CHAPTER XXII - Departure from Goa.–Manner of embarking.–Provisions on board.–Treatment of the Author.–Vermin in India

Summary

The fourth carrack was one named la nau de Nuestra Senora de Jesus, that is to say, “Notre Dame de Jesus,” whereon we were shipped by order of the viceroy. We numbered three Frenchmen and one Hollander, but he was so ill that he had to be put on shore again and left at Goa. We had also one of the three men who, as I have said, deserted from the Hollanders at Mozambic. On the voyage he was rated as an apprentice, or “under-mariner”, and had his wages as such; but it was pitiable to see how ill he was dealt with during the voyage, for there was no man, great or small, but treated him despitefully and wished him ill; and in truth he did nothing to get himself liked, being an idle fellow and a parlous glutton. He said he was Swiss by race. He was the cause of the poor Portuguese being shot at Mozambic, as already related; and as several of their kinsmen were on board, that was one of the chief reasons that he was so hated. The captain of this carrack was Antonio Baroso, a man of fifty years of age or thereabouts.

Seven or eight days before our going on board we bade our adieux and took leave of our friends, thanking those that had assisted and been kind to us, amongst others the good French Jesuit Father, Estienne de la Croix, who a week before our departure had chanted his first mass.