Travels in India (Tavernier) 35.3.1

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.