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'plying the materials for this work, they have procured for me the advantage of dedicating it to you ! !

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We are not going to examine the casuistry by which our author justifies his breach of the enforced oath; nor yet to revise his estimate of the profit and loss in his account current with the Inquisitors, in which, as we have just seen, he acknowledges himself their debtor to a large balance, inasmuch as the evils he bore at their hands were more than counterbalanced by the pleasure of dedicating his book to the young lady aforenamed. What alone we have to do with, is the fidelity of our author's narrative; and on this point we have very strong corroborative testimony furnished us by Dr. Claudius Buchanan in his Christian Researches.

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When Dr. Buchanan visited Goa, he became the guest of one Josephus à Doloribus," one of the Inquisitors of the Holy Office, the second member of that august tribunal in rank, but the first and most active agent in the business of the depart'ment." To him Dr. Buchanan shewed Dellon's book, and received his admission of the general accuracy of its statements. As this is a matter of the last importance, it will be well to extract the passage at length :

"I had thought for some days, of putting Dellon's book into the Inquisitor's hands; for if I could get him to advert to the facts stated in that book, I should be able to learn, by comparison, the exact state of the Inquisition at the present time. In the evening he came in, as usual, to pass an hour in my apartment. After some conversation I took the pen in my hand to write a few notes in my Journal and, as if to amuse him, while I was writing, I took up Dellon's book, which was lying with some others on the table, and handing it across to him, asked him whether he had ever seen it. It was in the French Language, which he understood well. Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa,' pronounced he, with a slow articulate voice. He had never seen it before, and began to read with eagerness. He had not proceeded far, before he betrayed evident symptoms of uneasiness. He turned hastily to the middle of the book, and then to the end, and then ran over the table of contents at the beginning, as if to ascertain the full extent of the evil. He then composed himself to read, while I continued to write. He turned over the pages with rapidity, and when he came to a certain place, he exclaimed, in the broad Italian accent, Mendacium, Mendacium.' I requested he would mark those passages which were untrue, and we should discuss them afterwards, for that I had other books on the subject. 'Other books,' said he, and he looked with an enquiring eye on those on the table. He continued reading till it was time to retire to rest, and then begged to take the book with him.'

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"After breakfast we resumed the subject of the Inquisition. The Inquisitor admitted that Dellon's descriptions of the dungeons, of the torture, of the mode of trial, and of the Auto da Fè were, in

general, just; but he said the writer judged untruly of the motives of the Inquisitors, and very uncharitably of the character of the Holy Church; and I admitted that, under the pressure of his peculiar suffering, this might possibly be the case. The Inquisitor was now anxious to know to what extent Dellon's book had been circulated in Europe. I told him that Picart had published to the world extracts from it, in his celebrated work called Religious Ceremonies,' together with plates of the system of torture and burnings at the Auto da Fè. I added that it was now generally believed in Europe, that these enormities no longer existed, and that the Inquisition itself had been totally suppressed; but that I was concerned to find that this was not the case. He now began a grave narration to shew that the Inquisition had undergone a change in some respects, and that its terrors were mitigated."

The Inquisitor thus admitted the truthfulness of Dellon's statements as regards facts; and this is all that is of any concern to us. It is only as a relater of facts that we are going to make any use of him. As Reviewers, it is our part to form our judgment independently as to the motives by which the parties may have been actuated. We now proceed to give a brief abstract of M. Dellon's narrative.

He left France as an adventurer, and landed at Daman. Here he seems to have established himself as a physician, and, according to his own account, to have been the means of effecting several extraordinary cures. Having formed a friendship, which he declares was of the most innocent kind, with a lady, of whom the Governor of Daman and a priest, the Secretary of the Holy Office, were both enamoured, these men out of jealousy resolved on his destruction; and although he assures us that he was conscientiously a strict Romanist, yet his French ideas were so much laxer than those prevalent in that locality, that they found no difficulty in making up an accusation against him. He mentions five instances in which he had thus laid himself open attack.

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The first was in a conversation with a priest, in which he seems to have expressed some doubts as to the efficacy of a particular form of baptism. The second was in refusing to kiss the pictures on the lids of alms-boxes, when presented to him by the begging-friars and others; the third instance was in stating that while the images of saints ought to be honored, only that of Jesus Christ ought to be worshipped, and that even in this latter case, the adoration should not be referred to the image, but to the Saviour represented by the imageand the fourth was in denouncing the folly of one who spoke of the necessity of covering over a crucifix before the perpetration of sin. "What, (said I) do you think that we can

thus hide ourselves from the sight of God? Do you think 'with those debauched women among you, who believe that, having once locked up their rosaries and their reliquaries, they may give themselves up, without fear of blame, to all 'sorts of excess? Come, Sir, entertain loftier sentiments of the Divinity, and do not think that a bit of cloth can conceal our sins from the eyes of God, who sees clearly the most 'secret thoughts of our hearts. Besides, what is this crucifix, but a piece of ivory?" But the fifth and most flagrant of his crimes, he states thus :

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"Being in an assembly, where they were talking of human justice, I said that it ought far rather to be called injustice; that men, judging only according to appearances, which are often deceitful, are liable to err greatly in their judgments, and that, as God alone knows things as they are, he alone can be, or ought to be called, truly just. One of those who heard me interposed, and said that, generally speaking, what I had said was true; but still that this distinction ought to be made, that though in France there were no real justice to be found, they had this advantage over us, that among them there was a tribunal whose decisions were neither less just, nor less infallible, than those of Jesus Christ. Then, knowing well that he alluded to the Inquisition, "think you, (said I) that the Inquisitors are not men, and subject to human passions, as well as other judges ?" "Speak not thus," answered this zealous defender of the Holy Office; "if the Inquisitors are infallible while on the tribunal, it is because the Holy Spirit always directs their decisions." I could not any longer endure a discourse which seemed to me so unreasonable, and to prove to him by an example that the Inquisitors were very different from what he said, I related the story of Father Ephraim de Nevers,* Capuchin and Missionary Apostolic in the Indies, who, as is related by M. de la Boulaye le Goux, in his travels, was brought before the Inquisition purely through envy, about seventeen years ago, and kept in confinement, and maltreated for a long time. I concluded by saying, that I had no doubt, but that this good father was more virtuous and more enlightened than those who shut him up in a narrow cell, without permitting him even to see his breviary. I added that I considered it a blessed thing for France never to have admitted this severe tribunal, and a blessed thing for myself not to be subject to its jurisdiction."

Not so fast, good Monsieur Dellon. The gentlemen of the Holy Office did not recognize "the inalienable birth-right" of a Frenchman. You were now within their territory, and they had a "Black Act" ready to grasp you within the arms of their

*Of this Father Ephraim, we find a pretty full account in Tavernier, p. 85, of the English translation, folio edition, 1678.-ED. C. R.

We return to the narrative.

paternal jurisdiction. Having learned in some way that charges had been brought against him, our author went to his friend the Commissary, told him the whole story, and asked his advice as to the line of conduct that he should pursue in future. The Commissary gave him good advice, which may be all summed up in the worldly-wise maxim, to do, while at Rome, as Rome does. This advice might perhaps, be given sincerely; but the Governor and the priest, of whom we spoke, rivals though they were, having made common cause against M. Dellon, urged the Commissary to proceed to violent measures. He therefore reported to Goa what had been confided to him by our author, and received orders to arrest him. The account of his apprehension is touching, and it is simply told :

"It was on the 24th of August, 1673, when I was returning from the house of a lady of great merit, the Senora Donna Francisca Pereira, the wife of one of the first gentlemen of the town, Manoel Peixote de Gama. This lady was about sixty years of age. She considered herself indebted to me for saving the lives of her eldest daughter and her grand-daughter; and in fact, I had had the happiness to be of service to them. The daughter had fallen sick while her mother was from home; and the imprudence of a Pandit or Indian Doctor had reduced her to the last extremity, when I was called. I undertook the treatment of the case, and she recovered. The mother on her return was in raptures at the recovery of her dear daughter. Her grand-daughter, who was even more dear to her, fell sick also, and more dangerously than her aunt had been. Yet I was not sent for at first, to see this young patient; and they had recourse to me only when they saw that she was in a desperate state. I found her in a very violent fever, and though she was on the point of falling into frenzy, the Indian Doctor, far from thinking of bleeding her, had covered her head with pepper. This I had removed, and having taken charge of the case, I succeeded; and the patient, in a few days, was restored to perfect health. From that time this lady, penetrated with gratitude, loaded me with presents, and desiring that I should lodge near her, she had given me a house opposite to her own. It was on the very day of which I speak, that she had given me this house; and I was coming out from the house of this generous lady, to return at night to my lodging, when the criminal judge of the town, called in Portuguese the Owidor do crime, came in front of me, and ordered me to follow him to the prison, whither I was conducted; nor was I told by whose order I was apprehended, until after I was actually made fast."

When arrested by the criminal judge, M. Dellon thought that he had no more to do than to apply to his friend, the Governor, in order to be set at liberty. When told that his arrest

was at the instance of the Holy Office, and that the Governor had no right to interfere, he bethought him of his friend, the Commissary; but he had gone that day to Goa. Then he had recourse to the reflexion that the Holy Office was not only just, but that it inclined ever to the side of mercy, especially towards those who voluntarily confessed their faults, as he had done of his own accord to the Commissary.

The bitterest stanza, in one of the keenest satires ever written, represents the arch-enemy of mankind as joyfully taking a hint from an unreformed English prison for the improvement of his places of torment.

He passed by Cold-bath-fields,

Says the devil, this pleases me well;

And he took out his note book, and wrote a hint,
For improving his prisons in hell.*

How he would have delighted in the sight of the prison of Daman! Without sarcasm and in bitter earnest, it must be said that such scenes, in which man treats his fellow-men-made in the image and after the likeness of the great God-as base carrion, that it is such scenes as these that make devils laugh with joy, and call down at last the indignation of a longsuffering God on a guilty land. As nothing but the hope of curing evils justifies the exhibition of that which is filthy, we gladly draw a veil over the disgusting details.

Here however his friends came to see him, and kept up his spirits. His friend, the Governor, came and assured him of his readiness to do all in his power to help him; and his friend, the black priest, came to the grating and shed crocodiles' tears. His friend Donna Francisca did not content herself with false words and hypocritical tears. It would not have been suitable for her to come to him, but here is what she did :

"The charitable care that the generous Donna Francisca took of me during all the time that I continued a prisoner at Daman, rendered my captivity a little more tolerable. This illustrious lady did not content herself with sending me what was necessary for me: but I received from her every day enough of food for four persons. She prepared my food herself, and always sent one of her grandsons along with the slave who brought it to me, for fear that any one might bribe her servants, or the jailer, to poison me; and as she could not come herself to comfort me in my prison, she took care that her husband, her children, or her son-in-law should come every day."

This quotation was made from memory, and, as we see by subsequent reference to the original, made incorrectly; but we let it stand as it is, not because we think that our unintentional alteration is an improvement, but because it makes it more appropriate to the matter in hand,

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