[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Storia do Mogor](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci) › [Storia do Mogor (Irvine)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine) › 281.8 # Storia do Mogor 281.8 Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 281.8 - **Language:** English ### [281.8.1](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.1) Picture to yourself, my dear reader, that they strip the wretched culprit quite naked, bind him to a tree, and there flog him in such a way that the miserable man never undergoes it without having to enter hospital to get the wounds dressed which the scourge has caused. But ordinarily he finds there the cure of all ills, and thus an establishment dedicated to charity and the relief of the poor becomes the shelter of men suffering from disgraceful maladies or of unhappy beings who have felt the rigour of the reverend fathers' sentences. Even these all perish miserably, as I have said. The King of Portugal, out of his gracious bounty, pays yearly to this hospital fourteen thousand seraphim (? ashrafi), the money being placed in the hands of their reverences, who come in for the greater part of it. For, as the patients are in the hospital only a short time, the expenses are thereby much diminished. This is profitable to the Society (the Jesuits); nevertheless, they set no great store by it, saying sometimes that they believe there is hardly enough over to pay for lamp-oil in their college. But I should never be at an end if I were to repeat all that might be said on this subject. All the more willingly do I relieve myself of this task because I am persuaded that their reverences are well known to the world, chiefly by all honest and able men. To them I leave it to supplement what I omit. ### [281.8.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.2) Indeed, were I to continue, there would not be wanting those who would accuse me of hatred or some other passion, in spite of the fact that I have no object but absolute truth and the desire to be useful to those who come to this country. Being informed of the dangers and perils that are met with here, let them avoid them, and take early steps not to fall into the difficulties that others have undergone. In addition to all this, I must say that I have received many and many a civility and favour from their reverences, for which I owe them gratitude. Still, I feel myself under a deeper obligation to speak the truth than to observe any other obligation or friendship in the world. ### [281.8.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.3) The wealth possessed by their reverences among the Portuguese in India is immense, and I can assure you that at Goa, Chaul, Thanah, Bassein, Diu, and Daman their income much surpasses the king's. For example, at Goa they have three hundred and sixty thousand pardos a year, while the king has only three hundred \[thousand\]. It is just the same in all the countries in India under that prince's domination, without speaking of the river of Scene (Sena) and of Mozambique, from which the king draws nothing or very little, while they get everything. For in the island of Cabaceira alone, which lies in front of Mozambique, they hold fourteen villages, which yield them a rent of one hundred thousand cruzados. Besides, it is known for a fact that the property they possess in this country (? India) is worth to them a million of seraphins or a little more. This statement is admitted by them themselves at times, without mentioning le tour du baton et cetera, uncertain items which amount to three times more than the above. ### [281.8.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.4) Thus are they very powerful and extremely rich, through the extensive trade they carry on in all those countries, where they deal in every kind of merchandise and exchange. They govern everything by policy, having unbounded and unmeasured ambition ; they arrange for appointments in the ministry of justice and other offices of the kingdom (? Portugal). They set up and depose all sorts of people just as they please. Not only is this so in the case of the police, but also of the militia. In one word, they hold the government and the administration of all strong places and fortresses. To all this they devote very little attention. That assertion will be proved by what happened in March, 1700, at the fortress of Bandora in the island of Salsette, which is situated to the north. It had to surrender for want of powder and shot, a considerable number of Christians being taken and made slaves by the Arabs. These invaders held the island for thirteen days in their tyrannical grasp, causing great injury to and a heavy fall in the revenues of his Portuguese majesty. ### [281.8.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.5) In short, their (the Jesuits') power is so great that the governors of fortresses and the lieutenants (heads of police) of the towns dare not fire off one single cannon, be the necessity what it may, without the permission of those reverend fathers, the administrators. The fathers have for this very good allowances which are very regularly paid to them. With this money many needy men of quality might be subventioned, as also the soldiers might be paid who are continually exposing their life in their king's cause. I insert \[26\] this detail about the cannon the more willingly that I have been ocular witness of it. For in the year 1666, being in the town of Bassein, I was invited to dinner on Easter Day by Christovaon de Souza Cotinho, governor of the town. He ordered several salvoes to be fired in honour of our Saviour. The order was executed, and, as I recollect, they fired fifteen times. The gentleman was forced to pay on this account forty-five seraphim debited to him in the books of account, because he had not asked the permission of the noble administrators. They had been extremely irritated, so much so that the chief Father Administrator, whose name was Father Fortunado Seraphino, reproved him with harsh words, telling him he was astonished at his having dared to fire off cannon without his permission. ### [281.8.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.6) It may be recollected that on an earlier page (II. 129) I have spoken of the imprisonment of Antonio de Mello de Castro, Viceroy at Goa ; and I may add here that I learnt from Joseph de Castro, his son, that several years afterwards they (? his friends) wrote him some letters, which he showed me, in which they informed him that if he wished to retain the office he held in India, he would need to keep up good relations with the Fathers of the Society (the Jesuits), and he should always more fear the nib of a Jesuit's pen than the point of an Arab's sword. But what is there that I could not say did I wish to expatiate on this subject, and how many are the events that I must pass over in silence, to avoid wearying out my readers ! Nevertheless, the way they treat the sick in their hospital, of which I have already spoken, is something so cruel that I cannot resist returning to it. For how many are the sufferers who enter with no more than a simple fever, which there becomes malignant through the little care taken of the patient's health ? How many are to be seen there of those young Portuguese newly arrived in India, who on falling ill imagine they will find some relief in that hospital ? But they are deceived in their expectations. For, believing in their simplicity that names have some relation to things, they find instead that these names are very far from possessing the qualities that they denote. ### [281.8.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.7) In effect, the name that these fathers bear in India and in Portugal denotes the exact contrary to what is their actual conduct. For, as they call themselves Jesuits in India and Apostolic in the other place, people expect to find in them a charity which is veritably Apostolic and Christian. In this those poor men are deceived, for they are waited on in the hospital most carelessly by Canarese or Topasses \[native or half-caste Christians\], who frequently demand payment for even the water they require. If they have not the means of paying they have to do without. Even then, in the end, those shameless fellows go and complain to the Father Administrator that the unhappy men have declined to obey the rules of diet imposed on them as necessary. Thereupon they are often placed in the cells, which are underground, and so damp that more often than not they die there after a few days. ### [281.8.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8.8) As a relief to himself the Father Administrator entertains at this hospital a Topass chaplain, who looks after the patients, so they say. But if the matter is looked into, he is only there for the better catching of the poor ' renols ' \[Portuguese fresh from Europe\], who, departing this life, leave the chaplain as their testamentary executor. This is why after a death a special auction is held, within the very hospital, of all that belonged to the deceased. All rests in the hands of the Father Administrator or the Father Apothecary ; and the things go for much less than they are worth or they could be sold for at public outcry. Such auctions ought to take place \[27\] at the House of Mercy, in obedience to the orders of his Portuguese majesty. By this device everything becomes a profit to their reverences, who send away these things to the north to other persons, who sell them at a high profit. In this way the poor patients in that hospital are ill-served in life and still worse after death. Thus it is that many who fancy they are falling asleep at night to awake in the morning sleep on with the sleep that knows no waking. --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.manucci~en-irvine.281.8) · Pramāṇa