Storia do Mogor 338.16
Storia do Mogor (Irvine) 338.16
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338.16.1
The principal inhabitants who left along with these officials are the following : Manoel Roiz, Antonio Cassella do Valle, Álvaro Cassella do Valle, Francisco Lopez do Figueredo, Luis Carvalho da Silva, João de Moroes Mexias, João da Fonsequa Varjão, Joseph de Fonsequa Varjão, Antonio Gonzalves de Amerim, João Ribiero de Coullo. They were accompanied by some sons of the soil and some topazes. The following are the friars and priests : Dom Simão, Dom João Milton, Theatines; Friar Manoel de Nevis, Augustinian ; and the clerics, Manoel da Silva da Menezes, Lucas Luy de Oliveira, Estevão Roiz, Manoel Roiz, Antonio de Figueredo, Manoel Pinto. These came to Madras and applied to the Lord Governor, Thomas Pitt, who received them kindly. Those who remained in San Thome with the Lord Bishop were the following : the Father Nicolao Roiz, of the Society of Jesus, first counsellor and a native of Macao, who looked after His Most Illustriousness (the Bishop) ; secondly, the vicar-general, an African, and a man of learning; thirdly, the secretary, Alleixo Barretto ; fourthly, the cure, Pascoal Pinheiro, a white man ; fifthly, Joseph Carvalho ; sixthly, Simão de Loyola ; seventhly, Bartholomeo de Abreo ; eighthly, Belchior Dias, who held charge of the seal, and collected the proper amounts ; besides some small people, students dependent on the Lord Bishop.
338.16.2
Other friars and priests who remained were : Friar Diogo do Sacramento, Dominican ; Friar Pedro de Silveyra, Augustinian ; Friar Francisco Baylão, Capuchin ; Friar João da Ascensão, commissary of the Holy Office ; Friar Francesco do Purificação, Franciscans ; Friar João de São Jasinto, Capuchin ; also two friars recently come from Goa, whose names I do not know ; the rector, Joseph Roiz, and the vicar, Silvestro de Souza, Jesuits ; Dom Guilhermo della Valle, Theatine ; the priests, Lourenço Pereira da Cunha, Diogo de Siquiera Peixotto, white men ; Father Lazaro de São Boaventura, Pascoal de Lima, Pascoal Pereira da Cunha [190], Thome Corrêa de Brito, white men ; Xavier Lopez, Clemente Pereira, Thome Tullimão, white men ; Francisco Borges, Manoel de Rozario. Those of the counsellors who remained were : Francisco Mendes Pereira, João Costa de Saâ, and João Bautista Munis. These last two have been long in India; they were at Goa at the time when the Paulists sent out the green donkey, as will have been already seen in my Third Part (III. 219). Antonio de Almeida de Amaral ; Manoel de Naves ; Manoel Carvalho, procurator for the city ; Antonio Gonçalves de Abreo — these being very old, almost unable to see, decided to stop, from inability to travel.
338.16.3
The following are the churches in the town (San Thome) : The cathedral church and São Domingo were in the Portuguese quarter. In the suburbs, where the Mahomedans lived, were the churches of São Lazaro, controlled by secular clergy; Madre de Deus, N.-S. do Descanço, of the Jesuits; N.-S. da Luz, of the Franciscans ; and a hospice, with its sisterhood, of the Augustinians. Besides these churches there were between Great Mount and São Thome two churches, also controlled by the Jesuits, dedicated to N.-S. da Saude and to the Holy Cross. On Great Mount was a church, as I have already mentioned in another place (III. 191). At the foot of the said Mount there belong to that church four small chapels, dedicated to N.-S. da Conceição, N.-S. do Rozario, N.-S. da Lembrança, and São Lazaro. Thus there are a number of churches and clergy, but few of the former are frequented.
338.16.4
After some days Mīr 'Usmān sent to invite back the Portuguese, who had retired to Madras. He forwarded a document pledging himself not to interfere with them and to forget the past. The refugees did not feel this promise was enough, and they wrote to Dā,ūd Khān telling him what had happened, demanding justice and forwarding a small present. The answer he gave them was to go back to their houses, adding that he had written already to Mīr 'Usmān forbidding him to touch them. With this reply they were not fully satisfied, and they dissembled [191]. Mīr 'Usmān continued to invite them with polite speeches. Finally, becoming aware that they did not intend to return, he sent to say that if they did not come at once and reoccupy their houses he must knock down their flagstaff and destroy their houses along with the churches. This message threw them into a great fright. On going to bid farewell to the governor of this place (Madras), they received from him fifty soldiers as an escort half-way on their road. There they found the said Mīr 'Usmān, who had come thus far to receive them. Having done them this honour, he carried them to his house, where he gave them betel-leaf and rose-water. He threw over the chief captain a xalla (shawl) worth ten patacas (Rs. 20), and another over his father-in-law. After many friendly speeches he sent them home.
338.16.5
Two days afterwards the said Mīr 'Usmān came to visit them, accompanied by various officials, and he was received with much courtesy. They gave to him some pieces of cloth worth one hundred patacas, a tribute which he got out of them, and after this they were somewhat reassured. But those Portuguese I have named never had been in unison, and now they are at cross purposes. They are divided into various camps, each claiming the right to govern. It is for this and similar reasons that they lost their territories in India, as I shall recount farther on. It is now eighteen years ago (? 1686) that there was in this San Thomé a captain called Antonio Ferreira da Silva, who claimed control over the Mahomedans and declined to pay fifty patacas due to the dīwān. A eunuch who was then governor sent to him several times asking him to pay what he owed. He gave very little heed to these words ; finally he used threats of chastisement. The eunuch who ruled the country felt aggrieved, and went out against him with his soldiers. He sent a message that he must arrange to pay at once, and desist from interfering in matters of government, it being Mogul territory. He should behave himself as a trader, and not talk of chastising people. The message did not please the chief captain, and he made signs of resistance by force of arms, being thus the cause of his own death ; for the eunuch surrounded his house, killed him together with others in his company, and collected the money due.
338.16.6
On the day following the killing of the men [see ante, fol. 187] — that is, October 6 [192] of the already cited year [1704] — the Dominican Father, Friar Diogo do Sacramento, sent very early to convene the Portuguese Brothers of the Rosary for the election of new officials. They replied that they were unable to attend, being busy with the burial of their defunct president. Would he postpone the election to another day ? Incensed at this answer, the Dominican sent word that if they did not come once he should call in the women and put them in the place of the men. The men, being seated sad and mournful behind their barred doors, and in fear of some fresh attack, put him off. In their default the devout and energetic father, without any concern for the dead or for the existing confusion, attempted to collect the women. These replied through their closed doors that the father must be mad ; let him devote himself to praying for the soul of the defunct and imploring God to deliver them from the peril they were in.
338.16.7
I have read in the Lusitanian Chronicles about the early times of their conquest in India, where it is noted that the ships of that nation visited many places. It happened that one of their ships was lost on the coast of China, but all of the crew were saved and some of their property. It is the custom of that country to report minutely to the court everything that occurs. When the emperor heard of the shipwreck he felt compassion, and ordered the viceroy who ruled those territories to assign the men a place near the sea for them to dwell in, and give them ground to cultivate. He conferred on them many other favours. They began to trade, and the population increased. In time they became rich, when they began to think of ruling over lands which were not theirs, collecting thieves, escaped criminals and fugitive debtors, abducting the daughters of other men, and angering the governors. They ignored the benefits they had received, and showed no want of the pride which always develops in the Portuguese when prosperous as those men were.
338.16.8
There came to the country a ship in which was a Portuguese. To display their grandeur and indulge their vanity the settlers erected a street of arches from the town to the seashore. It was fully adorned with mirrors, cloth of gold, and other fabrics of gold and silver thread, while the ground was entirely carpeted with rich cloth stuffs. Then the greatest men in the settlement went to meet the new arrival, and as he disembarked they prostrated themselves at his feet, making him profound obeisances. Then they seated him in a gilt litter, and they followed him on foot. In front were carried golden censers, with which he was incensed, accompanied by many women musicians playing on various instruments. At the corner of every arch stood a beautiful lady between two women servants, who carried trays of varied flowers. All along the route the ladies threw these flowers upon the litter. In this way they conducted their visitor into the town, and treated him like some great prince.