Storia do Mogor 281.15.8

281.15.8

The third cause in illo genere is a sort of persecution that these same Hindus have suffered at Pondicherry by the hands of the aforesaid reverend fathers. It is due to the indiscreet and ill-regulated zeal of the regent of their school — at least, so the Hindus have considered it when talking about it. He would never let them alone, disturbing them at every turn about the customs and modes of action of this country, which is his own. For this reverend father has been brought up from his youth in the country, donned here the habit of the Society, was ordained priest, learned the Malabar language rather well, and got it into his head that he could convert the whole of this Hindudom. The design is praiseworthy, glorious, fitted for an apostolic missionary, but the means [48] which he adopted were valueless. They were contrary to the customs and the maxims of these peoples, more particularly of those who live at Pondicherry. They are mostly persons who congregated there from the country outside in the hope of earning something after the recent re-establishment of the French Company.