Storia do Mogor 331.1

331.1

Certificate of the Very Reverend Father Anthoine de Christ, Vicar and Provincial of the Reverend Augustinian Fathers of the Congregation of the East Indies — [May 18, 1650]. I, Anthoine de Christ, Vicar and Provincial of the Hermits of our Father St. Augustin, of the Congregation of the East Indies, certify it to be entirely true that I have been several times on different occasions in the town of Meliapour (Mailapur), called San Thome, and thence have gone several times to the town and fort of the English called Madraspatam or Chinipatnam, which is close to Meliapour. My only inducement was the good fame and great reputation of the reverend father Ephraim of Nevers, a Capuchin of the order of the Seraphic Father St. Francis, a Frenchman by nation. This glorious reputation was so well established that it had spread itself all over the coasts of Gingerly and Choromandal, and had passed into the kingdom of Gulkandah, where the Portuguese and the Indian Christians, even the Mahomedans and Hindus, failed not to praise him and to say a thousand good things of his virtues, exalting much his humility, his poverty, and his chastity ; also saying that he was polite to everybody and very charitable. All the Christians who had any business at the said Fort and applied to him came away always very well satisfied. He helped them, and served them with the English gentlemen to the utmost of his power, a fact that I have seen with my own eyes.