Storia do Mogor 338.17.5

338.17.5

Further, I will say that the Jesuits in Pondicherry also for years claimed the church there. But they employed other arts; as the proverb says, they 'drew out the sardine by the cat's paw.' They had recourse to the Lord Patriarch in the end, and many times applied humbly and with presents to the lords of that territory [the French] to be given possession. But as the said gentlemen much distrusted those reverend fathers, they sent them about their business, saying, 'From the Jesuits libera nos, Domine!' I will relate two trivial instances that happened at the College of these same Jesuits at Pondicherry, when the Lord Patriarch was actually living in it. The governor, Monsieur Martin, sent him a leg of veal. On its being brought to him, he ordered his cook to roast half and prepare another dish with the rest. While the cook was at this work there entered to him in his kitchen Brother Rupia, who was astonished at the spectacle. Seizing the spit and the pot containing the stew, he carried them off with violence out of the house to a marsh close by and threw them into it, saying in a passion, for the benefit of the Hindus and the new Christians, that 'the Jesuit fathers were not pariahs and low caste; they did not eat cow's flesh' [196]. Thus the meat did not appear at his Excellency's luncheon, and on his asking the reason for there being no veal, they told him the facts. He concealed his feelings, and said not one word.