Storia do Mogor 281.19.4

281.19.4

Among this great throng of people arrested for their religion, not one man has had the courage to die in its defence — at least, I have heard of none. Perhaps it may be that resort to torture was forborne, or that they evaded the tortures. The only exception is a young girl, nigra sed formosa (black but comely), who was abducted and brought to the king's palace as an addition to the number of his concubines. She made pretext of some necessity to leave the place where she was guarded, and making for the nearest well, threw herself into it, taking with her all the ornaments with which her body had been decked to enhance its beauty. It is to be feared that this Christian community, the extreme number of them in this kingdom being twenty or thirty thousand, which up to this day flourished under the direction of the reverend fathers, the Portuguese Jesuits, will in a short time entirely return to idolatry. Those priests established it more than sixty or seventy years ago, and have governed it up to this day. It is true we must except from their Christianity certain customs of the Hindus which it is said they have left untouched as matter of indifference, or as even praiseworthy things, though they are rejected by all other missionaries with one accord, being condemned as bad practices, and too much mingled with idolatry.