Storia do Mogor 347.2.4

347.2.4

The Lord Bishop was worn out by this affair and other government business, and being already advanced in years, he foresaw that he would have no peace. He therefore made over the direction of affairs to Nicolao Rodriguez, of whom I have already spoken (V. 20). The first [53] judgment pronounced by this new ruler was as follows : A man in the Lord Bishop's employment sold a slave girl to a ship's captain living in Madras, a Catholic, named Francesco Noult (or Hoult). The price was twenty-six pagodas. The girl absconded and took shelter in the Bishop's house. Upon receiving information the captain went to the Bishop's house to ask for his slave girl. The answer he got was that she was in no way a slave, but a free person, and this in spite of his producing the certificate of slavery and the contract of sale attested by the judge. Finding that he had lost the negress, the captain demanded the return of his money. They got rid of him by saying that the cleric had spent the money and had nothing wherewith to pay.