Storia do Mogor 281.15.5

281.15.5

Matters being in the condition above stated, who would ever have dreamt that the reverend Jesuit fathers, above all, French Jesuits — so wise, so foreseeing, men in these days so highly reputed throughout the world as great politicians, that the ablest in the art of politics flock to their schools to learn new views of it — should have wished to attempt the removal or reduction of one of these flower-gardens, annexed and devoted to an idol temple, with no other title than their own convenience, by setting in motion their intrigues, their credit, and their authority? This, too, in a country where the Hindus muster a thousand — nay, ten thousand — to every single Christian; where dependence must be had upon them for all that is necessary to life and commerce. Nor need we advert to the fact that even their reverences, in the person of the reverend Portuguese fathers of the same society, and all the Christians they have baptized in these regions, dwell under the government and authority of Hindu princes and rajahs or kings of the same Hindu religion. Consequently all these Christian men are exposed to the resentment of those rajahs and the dreadful results that may ensue therefrom.