The Bassa Agreed To Another Jesuit, And It Pleased Heaven That The
Lot Fell Upon Father Francis Marquez.
I imagined that I might with
the same ease get the patriarch out of his hand, but no sooner had I
begun to speak but the anger flashed in his eyes, and his look was
sufficient to make me stop and despair of success.
We parted
immediately, leaving the patriarch and two fathers in prison, whom
we embraced with tears, and went to take up our lodging on board the
vessel.
Chapter XV
Their treatment on board the vessel. Their reception at Diou. The
author applies to the viceroy for assistance, but without success;
he is sent to solicit in Europe.
Our condition here was not much better than that of the illustrious
captives whom we left behind. We were in an Arabian ship, with a
crew of pilgrims of Mecca, with whom it was a point of religion to
insult us. We were lodged upon the deck, exposed to all the
injuries of the weather, nor was there the meanest workman or sailor
who did not either kick or strike us. When we went first on board,
I perceived a humour in my finger, which I neglected at first, till
it spread over my hand and swelled up my arm, afflicting me with the
most horrid torture. There was neither surgeon nor medicines to be
had, nor could I procure anything to ease my pain but a little oil,
with which I anointed my arm, and in time found some relief. The
weather was very bad, and the wind almost always against us, and, to
increase our perplexity, the whole crew, though Moors, were in the
greatest apprehension of meeting any of those vessels which the
Turks maintain in the strait of Babelmandel; the ground of their
fear was that the captain had neglected the last year to touch at
Moca, though he had promised. Thus we were in danger of falling
into a captivity perhaps more severe than that we had just escaped
from. While we were wholly engaged with these apprehensions, we
discovered a Turkish ship and galley were come upon us. It was
almost calm - at least, there was not wind enough to give us any
prospect of escaping - so that when the galley came up to us, we
thought ourselves lost without remedy, and had probably fallen into
their hands had not a breeze sprung up just in the instant of
danger, which carried us down the channel between the mainland and
the isle of Babelmandel. I have already said that this passage is
difficult and dangerous, which, nevertheless, we passed in the
night, without knowing what course we held, and were transported at
finding ourselves next morning out of the Red Sea and half a league
from Babelmandel. The currents are here so violent that they
carried us against our will to Cape Guardafui, where we sent our
boats ashore for fresh water, which we began to be in great want of.
The captain refused to give us any when we desired some, and treated
us with great insolence, till, coming near the land, I spoke to him
in a tone more lofty and resolute than I had ever done, and gave him
to understand that when he touched at Diou he might have occasion
for our interest. This had some effect upon him, and procured us a
greater degree of civility than we had met with before.
At length after forty days' sailing we landed at Diou, where we were
met by the whole city, it being reported that the patriarch was one
of our number; for there was not a gentleman who was not impatient
to have the pleasure of beholding that good man, now made famous by
his labours and sufferings. It is not in my power to represent the
different passions they were affected with at seeing us pale,
meagre, without clothes - in a word, almost naked and almost dead
with fatigue and ill-usage. They could not behold us in that
miserable condition without reflecting on the hardships we had
undergone, and our brethren then underwent, in Suaquem and
Abyssinia. Amidst their thanks to God for our deliverance, they
could not help lamenting the condition of the patriarch and the
other missionaries who were in chains, or, at least, in the hands of
professed enemies to our holy religion. All this did not hinder
them from testifying in the most obliging manner their joy for our
deliverance, and paying such honours as surprised the Moors, and
made them repent in a moment of the ill-treatment they had shown us
on board. One who had discovered somewhat more humanity than the
rest thought himself sufficiently honoured when I took him by the
hand and presented him to the chief officer of the custom house, who
promised to do all the favours that were in his power.
When we passed by in sight of the fort, they gave us three salutes
with their cannon, an honour only paid to generals. The chief men
of the city, who waited for us on the shore, accompanied us through
a crowd of people, whom curiosity had drawn from all parts of our
college. Though our place of residence at Diou is one of the most
beautiful in all the Indies, we stayed there only a few days, and as
soon as we had recovered our fatigues went on board the ships that
were appointed to convoy the northern fleet. I was in the
admiral's. We arrived at Goa in some vessels bound for Camberia:
here we lost a good old Abyssin convert, a man much valued in his
order, and who was actually prior of his convent when he left
Abyssinia, choosing rather to forsake all for religion than to leave
the way of salvation, which God had so mercifully favoured him with
the knowledge of.
We continued our voyage, and almost without stopping sailed by
Surate and Damam, where the rector of the college came to see us,
but so sea-sick that the interview was without any satisfaction on
either side.
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