Travels of Fray Sebastien Manrique 1629-1643. Vol. I : Arakan [1]

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UfJe 1bahlu)2t Societr .~·

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TRAVELS OF FRAY SEBASTIEN MANRIQUE "'

1629-1643

VOL.

I : ARAKAN

SECOND SERIES No. LIX

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k oft!1e Burmcsc L,lllg11agc (Rangoon, 898), is a corrupt form of" phra ",a pinnacle. A Buddha (!>uya) is the g reatest of a ll sentient beings. See Hoflson obson, s. v. Pora. There is no connexion as is sometimes stated bet\\'een · Phra '' and ·'Pharaoh", the la tter, as Durton points out (Life cf :izmoozs, v. 545), meaning "Lord of th e Great H o use"; m odern ransliteration using " h pra ", " h pura " and not "phra '', "phura" )bviates this d~rnger. See Harvey, Burma, 313, "Mahamuni ''. The presence of house -boats and numerous craft on t he Thaye-chaung Joints to this river being then much larger than it now is ; this too the :ountry name of Tlt)'t'-ma-nadi, ''the beautiful river", suppor ts. The hrine of Poragri lay abou t one mile to the east of the stream, a nd an old .ity, DimZJ'awadi, stood on the Tlrye-ma-11c1di where the Maharnuni brine was afterwards built.

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ma terials [ 60/ 1] with living rooms, bedrooms, attiri ng-rooms, g alleries and reception rooms. These were divided up for the different me m he rs of the royal fa mily. All th e rooms were most tastefully and admirably ornamented, so as to be, as a floating pleasure house, a thing of wonde r. S till more astonishing was the s ig ht of Cities moving a long the river, consisting of over a thousand houses, including the costly p alaces of Princes a nd g reat L ords. The Magh King usually pe nt t wo months in this way in summer t ime, g rant ing 1die nces and carrying out business, with the same Cc urt round him as he would have had on dry land.4 These obstruct ions fo rced us to a nchor a league farther down-stream. A s soon as we we re a nchored the Magh Ca pta in disemba rked and we nt off to sec if he could, tha t same ni g ht, speak with the Capta in-General's brother-in-la w a nd make over the letters to him. H e enjoined us not t o leave that spot until he re turned or sent us word. W observed th is o rder most strictly, while he also most punctuall3 com p lied with our request tha t he should let us know, withou . delay, wh at took place. So it fell out that befo re sunrise h ~ was back with us accompanied by a gentleman t o who m h h ad b een recommended, wh om we received with every possibl sig n of pleasure. H e ex plained that the letters only reached him very la t [ 60/2] a nd hence he had b een un able to ma ke over tht: communication fo r the King , but wou ld do so on the firs favo ura ble opportunity, meanwhile keeping us fully info rme of every thing; a nd he offered us all assist ance. My companiori in return, gave him two pieces of Chinese gauze or veilin which h e prized highly, expressing every desire to be of use t us, both on account of his brother-in-law's reco mmendation and of the profi t he hoped to deri ve from us ; this last, as i usua l with Orientals, was his chief incentive fo r assistin g us. H e then left us a nd went off to see after his o wn affairs ,a well as o urs. This he did, as O rientals d o, without losin sig ht of their own interests, but in so ski lful a ma nner as t 4

F loating t cwn of Ara/;an. The mul titude o f boats is typical of a See Pinto [Chap . XCV III (203)); Fz'lch, 154.

ri verain towns.

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indebted to them. In such matters these folk ve instruction in many European Courts, where it is ary that even if a stigma should fall on their character eaves them as unspotted as if it was merely from a drop 1ater, since few remember that they have received it and nee the stain remains no longer than that from a spot of ater does on your clothes. 5 Yet these Europeans are styled oliticians and civilized m en and these Orientals barbarians. All that day we remained anchored where we were, awaiting a communication. At night all we received was a message [from our friend] telling us to be of good heart and not to attribute the delay to indifference [61/r] on his part, as up to then he had had no opportunity of obtaining entrance and speech with the King, who had not gone out all day ceived any one in audience. Our friend said that he ".ertainly see him that night as he had already had n. \rVith this message he sent us a present of various game a:-id other eatables. We sent our thanks, the ewarding the messenger with a bribe of a few coins,6 ch he was very pleased, though we were not as much s long delay. As, however, we had to face whatever e we surrendered ourselves to the Divine will and that night in deep thought. ore sunrise next day the same messenger returned, in pirits and filled with delight. He demanded the usual ·d for good news and made over to us a letter from his er which informed us that he had presented the CorangrI's .er to the King, who had ordered it to be read and learning contents was very pleased. He had at once sent a formon The passage is not very clear, but obviously this is the meaning. By ain he alludes to receiving a bribe. The dictionaries translate ma11cha. oy "stain, blot, stigma'', and this view of bribing is supported infra. (see note 6). 6 A bribe: for tan,:;a, cf. H obson-Jobson, s. v. Tanga. The Spanish has taJ1gas de manclw . This clearly carries on the same idea (see note 5), these "tangas." conveying a stain by their acceptance. J\llanrique says that a tanga 1s a rupee (.i\rakan). So too Sdzouten (i. 253) in 1660: ''The smallest silver pieces current in Arracan are worth a TancY or l'vloorish Roupie, which is 2 5 Sous, Dutch money, and when you ch::.;nge ?ne, you g~t 2,660 couris [cowries].'' The usual word is" dinga ",meanmg any com.

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t o the CorangrI instructing him to stand fast at On further orders. He had then summoned the Puchiqt is wh at we sh ould call a Major-domo) and ordered fetch us the next day on t wo elephants of his cortegmake every arrangement for our comfort. We were there to await him there, [61/2] as he would arrive in t wo or th1 honrs, in com pany with the Puchique. We at once sent th messenger back with our reply and ten rupees as a reward fo1 the good news. With the last he was so satisfied that, against our wishes, he desired to kiss our feet and exclaimed that there was no people in the world so worthy of service as the P ortu guese. No sooner had the messenger of good news departed tban we proceeded to prepare the present which had to be given ,_ the Puchique, an d some sweets to tak e th e place of Meanwhile, as the news of my arrival had already spr Japanese Christians 8 came wi th th eir Captain. T accompanied the Kin g, in whose guard they were ser soon as they h ad lea rned where I was they h ad co me. They ca me dressed in gala costumes, in two G no sooner bad they reached us than they saluted discharges of musketry and fa lconets, \.vhich they had 7 i\fr. San Shwe-bhu of Akyab says that it is derived from t obsolete form si!.:lt\ an offic ial, an officer of justice, combined wi (for Ro) or "chief": hence P11c/1ique is B11-si/;k€, or "chief-si though Si!.:1.:1-/!o would be more usual. \\'e ha Ye" Chique" (Si!.:le) in Chap. XVI I, where he is classed as a "chief- constab le". l\I Pinto has the form cltirca, ''steward of the household" [Chaps. C CXCI (435, 436, 458)]; also the form Clzaq ue [Chap. CLI II (3 13)]. Pinto says the "Chirca of Justice", Cl1ir(ti clearly meant any offic See Scl1outm, i. 167. One would have expected Si!.:!.-e-Bo rather t Bu-Szl:ke. s F ather Anthony Farinha, S .J ., who went from Dianga to the to of Arakan in 1639 (?), speaks of three Bandels (settlements) at Araka tha t of the J apanese, and th at of the P ort uguese, and that of othe fore igners, Dutch, Engli sh, and French. ' H aving been received by the King, they (the J a panese) bad settled there in large numbers with their fam ilies; a ll were Christians." F rom an (ann ual ?) lett er of 1640 I Province of Cochi n ?). Cf. Catlwlfr J-fe·m!d of India, Calcutta, J an. 23, i907, p. 59. The numbers of foreign mercenari es in Burmese armies, if we are to accept travellers' statements, were enormous. J\.Tenclez Pi nto (Chap. CXLIX (302)] gives 36,000. We may take it that these are a ll g rossly overstated figures . See Harvey, Burma, "Numerical Note'', 333-4, "Negra is \'lassacre '', 355·

CHAP.

xv]

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129

with them. Their Captain, called L eon Donno, 8 :i. came fo rwa rd and knelt to me. It was only with difficulty that I got him and those with him to rise, by telling them t hat I should not converse with them unless they did so. As there was a la rge number of them , and they could not all get on to our vessel, my com p anion Capt ain Tibao ord ered m a ts to b e spread under some trees, in a sandy spot ; two good ca rpet s were bit.i on them and there we a ll sat. They then al l came up to kiss my hand [ 62/ I J with as much devotion a nd respect as if I h ad been a saint o r a Bish op. This is not surprising as they have more respect, in th ese parts, fo r any priest than ii1 Europe for Bishops. This initial cerem ony over, the J apanese Captain bega n his discourse. H e t old me that all the J apanese Christians were delighted at my advent, as being a n even t long desired, for no priest , t heir ow n or any other, had visited them for over seven years on accoun t o f the wars and other untoward events. Rely ing on our Lord 's mercy they trusted, tha t since I had now come, they would, throug h the spirit ual food t hat I sh ould g ive them, live henceforth in the g race of God and b e much consoled. They believed , owing to their trust in His Divine Majesty, that the Magh King would receive us well, and also entertained h opes that, on my intercession, they would be g ranted permission to erect a Church in their own dist rict. T his th ey' had been tryin g to do for the last two years or so, but p·..::rmission h ad always been withheld. I told t hem they could rely on my support in every just demand, alike in matte rs spiri tua l and t emporal, so that I could leave them in a h~ p pie r frame of mind : and that thi s was no m ore t han m y dut(Y· Moreover, alth ough I had come prim arily in o rder to ave~·t the d anger which threatened the Christians of the Prir11cipality of Chati gan, [62/2] yet they knew well t h at I ;.iad written t o t he Christians of Digripa ra G th at as soon ~'1 Leo11 D o11110: D onno means'' Esq."," Mr.", Leon being the baptismal n me. \Ve have " l\Iiguel Dono'', &c., among Christian J apanese. ~ 1 t was a quarter (barrii>) of tht: town of Arnkan where the C.1.tholics ere settled. In Chap. XXXI i\Ianrique notes that it was near the hurch he erected at Arakan ( 1630). There the form is Digrip::n. See so Chap. XV l I I. Schouten, who g ives an interesting description of ra kan city, says the qua r ter occupied by the Portuguese Christians (he

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as summer began I would visit them and do all I could for their advancement. vVhile I was e ngaged in this speech, the Puchique was announced. So we all arose and \vent to meet him. He came, together with our good intercesso r, on an elephant with a g ilded howdah, preced ed by forty servants, and accompanied by others, according to the custom of the land. Among the latter ·were some active a nd intelligent youths, who are employed in carrying the smokin g and betel paraphernalia, also vessels of water for drinking, and for washing the feet a nd the unclean parts, wh en necessary. So that for these triAin g purposes they require six or seven menial s, when one would suffice. But in order to augment their rarh spiritual liberty to their souls. : replied that if they carried out what lay on them God J..J, in His mercy, not refuse them His Divine assist a nce. \/leanwhilc the four other Christians arrived, and we dissed the question of where they could all most conveniently I

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S ince they ha d been captives for thirteen years (from 1617) a nd ha d been to confession for abou t fo urteen years, a nd one of them for eteen years, we must conclude they were Christia ns before they were ·en. They came from Bengal, since they h ad been taken on .L\1 ughal .!Ssels. P robably they came fro m near Dacca. They h ad as usual been forced to marry native women. T he idea was o obtai n good offspring. Cf. Harvey, Burma, pp. 231, :?58, 350.

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reside, whether at Arracan or Dianga. After considering the disadvantages of both places it seemed to me that no decision would be arrived at until I [80/1 J had heard the views of the Arracan Christians. I thereupon dismissed them, telling two of them to join me two days later in order to accompany me to Arracan. There we could decide this matter, and they could come and fetch their families and belongings permit of their being free to leave with their families, w being stopped by the Catual, another formon had t obtained from the Chique. This formon was granted the strength of the Royal orders, and they left with it. I then arranged with Captain Tibao to take leave of His Highness, who received [80/2] us with great friendliness, bidding us go in peace to Arracan, whither he was proceef Baptism, adults as well as children, that they exceeded two h1undred, tbe adults being the more numerous. This made it ne9essary for me to g ive them some instruct ion in the salient p o in~s o f m: r holy F aith. For this purpose I made use of t wo {:atechist s whom I had brought with me from the R esiden~ies at Dianga and [82/2J Angaracale, for this purpose. Th, , had sufficient knowledge of the prayers, declara tions,

1f

of

t'

7 his is here called a l>arri(I, that is, suburb or ward of a town. Ch p. XV, n. 9. I\l 2

I

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l'I

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See

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and other matters laid down in the Catechism on the subject of the Sacraments. In spite of this the strain was severe, as I had also to administer the Sacrament of Penitence, listening to the large numbers which came from very distant villages. In this way, within the space of five days I confessed eightynine persons for periods extending back to from eight to nine years and baptized two hundred and twenty-seven people, of whom one hundred and sixty were adults. 8 This continuous st rain, added to that of our journey, so full of hardships and anxiety, which I have described above, made me ill, and I ,,,, brought to d eath's door by a tertian fever. Still, sick and weary as I was, I yet felt a great i exhilaration at having been of help to that rud~. . ~1.ithful ft rem embering the joy and content which opd Rem•'-~~ when He h ad converted the Samaritan wd man and Fatzg ex iti11cre sedcbat. 0 "" · So great \Vas my joy at finding myself-prost rated and worn out in the sa me cause that I did not feel th e hot, dry stabs of the fever, tl~ anking His Divine Majesty for selecting so un. \vorthy ·an instrument for so glorious a labou r. But, willing as [8 3/1 J my spirit was to work, Caro autcm inftrma,10 and I was obliged, as the illness t ook its course, to remain confined to my room and couch and get well so as not to tempt God. St ill, after being bled and taking such remed ' as 8 The ChriEtian congregation at Arakan was much larger would have expected considering how long it had been withou l\fany were no doubt Indians. But in 1713 Fat her Barbier d in teMarie, S.J ., found no Bengali Catechism in Ch ittagong. 1 _ \'! first Bengali C at echi sm was printed at Lisbon in 1743· But mos t ~ -~;f ·'th ese Christians wer e no doub t illiterate and hence n o translati on wolL d h ave been of u se. In five days 89 confessions of e ight and nine years' s anding were made, whi ch shows ho w long the place had been left. The b\aptism of 227 persons, of whom 160 were ad ults, a lso enables us to estimate that th e Christian community a t Arakan must have been over I ,ooo : nwreover, over 200 r eceived Holy Communion at the dedication of the C hurch. The figures a re very definite. P erhaps Manrique sti ll bad his not es on this s ubjec t: at any rate he would be more likely to remembe s uch fi g ures as matter con cerning hi s religion; still one must accept ~hem with reserve. [H .] · 9 Our \'ersion has: "Being wea ried with h is j ourney, sat thus of\1. the well " (jo!zn iv. 6). 1o " The fle s h was weak'' (l'i/att. xx vi. 4 I).

CHAP. XVIII]

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

I tho ught desirable, a s we h J.d no d octor 11 (for the local med icos, besides not employing o ur medicines, were quite incompetent ), I listened to so me confessions and baptized some people, especially those who had come a long distance. But fin a lly so me Portuguese, seeing that my life was being end angered, wholly prohibited t hose who came to seek me in order to receive the Sacraments from coming near me. The sickness increased so that, a s I said above, I was at d eath's door. But the Divine pity, in its h idden wisdom, saw fit to restore me to life; may H e g rant that it may be spent in His sacred service. At the end of two months I was feeling better, the fever being less persistent, giving me intervals of freedom. A fe w days later, however, it became a quartan fever which lasted vver three months.1 2 Still the· att ack was such that I was able to say Mass on th e appointed days and perform other sacra ments, when the feve~· allowed. During t his period the King sent his Tabibo, or D octor as we should say, several times to see me. H e broug ht me various excellent fe brifuges [83/2] which, with Divine help, were of the g reatest benefit to me, above all the root of Luce rrage/ 3 which defeats th e evil effects of the wo rst poisons. A s we are now on the subject of this admirable root it will not be outI of place to g ive an acco unt of it, fi rst inform ing th e · rt:!ader that what we say about it we learnt from wha t .nd experienced and not from hearsay. ucerrage is similar in appearance to the T amarisk, 11

Th na tive population be lieved all Firi11g is to be doctors, and it is, therefor.!, perhaps curious that n o Portuguese h a d set up in practice a t Araka n l\:lanucci (see Storia do 1lfl1gor) is a n otable instan ce of a" doc or" with no tra ining at all , a " i\Iedecin malgre Jui " . 12 Manrique a rrived a tArakan in August 163oand left in:J anuary 163 1. See Cl aps. XX.VI, XXXV. 13 This word /11cerrag·e rema ins to be explained, as a lso its botan ical na me. It is not in Garcia de Ortas's Col/ 11q11ios dos ~'·,"imjJhs e Dn:iutZS (Sir C R. l\l arkha m's translation ). lVIanrique compares it to tr.r11uz-e r uling hou se, a nd hence connected with the Precb;tu leus or S iamese royal family. Cf. H arvey, Burma, pp. 168, i 69, 'I' l S3. 7 Cf. Ch ap. XI, n. 12. As Leon Donu's wi(e was a native, who ha d .en in th e service of the Old Queen of Pegu, she may h a,·e been Burmese.

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ment. The best way, in her opinion, seeing that I was in the King 's good graces, would be fo r me to find a suitable opportunity [ 98/2J a nd then, without declaring my real object ;- . quietly ask him if he would allow me to engage some M a ngoenes 8 to serve in the Va rela of the Christia n Quiay. I mentioned elsewhere that Quiay means God and V arela temple, or monastery. The word Mangoen is the name for t hose persons who are appointed by the Kin g to serve any part icular p erson or at any special place. These persons are obliged to serve in turns for one month at a time, without pay, beyond such gifts as they may ca re to give them. They so divid e up the duty among themselves that while some are engaged in serving their Masters, the res t can look a fter their private interests and livelihood and so are not g iven daily food. In tellin g me this he also said he thought it would be well if I visited this Queen and tha nked her fo r her kindness in assisting the Christians. This ad vice seemed t o me ex cellent, a nd I \\'Ould have at once foll owed it, the occasion being opportune, but all our curiosities were exhausted and also our Indian and Chinese cloth, owing t o t he large a mount consui ned in making various adias or presents when we first arrived at this Court. A s I have not ed before, we \Vere obliged not to ma ke visits empty-handed, under pain of being co nsidered d iscourteous and being received grudgingly. I was, therefo re, obliged to let this good [ 99/ r] opportun ity pass an d firs~: do my best to find some adequate g ift to present to Her Highn ess. This g ift I ob tained t hrough some of t he Christia ns, a nd at ~

I

Fytche (Burma, p. '2 46, n.) writes : "On completion of the building of a pagod a by a roya l personage, a gran t of pagoda-slaves (Pya-K J1un) is generally m ade to look after it. S uch persons may be people sei~eY the Captain-General, a piece of land was purchased on whi 10 See Chap. XX IV, n. 8.

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should say, Hermit or Anchorite.U Under this disguise he was more a ssured of success, as all persons of this religious class are much venerated by these Pagans. This done, he erected a rude hut in the innermost and most secluded part of the range, in which they could be protected from the inclemency of the weather. He used to go out thence and visit the nearest villages, where he was able to obtain all the provisions he needed, in the form of alms. Thirteen years passed in this secluded life, during which he taught the boys all that he considered persons of their exalted rank required. At the end of this period, says the chronicle I have quoted, one night when he was paying the common tribute necessary to preserve life, his god, Quiay PoragrI, appeared to him in a dream and told him that the first living thing -he would see next day on opening his door would be one of the sons of the Moon, through whom these boys would regain the Brama Monarchy. The supposed Anchorite was much perplexed and disturbed by this vision and waited, in much uncertainty, for daylight. When day broke he opened his door and saw a [ 124/ 1] White Elephant, which he at once knew must be the son of the Moon. He prostrated himself before it and did taslim, the highest courtesy possible among those Pagans. He then called the Princes and told them of the miraculous vision, on which the boys also prostrated themselves. While they were all thus prostrated before this bestial deity, the Elephant, so the chronicle relates, picked up each of the Princes in turn with his trunk, set them on his back and went off. The good and faithful servant and teacher, on seeing this, followed them, delighted in the contemplation of this event, which, if it really took place, was caused by the Devil. On this occurring, he became so absorbed and overwhelmed, that he forgot to remove certain things of value. The result of it was that a short time after, some of the Anchorite's devotees living in the neighbouring villages, finding that he did not pay them his usual visit, went in search of him, thinking that sickness might be the cause. They reached the hut only to find it 11

See Chap. XXI I, n. 5.

CHAP. XX III]

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open; they entered, but finding no one waited until night, deciding to spend it with their revered Hermit. Seeing that he still did not come they lit a fire and waited. But the importunate demands of hunger drove them to search the hut for food. A s it had no rooms, either outer or inner, they soon found the Anchorite's provisions, [ 124/2] which appeared to them far more considerable than th e stores usually maintained by such people. Though they were for a time surprised, still they did not forget to support frail humanity, and after thus supporting it with food, it demanded further support by repose. Thus occupied they spent the night, until the glittering planet \Vas again about to visit them, his rays penetrating their very inadequate roof. The d emands of nature being thus satisfied they wasted no time in considering why their Hermit \Vas so long in returning, a nd with one consent they set off to search for him through the mountains. But their efforts were fruitless, and further search appearing vain they returned to the hermitage pro~ posing to obtain possession of the provisions there, believing that the H ermit, who led so holy a life, had been wafted to the Paradise of their Poras. They reached the hut confirmed in this view and found several tigers' skins which were used a s bed-covers for the Hermit's couch. They found that these skins covered a better couch than ordinary and on continuing their search came on a bambu. This, as I have already often explained, is a kind of cane far stronger than those we have, being of considerable thickness, some even as large as a man's [ 125/ 1J leg.12 Finding that this bambu weighed very heavy they opened it and found it was full of golden tiquals,13 a coin current in the Kingdoms of Brama and Peg u. From this they gathered that the owner of th ese things must be but a sham Raulin Manigrepo. This idea, joined to their discoveries, incited them to make still closer scrutiny. This scrutiny brought to light a coarse, roughly made box, but with contents of the greatest value. It was full of precious jewels, a small 12

See Chap. V I , n. 20. This word has long been used by foreigners to designate uncoined silver of about 1! rupees weight. In Siam it is a silver coin. Manrique's tiqual was of gold. See Hobson-Jobson, s. v. Tical. 13

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book, bound in golden covers encrusted with stones, lying below them. This contained a statement giving the names of the Princes, special care being taken to enter all characteristic marks of the elder, the lucky day of his birth and the catastrophe of their Royal parents' death. At this discovery, so unexpected and incom prehensible to rude Villagers, they were astonished . Their limited intelligences were incapable of taking advantage of what fortune was offering them, d epreciating a gift which she denies to so man y. Under the influence of this surprise they sent one of their number to inform the Governor of the Province, who resided in a City a few leagues only away. H e, on hearing of the find , at once sent some judicial officers [r25f'2] to bring what had been found , according to the messenger, and also his companions. I can well understand how, to be quit of any dealings with such fellows (men who, while they bear the title of officers of justice, are more often officers of injustice and oppression), these wretched Villagers would have made over to the m all the treasure and p ossessions in the world. When these officials arrived, having merely received orders to bring those men and what they had found , they did not dare to exa mine these things closely. So, without more ado, they took the a rt icles and left, making the simple mountaineers go with them. They went in fear, complaining bitterly of the injustice o f thei r fate which had at firs t seemed so favourable. However, no real grounds for apprehension exist ed, inasmuch as the education given to most of these paQans was, as I have said, usually obtained in the tem ples or the private houses of the Raulins, who are so moderate a nd forbearing as regards am bition and the insatiable desire for the acquisition of riches, that they not only counsel and teach (by word of mouth) the h indrances such a pursuit places in the road leadi ng to a spirit ual life, but a lso teach it by example, knowing how much g reater is the effect of actually doing what one preaches than m erely preaching what one does not do, as do so many persons who not only follow the true Catholic faith but also profess [ 1 '.26/1] a state of perfecti on. But let us abandon this as something only d ivine direction can set right, for

C HAP. XXIII

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243

human impulses are admittedly powerless and we must confess Sunt vere filii lm.fus saeculi.14 So, to return to our story. These officials reached the Governor and placed those Villagers and all the articles of furniture \.vhich they had found in the hermitage of the pretended Manigrepo before him. H e took little notice of these things, but when h e came to the box and saw the contents of that rough covering, he was for a long time disturbed and thoughtful , being unable to decide what he ought to do. It may well be that he repented of his disregard of the Villagers' statements, from believing that such people were so little versed in jewellery and precious things as easily to be deceived by whatever was showy rather than valuable. But finally he found that it was he who was deceived. H e could otherwise, by underhand methods, have obtained possession of all this wealth, although according to his perverted ideals it would have cost the lives of those simple Villagers. Yet in this, and indeed in greater iniquities, his religion was most accommodating, since it grants plenary a bsolution every year,15 and he could by making a small payment have redeemed his sins and been freed from all pains and penalties and also been fully justified in the eyes of his inane deities. Seeing, however, that his original mistake was past remedying, [I 26/2] he decid ed, by making a virtue of necessity, to show himself an upright judge, and in return for abandoning considerable personal advantages, now past recovery, he vrnuld at least obtain a high repute for honesty. 14

' ' They are the true sons of this age." The text has co11cedie11doles plenarios J ubileos amzuales. I n 1300 Pope Boniface VI II instituted this year as one of remission from the fi nal consequences of sin. This was to have been re peated e\'ery hundred years, but was soon shortened t o periods of fifty years, thirty-three, a nd t hen to twenty-five year s. Now a n "extraordinary Jubilee" m ay b e granted at a ny time and for any le ng th of time, less than a year even, to the whole Roman Catholic Church or to specific localities. As r egards the Buddhist religion this is nonsense. Monks do confess as Bi oande t notes, but no absolution follows, the act and its consequences r~main, and if evil, evil results; if good, then good. Indeed a strict Bu ddhist regards the grant ing of absolution as a cheap way of escaping one's desert s and an incentive to further sin. Cf. Harvey, Burma, p. 1 S, a nd article on Burmese praying , j oltrn. Bur . Res. Sc>c., 1916- 17, vol. vii, p. 1 ~7. 1

=·

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[SECT. I

vVith this object he summoned various officials and had an inventory of the jewels and gold made before them. He also had the contents of the small book read out. These precautions over he at once sent information to the Emperor describing all that had taken place. The Emperor, as soon as he heard it, issued orders that men should be sent in all directions, with instructions to search with the greatest diligence for the Brama Princes and the Manigrepo, notifying that if found they should b e brought to him with as much respect as if th ey were his own sons. But all their endeavours proved fruitless, for according to their fanciful history, since the Princes were travelling in charge of the Moon Goddess's irrational progeny, the White Elephant, and \Vere thus und er the protection of these deities, it was necessary for the due accomplishment of these tales that they should travel safely and unmolested. Turning once more to the chronicle we are quoting for the journey of the Moon's elephant-son, we learn that he reached th e city o f Chaleu, capital of the Brama Monarchy. Here the Manig repo R aulin left them and went ahead in his hermit's robes, loudly proclaiming to the people the arrival of this deity in their [ 127 /1J city. These Barbarians hold t h ese Anchorites in such high esteem that he had traversed very few streets before a large crowd came out to receive the a nima l, prostrating themselves before this beast with the lowest S umbayas. The news of its arrival thus reached the Royal Palace b efore the Elephant. This enabled the Tyrant himself t o advance to receive it acco mpanied by his usual guard, which could scarcely open a way for him through the thick throng of that barbarous and blind multitud e. As soon as he was in the presence of the son of Mother Moon [ 127 /2] he prostrated himself in taslim. While he was performing this prostration, the \\Thite Elephant, so the story relates, reached out with its trunk and squeezed him with such force as t o kill him, thus makin g him pay with his life the p enalty for thirteen y ears of unjust rule. Y et this was but a mild punishment for an ambitious man who, not content with his own possessions, tried in every way he could to increase his P atrimony, however

CHAP. XX III]

JOURNEY TO ARAKA N

2 45

much to the detriment of others, caring naug ht for God or man; and what is worse, there was no lack of flatterers who praised his acts as wholly rig ht and just.10 Pinto all udes, apparently, to this story, though nothing is said abo~t a white elephant. He says, " This monarchy (i.e. Burmes~) \\'.a~ m times past the sole kingdom which now (I 549) it is not, b~t 1s d1~1ded into 13 estates of sovereigns who made themselves masters of 1t by poisoning their King at a banquet which they made hi m in the city of Chaleu , as their histories relate" (Chap. CLXV. (358)]. 16

SANSAPORAU (Note

2,

page 234)

This word a ppears to mean the" full moon" fea st. I s it s!tasha (Skt.), a hare which is used for the moon (the spots on the surface of th;:i,t pla net being considered to resemble a hare), combined with pun!a1 full? Slwslw in common parlance becomes sasi, a nd in Siamese sasi is the moon, a nd jmmza , full (Pallegoix, Die. Tlwi.). Sansapornu is quite a likely form of sasi-fmrva or sasi-punna. Mendez Pinto describing the similar procession a t the Shr ine of Tinagoogoo uses what appears to be the same word. He e mploys it, however, as the god's name. ''Afte r these followed other martyrs of the devil, whom they called X ixajJaraus.'' The feast itself a ppea rs to relate to the .Sanlmfnt or passing of the sun into the sign of Capricornus at the winter solstice. Manrique's translation is perhaps erroneou s. Ancestor-worship forms a par t of t he Dasara feast in Southern India (Dubois, Hindu 11/anners and Customs, 1899, 577), but is not a part of th is festival elsewhere. But Dasara falls too late for Manrique's festival, as it takes place in September or O ctober. The Sanl.Tifnt festival is not particularly devoted to a ncestor-worsh ip. D ubois, however, descri bes a curious southern I ndian sport indulged in at the Sankrifnt. A hare (sasi ) is Jet loose in a circle of people, its efforts to escape affording much amusement. Tha t there is any connexion with the full moon in this case it might be a stretching of the imagination to assert. The festival actually commemorates the sun's taking its northern pa th (utlifniyana), its " rebirth" a ccord ing to a ncient ideas. Mendez Pinto's description of the procession he saw in the K ingdom of Calaminham a t the Tinagoogoo shrine is very similar and may be summarized thus : This feast lasted fifteen days. On the fifth day a great procession took place. This procession was nine leagues in length, comprising forty thousand priests of the twenty-four sects. These priests all went in palankins tha t day as they m ight not soil thei r fee t. Cha riots were used to carry the idols, in all one hundred a nd twenty-six. All were four and some fi ve stories high with as ma ny wheels on either side. In each were some t wo hundred persons, the idol being on the top. The chief idol was of silver with a mitre of gold on its head, a nd all the idols wore jewelled necklaces. Boys carrying silver maces attended the chariots, others carried censers and others musical instruments. They cried out, "Lord, assuage the pains of the dead, to the end they m ay praise Thee peaceably ''. Some three thousand people drew each chariot with silkcovered cords. Soldiers cleared the wa y rouo-hly. The streets were decorated with boughs of trees. Tables wer; set up along the route,

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN where all could get free refreshments. Enemies became friends. "In a word so many good works were done there, more proper for Christia n s than for Gentiles, as I must needs conclude, that if they had been done with faith and baptism, for the love of our Lord Jesus Christ .•. assuredly they would have been acceptable to Him.'' Next several men, anointed and wearing gold bracelets, suddenly rushed out and threw themselves down before the idol's cha riot and were crushed to death. Priests then descended and took up the corpses, putting their heads, bowels, and other members in big bowls. Some s ix hundred men were thus immolated. Next came men who slashed and cut themselves about, fina lly falling down dead. The Grepos then came down off the car and cut off the ir heads. On the tenth day the ''serpent of the house of smoke", that is the devil from hell, was supposed to come and try to steal the ashes of those who had thus sacrificed themselves. Noise was kept up day and night a nd Tinagoogoo was expected to be coming to destroy the serpent. The statue of Tinagoogoo was twenty-seven spans high with an ugly face. He held in his hand a hatchet, "in the form of a cooper's addis (adze) but with a far longer handle". A model of the serpent he had slain was placealustris), of which there are two varieties, and the long-nosed Gharial ( C. .E;avialis). The latter, as Manrique says, is compara ti vely innocuous, being a fish-eater. Of the short-nosed, one species ( C. parosus) attains great length, as much as t hirty feet long. It is met with in Indian and Burmese estuaries. See Chap. XXXVI, n. 2. 9 See Chap. II, n. I.

"96

~)

JOURNEY TO ARAK AN

[ SECT. I

bring me to a s pot near to a Christian settlem ent. But it so fell that my paiques 1 0 or professional oarsmen, who had been rowing their h a rdest from dawn till midday, were anxious to reach the shore in order to rest and recoup their tired bodies with a necessary m eal. This was of rice, and they were accustomed t o go on shore and light a fire in order to cook it. Moreover, these Barbarians held it as an essential ordinance of their fal se faith never t o eat withou t first bathing and anoint ing the body with oil ; 11 a process which took from one t o two hours. vVhile they were all engaged in this process a watchman, who had been posted o n the top of a tree, began to cry out: " The fleet, the fleet!" On hearing this alarm the paiques, who are a very timid folk, without paying any heed to ou r calls, rushed in their abject t error into the thickest part of the wood. I , with a noth er Portuguese called L uis Trig ueros 12 and three Christian youths who were in ou r party, seeing that we could do nothing, hastened to follow the paiques, having time t o catch up some fire-arms and no more. For two light Cossas were approaching at great .c;peed and soon cam e up to our vessel, which th ey seized. Some of their soldiers, who carried bows and arrows, were [ 223/r J then disembarked. They rapid ly reached me and my four companions, as we were caught by the mud, since the whole country was under water. \Ne fled with a ll the speed \\·e could to save our lives, or at least escape from the painrul and wearisome cap tivity awaiting us. H owever, as the enemy was already on us we turned and raised our m uskets to our shoulders, but they, recogn izing that we were Portuguese, called o ut to us to surrender, for should we escape fro m th em we should not escape the tigers, which are most ferocio us throughout that region, or if \\'e d id so, as we could never find a way out of those marshes, we should meet with a still more av,1ful fate, death by hunger. T o all this advice we replied that God in His infinite mercy would 10

See Chap. X IV, n. 13. u This is an invariable Hi ndu custom. Strict Hindus travelling by train, even nowadays, will get out for a meal and allow the train t o proceed, catching the next. 12 \\'e know nothing about him .

CHAP.

xxxvJ

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

397

deliver us from every one of these dangers; meanwhile they had better ma ke off, while they had the chance, as we were determined to sell our lives as dearly as we could , unless they did so. Then, since these P agans a re excessively afraid of our fire-arms, they did not dare to approach us. They then asked us which road our paiques had taken, to which q uery we returned no reply. T hey then left us, after satisfying their rage by calling us caffares 1 3 ma ny times over, that is to say a man without faith, and went off by a nother path in search of the paiques. \Ne remained in the same position [ 223/2] until we lost sight of them all. Then, in order to enable us t o traverse that difficult marshy land more easily, we stripped ourselves to the merest requirem ents of decency. We travelled on in this way until night , through mud and water which al ways reach ed half-way up the leg and often to t he waist, while we were exhausted by the attacks of leeches, which abound in these marshes. At length, worn o ut and weak, \Ve all fi ve climbed into the tallest tree we could find there, and so spent the nig ht, weary, soaked to the skin, and covered with mud . A s a final solace we were attacked by fami shed mosquitoes, in s uch numbers that if we had possessed the h undred hands which stories say Briareus 14 had (the chi ld, as the poetical fiction of the H eathens narrates, of Heaven and Earth) they would have been insufficient to protect us from those importunate insects. Finding ourselves assailed on the one h and by these insects a nd hunger, and on the other hand seeing no prospects of huma n help, we had recourse to the divine. For as the Prophet says :

Ve.ratio dat intdlectum.15 O n this very true text I made my companions a short homily. I reminded th em of the obligation we were under to bear these hardships patiently, judging them to be blows given 13

That is /;iifir or infidel. See Chap. V, n. 2::?. He was one of the sons of Uranus ( Heaven) and Gea (Earth). Each of them had one hundred arms and fifty heads. They overcame the Titans when they attacked the gods in Olympus. 15 "'!'rou bl~ gives ~s power to understand." Apparently a proverb : otherwise a m1squotat1on of l saialt xxviii. i9, "vexatio dabit intellectum" ("it shall be a vexation only to understand the report." A.V.) . 14

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JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

[SECT. I

·by God's merciful hand so that we might repent of our [ 224/1 J sins and turn to Him, who, like a pitying father, was watching over us, ever willing to aid us in our adversity. " For, my brethren , so true is this that my great Patron, Saint Augustin, never asked more of any sinner than that he should turn in his troubles to this Divine Lord of all Pity.

' Utinam (said the Saint) in dijficultatibus exclamarcnt ut a 11eccssitatibus libcrarcntur.' "IG \Vhen I had ended this brief ex hortation we all began to ask for divine help by reciting the litany of H er who, as the Mother of God, has ever been the consoler of the afflicted. \ i\Thcn we had finished reciting this we began the litany of the Saints, so far as I could recollect it, as the darkness of the night made it impossible for me to consult my breviary, which was the only thing I had been able to bring with me, and it was by now well soaked. At such devotional exercises, accompanied by some tears, we passed that sad and interminable night, longing for the day. And since there is no place where dawn does not come, unless death intervenes, day rose clear, brilliant and beautiful, but very sadly and hopelessly for us after the unhappy event of the preceding day and the miserable plight in which we were. For we had no idea of what we ought to do in this wilderness, nor what road we ought to take t o escape from these wastes, so water-logged and impassable was that region. We none of us knew what path to foll ow through [224; 2] that tangle of mighty trees and had, moreover, no hope of meeting any one in that part, only inhabited by fierce Tigers, Rhinoceroses, and other dangerous animals. A ll those considerations increased our unhappiness and our fears. Various views were expressed as to the road we ought to take. Two of our party held that we should push on till we reached dry land and habitations, as we should on the way find sufficient honey on the trees to sustain ourselves with. 10 "\Vould that they should call (on God) when in trouble that they miuht be freed from their difficulties." This is in St. Augustin's Enarrationes in Psalmos, cvi. 39. Cf. Patrol. Latina, xxxvii. I 427. It should run " Utinam in difficulta tibus exclamarent, et a neccssitatibus liberarentur ''.

CHAP. XX.XV

J

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

399

We would carry our arms always ready in our ha nds, advancing with g reat ci rcumspection, a nd since we had fi ve powder-flasks a nd our wallets full of bullets we would fire our weapons off when in the wildest and most suspicious places and frighten what was there, while by nig ht we should sleep in trees. The others, and I a mong them, held an opposite view, .tating that it would be far safer for us to retrace o ur steps and 'ot leave the Ganges, for as long as we marched within sig ht · it we mig ht come across so me boat or other. vVe should rtainly run the risk of encounter ing Crocod iles, which, as 1entioned before, were accustomed to come out on to the r bank to bask in the sun and also to look ou t fo r any or buffalo wh ich came down to drink. But we could 1] account fo r any of these animals easil y, as they we re n open stretches of groun d. O n the other h and , the eing deceitful an imals, always lay hid in order t o r prey suddenly . \ Ve d ecided to return t o the spot whence we had s we might there find some of the cooked rice which aiques had abandoned t h rough fea r. fter making this resolve we proceeded to ·retrace the steps ad taken the preceding day. Weakened a s we were, from of food and sleep, we made o ur way but slowly, owing t o ifficulties o f the marshes, so that altho ug h th e distance ut little over a league and \Ve started befo re daybreak, d not come within sight of the Ganges until after the f vespers. vVhen, moreover, we found that the spot we ached was not that we had left we were in despair, for re so weary, sick at heart, and covered with leeches 1g a way our blood, that we were unable to move a step fan.. , ; r. All in a state of g reat anxiety, and some \'Veepi ng bitted y, we cast ourselves down on a piece of dry sand which we found near the river. W e washed off the leeches, each man in his heart beseeching God's pity. W e lay a full ha lfh ou r i:hus without speak ing a word. I then got up a nd [ 225/2J begged my companions to confess, in order that we should all b e fully prepared t o face whatever G od desired to 0

r

400

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

lSECT. I

do wit h our lives. \iVhen they had all made confession I considered my own sins, asking the Divine Majesty to pardon them, since I could not, like my companions, make confession. As soon as this important duty had been performed we felt that we should be doubting God if we simply remained there to die, so we got up) deciding to carry out our original intention of finding the spot where we first went astray. So we followe the bank down-stream, and God was pleased, in His infinit mercy, that after journey ing about half a league we shoul a good hour before sunset, reach the place we were sceki where \Ve had met with our misfortune the preceding d~ Here \VC found what we required most of all, and that was rice, which was to us at that moment far more valuable gold, silver, or precious stones. It was a lready almost up, as our enemies had found it in vessels of copper, w plattens, and earthenware and gansa 17 vessels. Gansa · similar to that we call Moorish loton, a very clean for use in eating and drinking vessels, and conseque used by the people of those parts. Now they had tl the rice they found in these copper, gansa, and ware vessels on to the ground, and carried away the Vt:~ [ 226/ 1 J So we collected the rice, half-dry as it was and m with earth, and placed it in two large wooden vessels w owing to their small value and ordinary make, the enem left behind. \Ve also discovered a little salt in those ·w vessel.:;. So we satisfied our most pressing needs with\ our condition was a regular feast, and gave thanks to ou for having rescued us at so critical a moment with such help. We cleaned the rest of the rice as best we could, order to collect it we had to make use of the shirt of one youths, in which we tied it up. By the time this was away it was already late, and we decided to pass the 1ght where we were. To this end we set about collecting er. large stack of dry wood, which abounded there, a nd using the steel from one of the flint-locks we lighted a fire, making a great blaze in order to insure ourselves against the wild animals of which I have made mention, since they fly from that e/ement. 17

See Chap. VII, n. 7; and for lo/on, ibid.

CHAP. XXXV]

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

401

But notwithstanding this \·Ve decided, for our greater safety, that two of us would always remain as sentries, with arms in their hands, while the rest paid tired Nature the tribute she demanded. In accordance with this arrangement, after we had commended our bodies to God's care and invoked the aid of His Sacred Mother by her litany, we threw ourselves on the g round. And, although we lacked the enticement of soft, delicate mattresses [226/2] and a bed covered with clean sheets, yet sleep did not fail to take possession of our wearied and exhausted senses. There we passed the night, watching and sleeping by turns, until morning came, when we set forth once more on our journey comforted and with g reater vigour. We travelled all day within sight of the river through uninhabited country, often marshy, without meeting anything save thousands of leeches which distended their shrunken bodies a t the cost of our blood. So, travelling on, we came at length, whil e still a few hours of daylight remained , to an open spot, which in spite of its being rather marshy had one or two good-sized trees in it. Here we elected to make our home for that night, partly because we found ourselves very exhausted a nd partly because we saw across the river another open spot which seemed to us dry, to which we proposed to wade over th e next day, as the river at this point was very wide and shallow. After coming to this decision we opened our food reserve and estimated the amount of rice we had at from eight to t en pounds, which we considered would serve us for as many days. 'Ne then ate wh at was allotted to that day, which, howeve r, was so dry that \\'e were obliged to soak it in order to be able to swallow it. vVhen this meal was over we all climbed up into a tree, praying th e Divine Majesty [ 227 / I] not to allow us to perish in these wilds. So we passed that night in much greater discomfort than th e last, with far more trouble and fatigue ; for while hunger g nawed at us and sleep importuned us (though during the preceding night we had been able to watch in turns), on this occasion we had to watch all the time, in order not to fall out of the tree, and also could not sleep owing to the attacks of singing, biting mo£quitos. D d

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Day broke, and we descended from the tree and prepared to cross to th e other side. \Vhen we were about to d o so, some one suggested that it would be best if two went across t o see if it was really as dry on the other side as it seemed, for if it were not we had no need to cross the stream. In accordance with this proposal two of my companions prepared to cross. One was a slave of Luis Trig ueros's ; the other a youth, a recent convert who had come with me, called Alipio. Before they plunged into the water we fired a volley with all the arms we had, to see if the noise roused [ 227/ 2] any Crocodiles. Seeing no signs of motion in the water the two young men went in, carrying their muskets on their shoulders, while the rest of us stood on the shore with our arms in our hands, ready to fire if it were necessary. It proved a feeble and useless precaution. For the youths had only advanced a few paces into the water, up to their waists, when a huge Crocodile Cl.ppeared and suddenly struck the slave, who was behind him, a blow with his tail. He disappeared below the water, leaving no trace at all except red blood on the surface of the stream . All of us were dumbfounded and petrified at this spectacle, entirely lacking the presence of mind and initiative needed to fire our pieces, which we held ready in our ha nds. The other youth, Alipio, in mortal fear, dropped his g un and swam back to where we were standing, all bitterly lamenting the death of our compa nion and our new misfortune, and wondering what others might be awaiting us, if God our Lord did not, in His infinite mercy, extend us His aid.

~ ~

d

CHAPTER XXXVI In whiclt the Author co11t£n11es his 11arration of what took place £1l this evil hour.

J

[ 22 7/ 1 THE disastrous and unfortunate fate of our d ead comrade (as I have said) [ 227/2] left his four companions very much unstrung [ 228/ 1 and perturbed, for we felt how

J

very near we were to having suffered, each one of us, a n identical fate, had we fo llowed the orig inal proposal a nd a ll plunged together into th e stream. Among the troublous thoughts we were by no means least disturbed by th e knowledge that all th at region was inundated and full of b ogs and marshes, a nd that where these dange rs did not exist the country was infested by tigers and other fierce animals. W e, therefore, decided that the best pla n was to remain where we were, climbing into the trees at night and coming back to the b anks of the Ganges by day, in the hope th at some vessel might by chance sail that way. vVe spent two days and a half in this way, passing our sad lives in the com pany of death, which, in our hopeless st at e, appeared to our imaginations as coming every moment nearer t o us. We passed the night sleeplessly , tormented by hunger on the one hand and on t he other by the inev itable mosquito and a genus of fly, called in these parts " the elephant fly '',1 which d rew blood at each bite. 1

Our familiar "mosquito" gets his name from the Portuguese word mosca, a fly, of which it is the diminutive. The word seems to have come first from !:>out b America as the name of a biting insect (H obstin-Jobson s . v.). It is not easy to s~y what species this "elephant fly" belongs to; one would have expected it to be one of the Tabanidae, the family of the Gad-flies, Dan-flies, &c., but these insects do not bite at nio-ht. Pinto 0 [C hap. XX I II (55)) mentions a similar biting fly, called in the Portuo-uese text atablJes, a nd in the Spanish version tabarros. Minsheus, Sp~nislt Dictionary (1623), gives tabarro as" h ornet", but this is clearly not the meaning here: tdbarro (Port. lm!do) is a horse-fly. D

d

2

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[SECT. I

There were not so many of the latter as of the ordinary mosquito, but since we were half naked, our hands were of but little use in protecting us, and we were so maddened by the attacks of these villainous insects that had it not been for fear of the Caimans,2 or Crocodiles, [ 228/ 2] we should have spent the night in the river. In this wretched plight, as I say, we awaited death's arrival to put an end to it, and some of us indeed were impatient at his delay. How t errible is man's condition when he reasons in this way, holding as a blessing what we ordinarily consider the greatest evil; what a disease of the spirit, to desire that it most abhors and seek that it inva riably flees from ! Had human weakness no other support, who could bear such trials? But God is there. He being in Himself Infinite Good, so there is no reg ion so deserted, no place so remote, in which th e miseries of sinners can be hid, as there also is no p lace nor h our in which His h elp is not ever present; and He through Hi s infinite mercy succours them. So His divine and sacred Majesty dei gned to take pity on our adversity, well merited though it was by my sins. But as the Divine clemency never punishes us with all the power of His arm, for His mercy is ever ready to cure the wounds His justice has inflicted, through the incomparable love He bears us, so He sent us a means of escaping from the misfortunes in which we were involved. 2 This is a South American word for an alligator, from the Cari b islands, which the Portuguese adopted and took with them wherever they went (Hobson-Jobson, s. v. Cayman). The cayman is a_ small genus never exceeding 7 or 8 ft. in length . They have a blunt triangular head. The teeth are invisible when the jaw is closed. Crocodiles and alligators [El Lagarto = the Lizard] are distinguished by their sku lls and dentition. Alligators, foun? only in . China and t_he New vVorld, have the jaws nearly parallel, and the Jaw-bone m front tL~rn~ inwards from each side, ma kin CY it very narrow. The'' canine" teeth bite mto pits, and hence are not visi~Je_ w_he~ the jaw _is shut. Only tw? species. of alligator are known, the M 1ss1ss1pp1 and Chmese [ Yang -tse-kzcmg] varieties. Crocodiles have jaws converging from the skull f~rwar~ to form a very Jong joint. The "canine" teeth are larg~r than m all igators a~d bite into CYrooves, being visible when the mouth 1s closed. They occur m both hen~i spheres, America having alligators, caymans, and crocodiles. See Chap. IX, n. 5·

CHAP.

xxxvr]

JOURNEY T O ARAKAN

405

It happened thus. On the third day, at the time when the Sun was in mid career, as three of us were sitting on the banks of the river, pondering over our evi l plight, our remaining companion, who [ 229/1 J was keeping watch up above in a tree, bega n to call out, exclaiming : " Good news ! God has not deserted us, a dinghy with two men is approaching us." These dinghies are small boats ordinarily used in these parts. L et each ma n think wha t his feelings would have b een at such news had he been in our plight. W e got up greatly exhilarated in order to go d own to the water. W e were just reaching th e spot which the dinghy was approachin g, when it seemed t o us advisable that three of us should conceal ourselves and that only one of the youths should show himself, as were they to see us all, especially th e Portuguese, they would flee. In accordance with this resolve we hid ourselves while one of the youths went down to the point the dinghy was approaching , and on his calling to them they came up. H e besought them for the love of God to t ake him on board, and after he bad a nswered their inquiries and satisfi ed them tht.:y came ashore a nd put him into the little boat. While he engaged them in conversation we others who were awaiting a n opportunity sud denly came up. Our appearance so t errified them t hat they were about to fl ee, but we put our muskets to our shoulders and threatened to shoot them if they moved. Then , seeing that two of us were Portuguese, they were so put out, believing that we were soldiers from Chatigan, that they came weeping ashore and threw [ 229/2] the mselves at our feet, being certain that they would be made slaves, and begged tha t at any rate we would not sell the m to the Maghs, as they would far rather be slaves to the Po rt ug uese. On discovering their fa lse impression we said what was necessary to reassure them : that we were not the people th ey t ook us for, but were mercha nts from Ugulim who were travelling

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

[SECT. I

from that port to Banja 3 when the Maghs seized our vessels. \Ne gave a detailed account of what had happened t o us, only concealing that we had come from the Magh Kingdom, telling them how we had been attacked by the Mogor pirate vessels. On hearing this account, and on our also saying that we wished to go to Banja, th ey were fully reassured, and regaining courage said with many salaams: 4 "Gentlemen, now that we know from your account that you are not Portuguese in the service of the Magh Emperor, at Chatigan or Dianga, we will tell you what you must do in order to reach Banja, it being understood primarily that we shall do nothing but what you order, since fate has placed us in your power. You can see yourselves, Sirs, that this tiny boat is incapable of taking us all to Banja, and even if it could, we at this moment lack rice and are obliged to travel only by hidden ways unfrequented [ 230/1 J by the war vessels of Maghs or Mogors, and where there are no villages. So, if you agree, we can proceed to a spot , less than a league hen ce, where we and some of our companions have established Golas 5 in these wood s, for the preparation of lac which we take to Angelim and Banja for sale. " Some six days ago two bores 0 loaded with lac left for 3 Hugi! and I3anja. See Chap. V. 4. These people were in terror of the Portuguese and Magh raiders from Arakan and Chittagong, who had devastated that coast. Cf. Chap. XVI, n. 19. 4 The salaam is a MuI:iammadan salutation and not Hindu. Strictly speaking it is oral, the Arabic word Salizm being uttered as the right hand is raised to the forehead. The Hindu salutation is the prrzniim, ma de by raising both hands joined. These people were evidently Muhammad ans, as subsequent events show. 6 ·Here gola clearly means a place where lac was collected, and no doubt cleaned and perhaps melted down roughly to form the crude lac, called in the text cera. Is go/a Manrique's word (he had heard the word in Hugli) that is applied by him, and not the term actually used by these men? It could have no connexion in their case with a round building. See Hobsonf obson, s . v. Golah. In Marathi, it may be noted, go/a (7floo) means a collection of people for any purpose, and go/a karne is "to assemble". 6 This is bltada, t he Bengali name for a cargo boat. Bowrey (p. 228) says: "A Boor"a being a very floaty light boat rowinge with 20 or 30 rowers. These carry salt pieter and other goods (from Hugly) downewards." We get some clue as to the distance of this spot from Angelim (Hzjli),

CHAP.

xxxvr]

J OURNEY T O ARAKAN

Angelim, o f which one is to return and fetch the remaining lac. On that occasion you will be able to get away, afte r waiting three or four days, as it will not be late r than this." On hearing this news we were fill ed with joy, a nd gave grateful thanks t o God our L ord for th e mercy He had shown us in freeing us from the death we saw a lready b t fore our eyes. But, owing to my sins, He a ll o\\'ed this joy t o last for b ut a short time. For just as we believed ourselves to be free from dangers and hardships we found ourselves in the midst of far more se rious peril on a rri ving at the Golas. H ere we met eig ht men, the companions of those who had broug ht us. The latter, on arriving, recount ed our adventures to the m a nd explained how we were dying of hung-er. T o satisfy this want they at once proceeded to make a large st ew of rice in o rder t o g ive us a meal. As soon as the rice was cooked th ey pu t it before us with ghi and honey. In o ur great hunger a nd with ragin g appetites [ 230/2 J we imagined at the sight of the food that the hea vens had opened upon us. But alas for human weakness a nd misery! We at e in moderation so as not to d o ourselves any injury, and then asked them to let us have some cloths, if they had any, to clothe ourselves with, adding that we would pay them well at Banja. They a nswered that they onl y had the clothes they stood up in, but that next day they would go t o t he village, which was two leagues away up the river, and would bring some back. Meanwhile they gave us t wo cloths fro m amongst those they had; these were very dirty and covered with the oil wi th which these India ns are always anointed. Still to us they were a g reat boon, as they enabled us to get protectio n at nig ht against those importunate mosquitos and so give some solace to our tired and weakened bodies. With the protection of these clothes we stretched ourselves on some boards while one unostentatiously continued to act as a sentinel with his a rms ready. vVith this precaution as they say two bores had left six days before and one would be back in three or four days. Allowing a day for loading, it was about four days' journey from this village.

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

[ SECT. I

we passed the night until day broke, when the Indians got up and opened the door, awoke us, and said that their companions had already been sent off to the village to fetch cloth and also a goat , which they call Bacari,1 for us to eat, adding that they would return in three hours and get a meal ready for us ; they themselves had to go out to work and would not be back until nightfall. With such platitudes [ 231/ 1] they lulled our unsuspicious minds, and without more ado we closed the door as if we were masters of the house, and g iving free rein to sleep, stretched ourselves out as if we were at home. vVhile we were engulfed in sleep the two Indians who had been to the village returned, but instead of bringing us clothes they brought us cudgels and bonds and an evil plight. For these two rascals had gone and given information of our arrival to the Siguidar 8 of the village, who corresponds to what we call the Alcalde-mayor.8 They informed him that we were four Franguis, two assiles, and two calas,v for these are the terms they employ to d istinguish the Portuguese or white Christians, and those of the country of a dark or brown complexion. They described how they had met us and what had happened to them, as well as the fact that we bore fire-arm s. The Siguidar therefore decided that we must be Portuguese from the navy at Chatigan. In order, moreover, to gain a reputation th roug hout that region and please the N ababo of A goat in Hindi is Bllfrt; but see Chap. XXXVIII, n. 6. See Chap. IV, n. 6. A subordinate district official. He is compared to the A kalde·mtl)'Or, who was a local village magistrate. The word Aha/de is Arabic, from Al·qti::i, the azdi or magistrate. The word Siguidar is a corruption of Shiqqdcir, an officer in char ge of a Shiqq or subdivision of a. district. The word is not in Hobson-Jobson. 9 The text runs : dandole cuen/a de como eramos quatro Franguis, dos assz'les, y dos ca/as, porque con esle sobre-nombre distinguen los Porlu· g ueses, Cl1rislianos blmuos, a los Cl1ristianos de la tierra de color negra y bassa. In the last chapter we are told that after the paiques ran away the party consisted of Manrique, Luis Trigueros, and three servants. Of these last, one was killed by a crocodile, leaving two servants only, or four persons in all. Hence the word Franguis, a. Frank, is here used for all four as being Christians, both Portuguese and native converts. See Hobson-Jobson, s. vv. Feringhee, Mustees, Castees. A ssiles means here pure-bred (Europeans) from a.Jali, meaning of pure or original stock : ca/a is !.:iila, black, and refers to the two servants. See n. 24 . 7

8

CHAP.

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JOU RNEY TO ARAKAN

Cateca 10 he decided to come and arrest us himself. H e thereupon had the adamma ma, 11 which is an instrument resembling our kettle-drum, sounded in the village, as on this signal all the people collect, as being summoned for so me important reason ; he also selected sixty of the m ost intelligent men [231/2], a rmed with swords and bows and arrows, who set out in two bores to fetch us. On reaching the Golas he sent on the two spies, who, hearing no noise on reaching the door of our house, decided that we were asleep, and so informed the Siguida r. H e at once ordered a ll the men to land and surround the house. Twenty men were told to enter the house as silently as possible, their first ca re being to obtain possession of our arms. And it was carried out as follows; for the spies, as the owners of the house, opened the door easily without our being aware of it. So steeped were we in slumber, that we reali zed it only when they were actually upon us and awoke us by their laughter and the shouts they gave at our discomfiture. vVe awoke with a sta rt in g reat consternation, a nd this increased when we found ourselves without arms. Seeing we were awake, they threw themselves upon us and bound my hands a nd those of the two youths behind our backs without a ny resistance on our part. The P ortuguese, Luis Trig ueros, had a large knife 12 which he a lways carried, and being able to get on to his feet he attacked the two men who were securing him and wounded them. 10 This is Cuttack, the chief town of Orissa. The name Ka{al.-a means a fort or camp a nd thence a seat of royalty, a chief town. This place fir st became important in the tenth century, a nd was an administrative headquarters under the Mug:.hals. Abul Fazl shows K 11(al;a as a sar!.:ar in the B engal sitbalt, and adds," Ka tak-I3anaras, suburban district, has a stone fort of great strength and a masonry palace within". An ancient fort of Hindu origin still stands there. Abf1l F azl mentions how, during the rains, the fort stood in a swamp. I3owrey calls Cuttack " the second best citty that is in this kingdom", and says it sur passes Dacca. The $ubadar (Nababo) of Orissa, whose head-quarters were a t C u tt~ck, was in i 632 Baqit Khan, up to April 1633, when he was relieved by Ag.ha IVIul:iammad Zaman. See Factory Rt·cords, I670-33, Chap. XXXI, loo. 11 A kettle-drum. The text has adllm111m1za q11e rcspande a nucstr(IS atabales, the word atabales being the Arabic al-(abl, adopted into S pa nish. 12 The text has al-fange, the Arabic al-ldlllnjar, that is the cur ved, oneedged Indian sword , or in Hind I talwc'ir.

410

JOURN EY TO ARAKAN

[SECT. I

In spite of his resistance, some thirty men fell upon him with drawn swords, and they would have cut him in pieces but for an order that we were not to be killed. [ 2::p/1] They secured his hands firmly behind his back, as had been done in our cases. Now quite safe they gave vent t o their exultation, loading us with opprobrious terms and spitting in our faces ; and we should have been well satisfied with only this, but the dogs the n went on to slap us and strike our faces with their shoes ; u for it should be remarked that these Pagans are accustomed, when they d esire to insult any one, to take the pousares off their feet and use the m thus. These pousares 14 are shoes of large size, with soles two or three inches thick. Moreove r, those worn by the soldiers and other common folk are usually secured with nails and studded with iron nailheads. They continued to a muse themselves in this way until we reached the spot where the Siguidar was. H e h::i.d come ashore and was seated upon a rug, looking very judicial. As soo n as we were brought before him he asked us what kind of people we were. To this we replied that we were men from Ugulim on our way to Banja , under a safeguard from the Emperor, to sell our merchandise, vvhen the misfortune of whi ch he had been t old befell us. In reply he said that he had rece ived incontrovertible information that we were men from the fl eet at Chatigan, and robbers, who had come to raid the E mperor's territory; and then, without condescending to listen any more t o us, in spite of our demands for justice in the Emperor's name, ordered each [ 232/2] of us, as a preliminary punishment, to receive fifty lashes. Brief as the order was, the executioners were upon us almost as rapidly. They freed our h ands and bound us to four trees, and proceeded 13 Beating wi th shoes is the most insulting form of Oriental chastiseme nt; the Arabian J\figltts often refer to it. Tavernier says tha t "in India they never speak of blows with a stick " , even when they use it (Chap. I, n. 19). 14 Pousares . .. pousaradas. The second word is made up by Manrique from the first. It is difficult to say what pousares is. It may be a corruption of pesltii'wari, a kind of shoe m uch a ffected by Mul)ammadans, as these men were, but it ma y be from posh-pae, used for the more usual form pae-pos/1, footwear.

CHAP.

xxxvr]

JOUl{N EY TO ARAK AN

41 I

to lash us with whips of crude buffalo hide, locally called Gorlas. 16 They lashed us so unmercifully that all our shoulders were raw and streaming with blood. This de lectable piece of work over, they again secured our hands behind our backs and placed us in one of the bores between the rowers' feet. Then with much drumming, playing on pipes and flutes, they started back, triumphin g in this way over our wretched bodies as if they had secured a great victory and taken the principal Captains of the enemy captive. Still rej oicing in this way we arrived at the village, which had some three hundred inhabitants. These were all in a state of the g reatest excitement, and gathered in groups and bands awaiting their Siguidar. They received him with loud shouts and acclamations. As soon as he had di sembarked with his men he ordered us to be brought before him. At this juncture three Caciques Moulanas l G a rrived and, after saluting the Siguidar and blessing him in the na me of their false prophet Maom et, they exaggerated the im porta nce of the service he ha d done them by capturing us who were caffares, that is men destitute of relig ion, enem ies of thei r blessed Prophet Nobi,17 and traducers of th e sacred truths recorded in the F orcha n,17 as the descendants of Hagar in those parts [ 233/ i] style their wicked Al-choran.17 They added that in consequence of this deed he would certainly g o hence to enjoy, in the nex t world, the delights which never end that the sainted Prophet promises to all true Musalmans. On the conclusion of this short speech one o f the three seized the hands of the others, and then, turning so as to face the people, exclaimed in a loud voice : " 0 happy M usalrnans, called and chosen by Cari mo Ala 1 " 16

This is the Hindi word kotfd, a whip or t h ong, vulgarly l.:otf!d. That is K az"i Mauliina, made into the plura l, Spanish fashion . The R.-l1Zi is a M usu Iman religious teach er and judge, and a .Jl[,1Uid1ta one lea rned in the laws of Muhammadanism. 17 The Arabic word Nabi, a prophet, one directly inspired, in this case Mul}ammad. Forclzan: see Chap. V, n. 24. Manrique elsewher e spells it A!-coran a nd not A!-choran as here.

4I2

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

[ SECT. I

(that is the most merciful God) 18 t o be followers of the sacred law, through the mediation of our g reat Prophet N obi." Then pointing to us with his hand , h e continued : " You must know that these caffares, now before you, are alike enemies of Heaven and of earth. E nemies of H eaven, because they oppose the law which Allah the holy bestowed upon our Pet a mbor Maomet; 1 9 enemies of earth, because, as you well know, they are such a s devote the wretched days of their m iserable li ves solely to evil deeds, robbing and slaying a nd bathing themselves in our blood. They it is who deprive us o f life and liberty; owing to them do we wet our cheeks, d ay after day, with tears dragged from the innermost recesses of our hearts, caused by our never-end ing losses of fathers, wives, sons, brothers, and friends." O n reaching this point, tha t mean dog and follower of the Devil put his hands t o his eyes and began to weep. This roused the people to such a pitch of fury, that they rushed at us in a body and would have slain us then and there had not the Siguidar [ 233/ 2] ordered his soldiers, or S ipais,20 to keep them back. H e pacified this furious and maddened crowd by t elling them that it was essential to send us to the Nababo in order that we might pay the penalty of our sins in long-drawn-out t ortures (and so might those who h eard these words take comfort therefrom). I may perhaps be a llowed, benevolent Reader, to prolong this parenthesis of his a little, stirred as I am with great sorro w to see that even after a poor Missionary has passed through trials such as this and others t o which Missiona ries a re subject, when he describes missionary efforts on the spot at which they took place, he yet meets with certain writers who believe that the Brethren suffer all these trials g lad ly in return for freedom from the summons of the chapel bell and 1

~

That is J(ar"im Allii!t, "God the most generous". The word petambor is a corruption of paigha111bar, a messenger or prophet, from paig.11.am, a m essage. It is the Hindusta ni translation of the two Arabic words nabi and ras17l. See Hughes, Diet. Islam, s. v. 20 This is a more correct form than o ur familiar "Sepoy". The word is Szpiiki; as to its derivation, authorities differ. See H obson-Jobson, s. v. Sepoy. The fury of the mob shows tbat most of them, at least, must have been M usulmans to be so roused by these Maulanas. 19

Cl·IAP. xxx_v1]

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413

the rigours of cloister life. That there should be a Prior 21 so ignorant as to jeer at missions is a harder trial to bear than all the hardships I have related. The popular fury was somewhat lessened by the Siguidar's mollifying words, and they allowed us to be led throug h the village in triumph before them, to the sounds of the festive instruments I mentioned. Now, although we were walking guarded by seventy soldiers, with our hands bound behind us, our shoulders scarred and covered with blood, our faces all bruised, and black and blue from the blows from their shoes, besides being covered with spittle and phlegm, a sight which would have made our worst enemy pity us, yet th~e barbarous Maumetans believed they would gain plenary indulgence [ 234/ 1] for their sins by injuring us. So they forced themselves between the soldiers and pricked us with arrows or beat us with sticks. W omen and children also came Close to us in order t o pelt us with earth and any filth they could find. In this way we at length reached the Siguidar's house, more dead than alive. H ere our only relief was to be put into a st able with two elephants and seven horses. Herc we remained four days, g uarded by six archers who were changed four times a day. By day crowds from th e neighbourhood, having heq,i:-c:! 0f our capture, came to look at us, just as if we wei·e men of some strange species. When they found that they could do us no injury, on account of the .guards, they hurled insulting remarks at us. In the evenlng four plates of cold, black rice were brought us, and, which was worse, covered with flies. So cowardly, moreover, were these men , that in spite of the plight they saw us in they still feared us, and this fear made them so cautious that they only allowed us to eat on e by one. They therefore untied one man's hands to let him eat, a nd when he had done they re-bound them behind him and allowed another t o tak e his food. vVith all these preca utions they fed us but once in twcntyfour hours with this wretched meal.

----

21

It is not known to whom (if any one in particular) our author is r eferring.

i

JOU RNEY TO ARAKAN

( SECT. I

When we had finish ed eating, th e bare earth form ed our couch. W ith th ese a nd many other trials we passed four days in the S ig uidar's [ 234/2] house. O n the fifth d ay eight well-a rm ed soldiers came very early in the mo rning . They ranged us in line a nd unbound our hands. They then fastened iron colla rs on our necks and linked us togeth er with a chain of the same metal. With us thus chained t ogether they formed two lines and placing us in the centre t old us t o ma rch off. A s we left t he village one of the g uard, noticing that we were wa lking more slowly than he wished , an grily called out, Bolao Betichodo ! 22 The word Bolao mea ns " walk fa ster "; the other word is so vile and unfit for catholic ears that it is best left uncommented on. A s he said this he raised a stick he carried in his hand in order to strike us, if he h ad not been prevented by the Commander of the band, \\'ho ha ppened t o be close by and rep rim anded him severely, th us proving that where many evil men are gathered t ogether one good man, or one less evil than the rest, is yet to be foun d. Seeing how we went along in sile nce, sadly and without hop e, this m an took p ity on us, for such wretched circum----sta nces as we were in moves even a victor t o pity . H e th er~fu_re ca me up to us a nd t old us to walk qui etly and not t o be afraid, f~ r so long as we were in his charge- that was till he m ade us over rit .the city of Midnim pur 23-no harm should befall us. W e tha nke d hlm--t:or his compassion, saying that God would r eward him for his good action, for [ 235/1J we were not the people h e imagined us to be but Portuguese mercha nts fro m U g ulim, the Black Christians 24 being our servants, add ing th at t he S ig uidar had refused to listen when we de mand ed justice in th e E mperor' s name, 25 as all had 22 E ither Manrique has made a mistake in wha t he he_ard _or it is a printer's error. Supposing, as seems possible, the translation 1s correct, the fi rst word was Clzalo, " go on ", or Clzalao, that is" d ri ve them on ", which they shouted , a nd not Bolao, meaning " call". The second word, as he says, is u n transla table. 2 3 See next chapter: it is Midnapur. . . 24 T he text has calas .franguis: see n. 9. F n111g111s means simply a Chri st ian, wh ite or black. 25 T hey had cried " Doay Padcha ", thus appeali ng for j ustice. See Cha p. XXV I I, n. 2 0.

CHAP. XXXVI]

JOURNEY TO ARAKAN

hea rd us d o. H ence he had seriously injured us, even thou g h we were protected by the Emperor's formon s. This statement by no means pleased the g uard, who said that they were not to blame, as they had acted on the Siguida r's orders, which t hey were bound to carry out. Therefore, so far as they could, they would treat us with all possible leniency. They said that their companions had treated us bad ly because they believed, as the other people had , that we were men from the Magh fl eet . They concluded by saying that thoug h Midnimpur was four days' journey off we might walk as we wished, as it did not matter if we took one or even two days longer. After thus easing our mind s they asked many questions, and were still more convinced that we were not what they had imagi ned us to be. \Ve spent nearly all day in such discussions, and t\vo hou rs before dark reached a tiny village. H ere our guide decided t o stop [ 235/2] fo r the night. They gave us an excellent meal , of which we stood in sore need. After the meal they sent for some oil, that is coco-n ut oil,2 c in order to anoint our wounds. But we refused to allow it t o be done, saying tha t we must appear before the N ababo of Cateca in the condition we \vere in, in order that he might see what an unjust officer his Siguidar was. The real truth, however, was that we did not dare to have these ung uents applied, lest they should do us harm in our naked and unclothed state. Now our g uard, \:vhen they saw that vve vvould not accept the kindness they desired to bestow on us, and that, too, b ecause we wished to complain to the Viceroy, were confirm ed in the view that we had been telling them the truth. So from this time on t hey began t o address us t wo Portuguese as Tacur and Saibo,27 20

This is used in innumerable ways, either alone or mixed with other ingredients. It is burnt in lamps, used to dress the h air, taken internally, a nd used external ly. Linschoten says two kinds of oil are made, one from green and the othe r from the