ABSTRACT
At the end of April 1604, the viceroy heard that the emperor was returning victorious from the war, and he at once sent to me to give me the news and to say that it was now time to depart, and so I got ready {[f. 413v]} and went with him. The priest Belchior da Sylva also went with him for three days of the journey, and then he took his leave and returned to our residence in Fremonâ in order to embark in August on a ship from Diu that was in Maçuâ, while that Turkish captain who was my friend was still residing there, in case there happened to be some change later and the port was closed. Our Lord took him safely to Diu and Goa, where Viceroy Aires de Saldanha and the Most Reverend Signor Dom Aleixo de Menezes, the archbishop of Goa, rewarded him very well for his work here with the Portuguese and Catholics. I continued my journey with the viceroy, taking with me two boys, sons of Portuguese, who already knew the cartilha that I had translated into their language. And the viceroy loved to hear them so much that on several afternoons he had them called {to his tent} so that they could recite it to him, and he would say to them, ‘How did they teach you so many good things in such a short time? Our monks never teach anything, and all they are good for is eating and drinking.’ When I went to his tent, which I did most days, he would have it carpeted throughout even though it was very large, and he would have me <[f. 368/357]> sit near him while his monks were further away. One of the more serious of them was so annoyed at this that he even remarked to the viceroy’s servants how in the world it could be that he always had his tent carpeted for a foreign priest whereas he showed them, his own teachers, so little honour. The viceroy laughed heartily when he heard this, and even then he did not show him any more than he had before.
