' Pleasant words, sad actions.' They deceive both the acute and the careless ; thus, when they show themselves the greatest friends, you require to be doubly careful. The country is not good for the soul, as much from the licence one has there as from the absence of Catholic observances. Thus, when I could leave it, I did so ; nor should I ever have gone back there had I not been forced by necessity.