ABSTRACT
Friday, 30 December. I got a boat at Goa to take me to Bicholim, on a branch of the river which comes from that place. I embarked at nine o’clock in the morning, with a little wind and a favourable tide. In passing by the island of Madre de Deos, my boat was brought to just below the house of the commandant who has to guard this passage, and I was told I must land and show my passport from the Viceroy 1 . Being sure it was some sort of trap and not wishing to have the affront of staying under arrest at this place, I pushed my boat out into the stream, and showed my weapons. I then returned to Goa and went to the Carmelite Father Superior. When he heard that they had tried to stop me at Madre de Deos, he went there with me and spoke to the Portuguese commandant, who was surprised to learn that I was waiting in my boat by the bank of the river. He begged me most politely to land, and took me up to a large room in his house. He made a thousand excuses for the conduct of his people, who had not told him who I was. They had merely said that, following the orders received, they had prevented a Frenchman from passing, and that he had gone back to the town. He at once brought a register which he kept in a little cabinet, and showed me orders, signed by the Viceroy, in which all captains and commandants of forts and passages were enjoined, under severe penalties, to arrest and imprison every stranger, especially the French, who wished to leave Goa without a passport signed by the Viceroy. He said he was well aware that these orders were not meant for people of my position; and if he had been informed the first time, I should not have had the trouble of returning to Goa, as I had done.
