Travels in India (Tavernier) 35.4

35.4

Rachepot and his companions had the good fortune to meet, on their road one evening, this Jesuit Father, who for his part was much pleased to see them, and having asked them whence they came, they told him all that had happened at the siege of Cochin, the cruel treatment which they had received from the Dutch, and the misadventures of their journey. The Father advised them to go back to Goa, where they might find opportunities to return to Europe by taking service on Portuguese vessels; but seeing that they had resolved to go to Madras, he wrote down the route, not being able to indicate their stages beyond Gingi, a small town inhabited by Muhammadans, except by the miserable hamlets which exist on this route.
On the following day, at their departure, he exhorted them to be of good courage, and gave them 24 measures of rice, which was sufficient for five or six days. Having arrived at Gingi, which is but two or three stages from the place where they left the Jesuit Father, they met four Portuguese who had escaped from Cochin, when they were about to make the capitulation, and to hand over the town to the Dutch. These four unfortunates, who had become renegades, invited the newcomers to join the Muhammadans of Gingi, who asked them if they would serve them, offering them each three pagodas a month. In the extremity of their misery necessity would have compelled them to accept this offer, if they had not spoken at the same time of their being circumcised, and denying their faith; and from fear that they would be kept against their wills, they left quietly, and followed their journey bravely to Madras, which is ten days’ march from Gingi. They still suffered much during so long a journey, living on the charity bestowed upon them, and not being able to communicate save by signs. They were received hospitably at Madras by the Rev. Fathers Ephraim and Zenon, French Capuchins, and as their bodies were all black and burnt by the sun, after five or six days of rest all the skin peeled off them, from which they suffered much.
The English had the kindness to offer them a passage upon one of their vessels which was returning to Europe, but Rachepot allowed his companions to go, and decided to return by land himself, after having rested nearly two months at Madras. During this time the Capuchin Fathers found a means to enable him to earn more than 100 écus, and three suits of clothes with the necessary linen, by the sale of little rings of horse-hair, which he knew how to make very skilfully. He worked devices and letters on them, and these rings were much approved of by the Mestive Portuguese, who never see anything of great value, so that some of them gave a gold ducat for each ring.
Rachepot having saved money, as I have said, went by land from Madras to Surat, from Surat to Agra, and from Agra to Delhi, where I arrived some time after on my last voyage to India. As I saw he was in want, I took him into my service, and I lent him, too, some money on my departure, which has never been repaid to me. It is from him that I learnt all the details of the voyage which I have recounted, but I have also known fifteen or twenty other persons who have taken the same route when going from Goa to Cochin, and from Cochin to Madras.
It is fairly short, and there is no lack of food and good water, but it has otherwise, as I have said, many inconveniences, which are, that it is very little frequented ; the almost inevitable persecution by the leeches is one of the principal, and the superstition of the Banians, not allowing any one to touch their persons nor their houses, is one of the most troublesome, and even if one takes water from their tanks they destroy them immediately, and do not use them any more ; this is the reason why some of the priests always guard them.