Storia do Mogor 265.5
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 265.5
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265.5.1
The Chinese governor, on being informed, sent soldiers to inquire into this novel affair. These men, seeing the feathered sailors, became alarmed and halted at a distance. On the fugitives perceiving the fear the soldiers had of them, one of them divested himself of his plumage, and from afar began saluting and telling them in Chinese that they were shipwrecked mariners. They were conveyed to the presence of the governor, and he, taking them to be pirates, ordered them to be seized, while men went to search the boat and see if things were as the sailors said. Finding in the end that they were shipwrecked men, he treated them honourably, gave them food to eat and clothes to wear, for they smelt of the feathers in which they were clothed. After some days he sent them off, accompanied by some soldiers, who carried them to terra firma, and produced them before the chief governor with a letter which reported the facts. After having been examined afresh, they were well treated. In this way they passed through the land of China with a guide provided by each governor of a fortress. They traversed many forests full of wild beasts. At the end of a long journey they reached the city of Macao. There at that time the wife of one of the band was about to marry again ; she broke the marriage off when her husband arrived, and took back her husband, although he was very emaciated and much battered by long travel.
265.5.2
As they were of different countries and different places, each one from this port took his road for his own home. One of them set out for Siam, and there found his wife already married again, and with sons. The cure who had married her obliged the woman to return to her first husband, although this was against her will. The story I have told was confirmed to me by a Portuguese, one of the band named Bento Marques. He told me many details of this shipwreck, and I have only reproduced the principal events; I will leave it to the reader to reflect on all that must have passed. To satisfy the reader's wish, I give the names of the men who were in this shipwreck: Bento Marques, Portuguese; Manoel Machado, of the same race; Paulo Dono, Agostinho de Moraes, Paulo de Siqueras, Urbano da Silva, Joao Gomes. These formed one settlement when they mutinied; and they had as chief Bento Marques, who was possessor of a knife. Those in the other settlement were Manoel da Costa, a native of India, selected as chief, and he had a nail for his only weapon; Antonio de Matos, Joao da Silva, Antonio da Costa. The three who [175] died were called Joao de Rozario, Joao da Costa, Luiz Pexoto da Silva. These seven were of the other settlement at the time of mutiny, and when they reunited, the majority of votes decided. This affair is well known in the greater part of India.
265.5.3
In the village of Trivambur (Tiruvottiyur), a league and a half from San Thome, there was a wall enclosing a temple, and on the stones of this an inscription stating and pointing out the road or highway for reaching the sea, for the benefit of those coming from inland. At the present time that village is quite close to the sea. In the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-one (1651), it happened at San Thome that a fisherman went there to fish. His hook caught at the bottom, so that he was unable to pull it up. He dived to see what his hook had caught in, and found it was an anchor. He put a buoy to his line to mark the place, and went off to tell the governor of the place nearest the sea. Divers were sent to haul up the anchor. When they got it out they saw the fluke had been embedded in clay, a sign that in olden times the sea was distant, and the place was the site of a village. The hooks (barba) of the anchor had already disappeared from the saltness of the sea, and it was without a stock.
265.5.4
The learned men of Hindustan are in the habit of writing on metal plates. This is from the habit they have of preserving the memory of antiquity. On one of these plates it is written that from the port of Surat, and Dyo (Diu) in Hindustan, caravans started for Mecca by land. Nowadays all is sea: Surat, Barocha (Bharoch), Cambaja (Kambayat), Dyo (Diu), Syndi (Sind) — all these are at present on the shore of the sea. In my time the Mahomedans destroyed the temple [at Trivambur] and the enclosure referred to in order to erect new buildings, for they abominate the antiquities of the Hindus.
265.5.5
I will tell you of a terrible affair that happened in the Portuguese territory. There was a man married to a rich and influential lady of good connections. He misbehaved with a girl servant of the house; but from the hate the lady thereby conceived for him, she dissembled until she found the occasion she needed. She killed the negress, and after mutilating the body, ordered it to be buried in the garden behind the house. The flesh removed from the body was taken by the lady into the kitchen, and in her own presence a dish was prepared with it. When her husband came home she presented the dish to him herself, and told him she had made it. The husband ate and praised it for its exquisite taste. Then the woman lifted the dish and flung the contents in his face, saying it was not enough to have enjoyed her while she was alive; even in death she was of good savour. Her anger overflowing, she gave her husband plentiful abuse, and, quitting the house, went to live with her relations, nor for the rest of her life would she consent to meet her husband.
265.5.6
Here is another case which happened at San Thome in the year ninety-five (1695). There was a Portuguese called Antonio Pinto, married to a woman whose name was Izabel Rapoza, and he went the evil way with a married woman called Antonia de Torres, who allowed this Portuguese to enter her house publicly. The wife heard of this, and not being able to cool down her passion, found an opportunity one day about noon, and came out of her house followed by four strong and stout slaves. She attacked the house of her adversary, and dragged her out by her hair into the street, there to have her bones broken by a good thumping and her face disfigured by shoe-beating. The aggrieved wife then retired with all dignity to her own house, and the wretched Antonia de Torres went off to Madras to be healed. Thus were she and Antonio Pinto branded with infamy all over the country. By way of restoring his credit, he assigned as a reason for his leaving his wife that she was impotent, and this rumour was generally current among the Portuguese.
265.5.7
Another such thing happened in San Thome. There was a lady married to Cosmo Lourenco Madeira, a Portuguese; her name was Dona Escolastica, the daughter of Joao Pereira de Faria. She imprisoned in her house one of her slaves for having stolen something. By reason of severe punishment and deprivation of food he died, and was buried in the dunghill. No one dared to ask any questions, for if the Mahomedans had known they would have chastised the gentleman, Cosmo Lourenco, as he had done to his slave. This murder of slaves and slave girls is common among the Portuguese, and few are the houses in which the skeletons of their bodies would not be found. Near the town of Bassaim (Bassein) dwelt a well-born gentlewoman on her estate. She was called Dona Luiza de Abello, and was a rich and influential woman. When she left her house for recreation, she was escorted by fifty sturdy, well-armed Kaffirs with their quarter-staves. When the woman saw any Portuguese youth who pleased her, she carried him off to her house and toyed with him till she was tired of him. As his reward, she would order him to be killed and buried in her orchard. In this way she passed her life, while the handsomest youths in the country disappeared.
265.5.8
Her cruelties became known, and the youths, thus warned, kept out of her way. The lady referred to, on her way to church, saw a boy whom she fancied, and on coming out took him home with her against his will, and he was never seen again. The lady was related to the highest-placed gentlemen to be found in Bassein. These men, recognising her disorders and misdeeds, made overtures to certain negro women of her household that, if they would destroy her in her sleep, their lives would be protected. Listening to the proposal, the slave women killed her by hitting her on the head [177] with a big stone and crushing her brains. The magistrate arrested the negresses, who were sentenced to death. On their way to execution they passed in front of the church of the Jesuit Fathers, who came out with the flag of Mercy, and they were liberated. This affair happened while I was in India, and many affirmed to me that it was true. When I passed through Bassein I merely addressed a question to some well-born gentlemen who were her relations, and they replied that it was worse than what I had heard said, and therefore God had punished her.