Storia do Mogor 265.20
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 265.20
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265.20.1
Eight days afterwards the same priest came straight from the widow's house to find me, and directly he saw me began once more to complain harshly, saying I should be the cause of that woman losing her reputation. He begged me, for the love of God, to abandon any such thoughts. Feeling myself quite innocent in the matter, I replied to the padre that never had I dreamt either of stopping or of marrying in Goa. As it seemed to me, it was she who wanted to marry me, and had thus called in the padre as intermediary and made use of this artifice. I laid before him many similar affairs that had happened in India. But the priest was not a practical man, and had not been long in India ; so he believed what the woman said, and made me out the culprit. He told me I was not speaking the truth ; and finding my arguments did not prevail, I gave my word to the priest that in a short time I would quit Goa, if he would only give me the time to prepare, and this he did.
265.20.2
At that time there was in the city of Goa an old friend of mine, a French merchant, named Clodio Menolhao. He had a dispute with a shoemaker, a native of the country, over the price of a pair of shoes. The shoemaker was called a shameless cheat, but said nothing at the time, and went away. Clodio had spoken thus without imagining what would happen to him. Two days had passed when, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the merchant shut up business and went off to get his breakfast. Passing down a narrow street, all of a sudden he beheld the shoemaker holding a small pot in his hand, with him one of his comrades holding a loaded blunderbuss. The shoemaker inquired whether he preferred a shot from the blunderbuss or a potful of excrement. Clodio found himself in a scrape, and thought it best, since he did not want to lose his life, to respond most humbly that he liked better to get a potful of filth than a shot from the blunderbuss. Abusing him right and left, the shoemaker threw the contents of the pot over him, and he, hastening his steps so as not to be seen, came into my house smelling most vilely, and in a great rage told me the story. I consoled him by saying that it was better to wash a live body than a dead one.
265.20.3
Thus the natives who live in the territory of the Portuguese are also troubled by the point of honour, and foreigners are not welcomed in those parts. If they do resort there, they should obey the precept of the three statues cut in stone, which stand in a wall close to the church of Sao Paulo, nowadays styled the 'Bom Jesus.' These three statues are of this sort: one has a finger touching its eyes; the second has the fingers on its ears; the third stands with the finger pressed to the lips. There is an inscription saying: 'He who sees, hears, and says nothing, lives a life devoid of care.' Let those be warned who want to pass through that country. Another similar affair occurred when some well-born men were playing high and one of them lost. Upon the chair of the loser there leant another gentleman who had been governor of Mozambique. Inadvertently he jogged the chair. The gentleman sitting on it, put out at losing, turned his face and said: 'It seems your Honour learnt these courteous manners at Mozambique?' The ex-governor of Mozambique suppressed his feelings and went home, but ordered his Kaffirs to kill the gambler when he came out. This they did as he issued forth.
265.20.4
In the same city there was a Portuguese merchant, a rich widower, whose only daughter was very lovely. This girl suffered from a sore on the leg which no physician had been able to heal. Desponding at the state of his daughter's health, the father had recourse to a sturdy young Frenchman who was an able surgeon. This man he told [225] that if he could cure his daughter he would give her to him to wife along with an excellent dowry. The young man pledged himself and accepted the terms. In the short space of two months she was perfectly well. The girl, being now in good health, desired to marry the young man, both out of affection and for the obligation she was under to him. But the father, now his daughter was all right, gave orders that she was never to appear in the young man's presence, who by this time was not very cordially received when he came to the house.
265.20.5
Relying upon the promise made to him, the young man saw the father of the young girl and set forth his wishes. He was prayed to be seated, and his request would be at once complied with. The father went inside and brought out five hundred Venetians (coins). These were offered as a present, accompanied by a little speech: 'Your Honour has little knowledge of the Portuguese in India; a Portuguese who has to maintain his daughter would never consent to her marrying a foreigner.' In this he spoke truth, for I have come across cases in India where they married their daughters to poverty-stricken Portuguese soldiers rather than give them to a rich and well-placed foreigner. The young man declined to accept the money, and departed for Europe without waiting to get anything more in India. This case happened in the year one thousand six hundred and seventy-eight (1678). I could tell other stories about the men born in Portugal who came out to India, but I have no wish to expand. All I will say is that in the town of Macao there was a rich merchant who wrote to Goa to one of his representatives, enjoining him to send a Portuguese-born youth to be married to his daughter. This agent chose out of a number a well-built young fellow and sent him off to Macao. On reaching that place he was well received, and in a short time the marriage came off. At the end of the feast the newly-married pair retired, and instead of conciliating the wife, the bridegroom struck her till her face swelled.
265.20.6
Never having expected such injuries, the wife passed the night in affliction. When morning came the bridegroom called for his breakfast, as if he deserved it. The girl's mother, seeing his confident manner, assumed that he had behaved well to her daughter. But the girl made great complaints to her mother of the way she had been treated. The mother imagined it was all right [226], and consoled her. For two nights in succession he acted in the same way, and the bride, disheartened, fled from her husband. The parents, finding out he was a brute and unfit to be married, said to him that as he had illtreated his wife, they would for a time send him to Goa with some merchandise to trade with. A recommendation was sent that as soon as he reached that place he should be assassinated. To meet the required expenditure, five thousand asharfis were sent. On his arrival these orders were executed.
265.20.7
In his place they sent another man from Portugal, named Antonio Galvao. He was wiser, and marrying with a good dower, lived in peace with his wife. After some years he left Macao with his family, and came to live in the city of Goa. The viceroy, Antonio de Mello de Castro, made him governor of the fortress at Chaul. On my passing through that place, I received from him good help on my way and great urbanity ; he was very fond of foreigners. In the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-two (1682), when I came back to Goa, he was then dead ; but I came across his son called Francisco Galvao, when we were neighbours. During the fighting with Shiva Ji [i.e., Sambha Ji, son of Shiva Ji] on the island of Santo Estave (Estevao), he was hit by a ball from the enemy's cannon which took off his head.
265.20.8
There was another ridiculous business at Macao. A peasant fellow, born in Portugal, married a rich wife. Before entering the bridal chamber there came four young Chinese women-servants, well made and light-coloured, to wash their feet, carrying a ewer and basin of silver. Others bore delicate curled-up towels. The bridegroom, who was not accustomed to — in fact, had never seen — any grandeur, rose from his chair on seeing these girls, and made them a profound bow, and would not let them wash his feet. The reason he gave was that they were white as he was, and he was not worthy of so much honour. These answers disconcerted his father and mother-in-law. After a great deal of trouble, they managed to wash his feet, he helping and begging their pardon all the while, saying he was prodigiously obliged.