Storia do Mogor 281.7
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 281.7
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281.7.1
Not to lose so excellent an opportunity, the prince caused a golden cow to be made secretly such as would suit his purpose. Then he caused the Brahmans to be sent for, and once more renewed his demands. The Brahmans gave the same answer as before. At this the king put on a look of sadness, but retiring, placed himself in the belly of the golden cow, which stood ready in a large hall close by. All the Brahmans were called in, and then the prince issued from the cow and began to bellow like a calf. They performed on him such ceremonies as are observed for a new-born child, in spite of his being then fifty-two years of age. The Brahmans were much incensed at being thus overreached, and asserted that he was not truly a calf. At these complaints the would-be new-born calf went down on all fours and bellowed louder than ever. In spite of all this they were not satisfied, and they made every effort to evade the claim of this prince. To this intent they set forth divers reasons, to each of which an instant reply was produced. Finally they were reduced to asking that the cow might be sent to the temple where they dwelt. When this had been done, the prince at last obtained what he desired, and enjoyed the privileges of Brahmanhood [20], and after him his posterity likewise.
281.7.2
[21] [A long story of what is supposed to have lately happened in Tartary. It treats of the adventures of two youths, one of whom becomes a wazir, and shares with his friend as agreed on. The friend supplants him, but the first man recovers his position by a subterfuge. Omitted as being neither historical nor Indian.] [22] In my first three parts I have not spoken of the loss of San Thome, having left that to the authors who have written on it before me. However, as the time and the place lead me to it, it will not be inappropriate to make a few remarks about that siege. The place was taken in the month of March, 1662, and here is the cause of the King of Gulkandah's making himself master of the town. When he sent Raja Culy (? Riza Qull) to be governor of Karnatik, that official had need of some pieces of artillery for the campaign he was carrying on against the Hindu princes. He begged the inhabitants of San Thome to lend him two cannon, but they refused, letting him know that they declined to recognise him in any way. The King of Portugal, their sovereign, had given them no orders to lend him cannon.
281.7.3
This reply caused much irritation to the governor, who wrote [23] to the King of Gulkandah upon the subject. In his letter he complained of the Portuguese and their ways, and painted them in such colours that the king sent him an order to invest the place and take it out of their possession. As soon as the order arrived, it was put into execution. The first thing done by Raja Culy (Riza Qull) was to bar the entry into the town of all food-supplies. After forty days it dawned upon the Portuguese that they were dependent upon some one else than their king. At last they were obliged to capitulate in default of provisions, and the Mahomedans became masters of the place. They carried away such artillery as they had need of, and the poor Portuguese found their families dispersed in all directions. Some time afterwards the King of Gulkandah sent to Mecca two princesses related to him to be married to the Sharif of that place. In the latitude of Sokotra they were captured and carried to Goa by a Portuguese vessel which was on a voyage from Portugal. The viceroy, Antonio de Mello de Castro, confiscated all the property found in the ship which was conveying these ladies. The present sent by the King of Gulkandah to the shrine of the false prophet, and the dowry of the princesses, formed the greater part of it, in addition to all the cargo with which the vessel was laden. When the vessel arrived at Goa, the ladies were sent to the convent of St. Monica.
281.7.4
But the King of Gulkandah, Chapdoula (Shah 'Abdullah), had no sooner learnt the sorrowful news than he ordered the seizure of all the Portuguese scattered about in the outskirts of San Thome, not excepting women and children, nor even the priests. Next he wrote to the viceroy that he must release the princesses and the vessel with all its contents, menacing otherwise to behead his captives. To this the viceroy replied that it rested with the princesses to stay or go as they pleased. But to tell the truth, there was one who could not depart, for she was no longer in this world; as for the other, she did not wish to go, because she was resolved to embrace the faith of Jesus Christ, holding it to be much better than that of Muhammad. In fact, she acted on this intention shortly afterwards, living and dying in the odour of sanctity. The viceroy added that as for the ship and its cargo, they were lawful prize, and for that reason he did not mean to restore them. With regard to the Portuguese captives, the king might cut off their heads, since they were his subjects. This reply led to the release of all the Portuguese prisoners. Some time afterwards the Count of San Vicente succeeded as viceroy. This noble made all possible efforts at the king's court to get back the town of San Thome and its dependencies, but death removed him from the world in the midst of these negotiations.
281.7.5
The town remained for some years longer in the occupation of the Mahomedans, but there is little doubt they would have relinquished it had it not been [24] for the count's untimely death. Subsequently the Portuguese did obtain admission to the town ; and to secure permission to fly their flag, these gentlemen have expended nearly two thousand patacas. But as they are not very well off, they have been obliged, in order to retain this privilege, to become subjects of the Mahomedans. From this cause they endure daily a thousand abusive words and affronts ; so much is this the case that often they do not dare to haul the flag up, being forbidden to do it by those infidels. Further, it must be noted that those two thousand patacas were not their own property. They were a deposit made with the government by a poor widow. Afterwards she asked for her money, and they told her that she and her money had been most highly honoured, the one in having expended something in the service of his majesty, and the other in being put to so august a use. Although that answer may cause astonishment in Europe, it is nothing to be wondered at in India among the Portuguese. For it might be truthfully said that all their public buildings are constructed with money derived from the same sources.
281.7.6
In connection with the Portuguese I have before this spoken of Goa, and said a little as to the cause of the mortality among its inhabitants (II. 128). To that I must add that, besides the unwholesome air with which the town of Goa is perpetually filled, there is an island situated opposite to it and the mainland which has helped greatly to the depopulation of this Portuguese capital. This island becomes the graveyard of the larger number of its inhabitants. The reason is that it is full of courtesans, Mahomedan and heathen, who bear on them the unhappy poison by which they take the life of so many wretched men, after they have like leeches sucked from them every penny in their purse. It is, above all, the soldiers newly arrived from Portugal who succumb to this sad fate. Having exhausted both their bodily strength and their scantily-stored purses in the infamous dens allowed to exist there, misery and feebleness overtake them so completely that they are forced to enter the hospital. That is a place from which they hardly ever come forth alive, the number of men dying there being astonishing, every day five to twenty-five dead bodies being carried out, sometimes more, sometimes less, a fact that I have myself observed several times. By this means that island becomes the cemetery of all those newly arrived from Europe, and I honestly believe that at the end of a year not an eighth part survives out of those who landed.
281.7.7
Yet if the reasons are thoroughly investigated, there need be no surprise. For the reverend fathers of the Society of Jesus, being lords of that island, do their utmost to increase its revenue, to be used, as they say (God knows if it is true), 'to the greater glory of God'; and it is with this thought in their minds that their reverences make no scruple of protecting those wretched and abandoned women, together with their infamous trade. Being convinced of the truth of the precept that the end justifies the means, they do not allow the women to be interfered with in the smallest degree. If on some occasions there have been persons so rash as to interfere, they have never failed to meet with prompt and terrible chastisement. For it must be admitted that the criminal law of their reverences is something both frightful and cruel.