Travels in India (Tavernier) 34.2
Travels in India (Ball) 34.2
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34.2.1648
The drummer of the garrison, who was a Frenchman, and a merchant of Marseilles named Roboli, who was then in the fort, two days after the Governor of St. Thomé had entered it, offered him their services to aid him to escape, provided that they were well rewarded for it; this he promised them, and also that they should have a free passage on the first vessel which went from Goa to Portugal. The agreement being made, on the following day the drummer beat the reveille at an earlier hour than usual, and with great noise, and at the same time the merchant Roboli and the Governor, with their sheets tied together, let themselves down by the corner of the bastion, which was not high. The drummer at the same time left his drum and followed them nimbly, so that St. Thomé being only a good half league from Madras, they were all three inside it before anything was known of their departure. The whole population of St. Thomé made great rejoicings at the return of the Governor, and immediately despatched a boat to Goa to convey the news. The drummer and the merchant Roboli set sail forthwith, and when they reached Goa bearing the letters of the Governor of St. Thomé in their favour, there was not a convent nor a wealthy house which did not make them presents, and even the Viceroy himself, Dom Philippe de Mascarehnas, treated them kindly, and invited them to embark on his vessel in order to take them to Portugal with him; but all three, namely, the Viceroy and the two Frenchmen, died at sea.
I shall say in passing that there never was a Viceroy of Goa half so rich as Dom Philippe de Mascarehnas. He possessed a quantity of diamonds—all stones of great weight, from 10 to 40 carats; two notably, which he showed me when I was at Goa. One of them was a thick stone, weighing 57 and the other 67½ carats, both being fairly clear, of good water, and Indian cut. The report was that this Viceroy was poisoned on the vessel, and it was added that it was a just punishment for his having made away with many persons in the same manner, especially while he was Governor in the island of Ceylon. He always kept some of the most subtle poison to use when he wished that his vengeance should be prompt; and having on that account made many enemies, whom the fate of those he had murdered caused to fear for themselves a similar treatment, he was one morning hung in effigy at Goa, when I was there in the year 1648.
34.2.p2
In the meantime the imprisonment of Father Ephraim made a great sensation in Europe. M. de Chateau des Bois, his brother, complained of it to the Portuguese Ambassador, who not feeling too sure of his position, wrote promptly about it to the King his master; so that, by the first vessels which left for Goa, it was ordered that Father Ephraim should be released. The Pope also wrote saying that if he were not set free he would excommunicate all the clergy of Goa. But all these letters were of no avail, and Father Ephraim had only the King of Golconda, who loved him and who had done all he could to induce him to remain at Bhagnagar, to thank for his liberty. The King had learnt from him some mathematics, like the Arab Prince, his son-in-law, who had offered to build a house and church for the Father at his own expense. This he had since done for two Augustin clerics who had come from Goa. The King was then at war with the Raja of the Province of Carnatica, and had his army close to St. Thomé, and as soon as he had heard of the evil trick which the Portuguese had played on Father Ephraim he sent an order to Mīr Jumlā, the General of his troops, to lay siege to St. Thomé, and to kill and burn all if he could not obtain a definite promise from the Governor of the place that in two months Father Ephraim would be set at liberty. A copy of the order of the King was sent to the Governor, and the town was so alarmed that there was to be seen nothing but boat after boat setting forth for Goa in order to urge the Viceroy to take measures that Father Ephraim should be promptly released. He was accordingly, and messengers came to him to tell him, on the part of the Inquisitor, that he might leave. But although the door was open to him he refused to quit the prison till all the clerics of Goa came to bring him forth in procession. This they at once did, and after he had come out he went to pass fifteen days in the Convent of the Capuchins, who are a kind of Recollects. I have heard Father Ephraim say many times that that which distressed him most during his imprisonment was to witness the ignorance of the Inquisitor and his council when they examined him, and he believed that not one of them had ever read the Holy Scriptures. They had placed him in a cell with a Maltese, who was one of the greatest criminals under heaven. He did not speak two words without scoffing at God, and he passed all the day and a part of the night in smoking tobacco, which could not have been otherwise than most unpleasant to Father Ephraim.
When the Inquisition seizes any person he is at once searched, and all that is found in his house in the way of furniture and effects, belonging to him, is inventoried to be returned to him should he be found innocent. But as regards anything of the nature of gold, silver, or jewels, it is not written down, and is never seen again, being taken to the Inquisitor for the expenses of the trial. The Rev. Father Ephraim when entering the Inquisition was searched, but there were only found, in the pocket which these monks have sewn to their cloaks, and is situated in the middle of the back, a comb, an inkhorn, and some pocket handkerchiefs. It was not remembered that the Capuchins have also a small receptacle in the mantle under the armpit, where they place some small requisites, and Father Ephraim was not searched in that direction. This left him four or five lead pencils which are covered with wood, for fear lest they should be broken, and as the pencil is used you pare off the wood to uncover it.
These pencils afforded a means whereby Father Ephraim was less wearied during his imprisonment than he otherwise would have been, and that, squint-eyed as he was, he went out with a vision in which there appeared to be scarcely any defect. It is the custom in the Inquisition to go every morning to ask the prisoners what they wish to eat that day, and it is then given to them. The Maltese cared for little besides tobacco, and he asked for it at morning, noon, and night, which were the times when their food was taken to them. This tobacco was all cut and packed in white paper nearly of the size of a quarter of a page, for throughout all the East tobacco in powder, and all drugs and other wares which can be so treated, are wrapped in white paper ; this tends to the profit of the seller, who weighs the paper and the goods together. It is for this reason that so much paper is used in Asia, and it is the principal article of trade of the people of the provinces, who send theirs even to Persia. I make these remarks in reference to Father Ephraim, who carefully collected all these pieces of white paper in which the tobacco was packed, which was brought to the Maltese, and it was upon them he wrote with his pencil his daily thoughts in the prison. This was partly the cause that his sight lost much of its natural defect, and when I beheld him again I had at first a difficulty in believing that he was the same Father Ephraim who had been much squint-eyed previously, as he appeared to be so no longer. The cell where he was confined had for sole window a hole of 6 inches square, with bars of iron, this hole was so placed that when Father Ephraim wished to write he could only have light on the side which was opposite to that where he ordinarily directed his sight ; and so it was that by degrees it became right ; thus he derived by this fact some advantage from his imprisonment. The Inquisitor was unwilling either to lend him a book or to give him the end of a candle, and treated him as sternly as he did a criminal who had already twice gone out of the Inquisition with a sulphur-coloured shirt and the cross of St. Andrew on the front in order to accompany to execution those who were to die, but who had entered it for the third time. It may be said to the glory of Father Ephraim that much patience as he had in his prison so much had he of discretion and charity after he went out of it ; and whatever evil the Inquisition had done to him, he was never heard to speak ill of it, nor even to make the least complaint, much less had he ever thought of writing anything about it, which would have made public many things not tending to the glory of what the Portuguese call La Sanctissima Casa. Moreover, as I have said, all those who leave the Inquisition are made to swear to say nothing of what they have seen, nor of what has been asked them, and, without breaking their oaths, they cannot speak or write of it.
Father Ephraim having passed fifteen days at Goa in the Convent of the Capuchins, to regain some strength, after fifteen or twenty months spent in prison, then set out to return to Madras; and, when passing Golconda, went to thank the King and the Arabian Prince, his son-in-law, for the kindness they had shown in interesting themselves so much on account of his freedom. The King again begged him to stop altogether at Bhagnagar, but perceiving that he wished to return to his convent at Madras, he gave him, as on the first occasion, an ox, attendants, and money for his conduct thither.