Travels in India (Tavernier) 35.3
Travels in India (Ball) 35.3
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35.3.1
The Provençal and his companions met a Portuguese Jesuit Father, who asked them whence they came, and they told him all their misfortunes. Rachepot was more inconvenienced than all the others, having received a musket-shot in the thigh on the occasion of the last assault on Cochin, and the wound, which had not fully healed, having reopened on the road, it was impossible for him to travel without being cured of this wound, which had been insufficiently dressed ; and the Jesuit Father could give him no other aid than to write a word on his behalf in the Malabar language to the King of Godorme, upon a piece of palm leaf, whom the Dutch had driven from his country before they took Cochin. Rachepot, followed by his companions, went to him by the road which the Jesuit Father had indicated, and he was well received by him, and found there a Malabari who understood Portuguese. The King asked Rachepot if he would like to remain with him, and he replied that he was content to serve him, and that his companions, of whom he was, as it were, the chief, would serve him also, not wishing to be parted from one another. The King gave orders that the Provençal's wound should be carefully dressed, and a preparation of oil and butter was immediately applied, from which he experienced relief. The King made him come to him two or three times every day, sometimes to fire a musket, sometimes to wield a hand-pike, asking him much regarding the way they make war in Europe.
35.3.2
Sometimes he took pleasure in making him sing, but the unhappy Provençal could sing but sadly in consequence of the poor cheer which he received; the King having ordered so little for the support of himself and his companions, that it scarce sufficed to buy rice, and that of the blackest kind. But he was obliged to be patient, both to await the healing of his wound and in order to learn something of the Malabar language, without which it would be very difficult for them to traverse the country in order to reach Madras. For from Cochin up to the place where they were, they had experienced much difficulty in making themselves understood by signs, and in their greatest hunger the people of the country offered them nothing to eat but cocoanuts, which were insufficient to satisfy them. On the day of one of the local festivals the King summoned Rachepot and his companions, and in consequence of the festival presented them with four figs each, which he desired them to eat in his presence. The Malabaris told them that the King did them a great honour ; but the poor people, who had so little for their subsistence, would have preferred a measure of rice instead of these four figs. The people of that country go about quite naked, only wearing a cloth which covers their private parts. The King himself is in that respect like the least of his subjects, save that he wears a little gold in his ears.
35.3.3
Rachepot having been completely cured at the end of forty days, resolved to pass on with his companions, and they left one night without saying farewell to any one. They took their road to the south-east for Madras, where they wished to go ; and it is easy to believe that, being without money and only knowing a few words of the language, they suffered much during their journey. They lived on the charity bestowed upon them, and often when they arrived in the villages some of the idolaters fled from fear, because in these mountains they are not accustomed to see white men ; others, who were less timid, came near them and gave them the wherewithal to drink and eat ; and those who were most friendly took them into the neighbourhood in order to let their relatives and friends see them. When they had passed these mountains and began to enter the plain, they travelled in the woods for two and a half days without seeing any one ; and were convinced that they must die. To increase their misery they were attacked in these woods by great numbers of leeches which abound there, so that it became a necessity for them to run in order to give the leeches less time to attach themselves to their legs and thighs, where they assumed proportions sometimes larger than the hand. Thus they dared not rest in any place, but when they met a stream they plunged into the water, and removed the leeches which were attached to their bodies, from whence there flowed much blood in all directions ;
35.3.4
this made them weak and feeble, added to which, as I have said, they found no one to give them food. The leeches of this country are small and slender, and do not take to the water, but live in the grass. These poor people having walked in the woods the first day till two or three hours after nightfall, found a small river which had in the middle a small dry island, where they went to rest till day, not having to fear the leeches then, because they were surrounded by water. On the following day they pursued their journey with the same persecution from leeches, and slept at night close to a tree, where they found a kind of platform, made of wood and elevated about 4 or 5 feet from the ground, which, without doubt, some one had made to protect himself from the attacks of the leeches. This platform served them as camp for this second night, and, day having come, they were again on the road, and at length arrived by midday at a Pagoda, where there were many Brahmins or Banian priests, who, pitying their miserable condition, and having learnt from them that they had found nothing to eat for three days, gave them rice, fruit, and vegetables dressed with butter. But they gave it all from a distance, making a sign to them not to approach, as we do in Europe with the plague-stricken, to whom one throws charity on a handkerchief spread on the road, from which they stand aloof.
35.3.5
As the soldiers had been nearly three days without eating they forthwith took so much food that they all had fever on the following day, so that to cure themselves they had to fast afterwards, dieting being in India the sovereign remedy for all kinds of ills. After they had eaten they wished to pursue their way, but the Brahmins made them understand that the forest extended very far, and that the leeches would take their lives if they did not find some place to protect themselves from these insects, and advised them to remain there the whole night, and that the following day they should start early. This they did, according to their advice. This night heavy rain fell, and one of the Banian priests made a sign to them to follow him to his house. Having arrived there he made them enter a hole under the house, which he besought them not to touch ; and though he brought them food, they were unwilling to eat it for fear of increasing the fever with which they were attacked. When it was quite dark these poor people came out of the hole, and went out upon the terrace of the house in order to sleep more at their ease. To avoid being caught there they did not fail to return to the hole at break of day, and the Brahmin, master of the house, took them again to the Pagoda, where he ordered them to be given food.
35.3.6
He also made them rub their legs with a certain plant the odour of which the leeches could not bear, and gave to each a cloth which contained a kind of chalk of the size of an egg, telling them that when the leeches attached themselves to their legs they need only touch them with this cloth, and that they would fall immediately. It has been proved that salt and fire have the same effect, and the natives of the country, when passing through the places where they know there are leeches, always have a lighted brand in their hands. The soldiers, with the preventative which was thus given to them, travelled with more comfort, and were not tormented by leeches as before. They reached open country at 4 p.m., and passed close to a fortress which belonged to the Banians, who gave them vegetables to eat and whey to drink, — for no water is drunk in this country, as it is very unwholesome. The Banians directed them, as well as they could, on the road to Madras, which they had left in consequence of their having kept too much towards the south. By going more to the east they shortened their journey, and traversed a mountainous country, inhabited by Christians of St. John, of the religion of which I have spoken in my account of Persia when describing Bassora. In the year 1643 these Christians, both those of these mountains and those of Bassora, sent ambassadors to the Viceroy of Goa to obtain permission from him to go to dwell in the island of Ceylon.
35.3.7
They undertook to drive out the inhabitants of the country. But the Viceroy not promising to grant what they asked except on condition that they became Catholics, and they being unwilling to agree, the arrangement which they proposed did not come to pass. A Jesuit Father was sent from Goa to these Christians to work for their conversion, but as he made no progress he preferred to devote his cares to the idolaters, whose language he acquired so perfectly that he spoke it as if he had been born in the country. From time to time he converted some of them, whom he sent to Goa. This he was never able to accomplish with the Christians of St. John, who are thoroughly fixed in their views; and, having passed nearly forty years with the idolaters, who were unwilling that any one should touch either their persons or their houses, it is easy to conclude that he had suffered much during that time, and that no kind of life could be more austere than his. For he had to live like the idolaters, who eat nothing which has had life; and as he travelled from one place to another the food of these countries was insufficient to give him the strength necessary for the fatigues which he had to undergo.