Storia do Mogor 339.7

339.7

In the year 82 [1682] I came across this reverend father in the city of Goa. He paid me a visit, and espying a matchlock in my room, he loaded it with five charges of powder, each with a ball rammed down on it. He then gave a salvo of five shots with great ease. But when he placed the powder-horn to the fire-pan, he did it so that no one could see. I was much amazed, and the Lord Viceroy Dom Francisco de Távora having been told, he employed me as negotiator to get the Carmelite to teach them this secret. As a reward ten thousand xerafins (ashrafis) were offered, and other gifts. But the Carmelite informed me that the secret could be confided to no one but a leading member of his own house. The [233] above-mentioned friar went to Rome and came back to Surat as archbishop [of Ansira (Ancyra)], bringing a number of missionaries. In a short time he died of a purgative administered to him by the Jesuit fathers, who, after his death, realized fourteen rupees for the dose.