serable condition without reflecting on the
hardships we had undergone, and our brethren then underwent, in Suaquem
and Abyssinia. Amidst their thanks to God for our deliverance, they
could not help lamenting the condition of the patriarch and the other
missionaries who were in chains, or, at least, in the hands of professed
enemies to our holy religion. All this did not hinder them from
testifying in the most obliging manner their joy for our deliverance, and
paying such honours as surprised the Moors, and made them repent in a
moment of the ill-treatment they had shown us on board. One who had
discovered somewhat more humanity than the rest thought himself
sufficiently honoured when I took him by the hand and presented him to
the chief officer of the custom house, who promised to do all the favours
that were in his power.

When we passed by in sight of the fort, they gave us three salutes with
their cannon, an honour only paid to generals. The chief men of the
city, who waited for us on the shore, accompanied us through a crowd of
people, whom curiosity had drawn from all parts of our college. Though
our place of residence at Diou is one of the most beautiful in all the
Indies, we stayed there only a few days, and as soon as we had recovered
our fatigues went on board the ships that were appointed to convoy the
northern fleet. I was in the admiral's. We arrived at Goa in some
vessels bound for Camberia: here we lost a good old Abyssin convert, a
man much valued in his order, and who was actually prior of his convent
when he left Abyssinia, choosing rather to forsake all for religion than
to leave the way of salvation, which God had so mercifully favoured him
with the knowledge of.

We continued our voyage, and almost without stopping sailed by Surate and
Damam, where the rector of the college came to see us, but so sea-sick
that the interview was without any satisfaction on either side. Then
landing at Bazaim we were received by our fathers with their accustomed
charity, and nothing was thought of but how to put the unpleasing
remembrance of our past labours out of our minds. Finding here an order
of the Father Provineta to forbid those who returned from the missions to
go any farther, it was thought necessary to send an agent to Goa with an
account of the revolutions that had happened in Abyssinia and of the
imprisonment of the patriarch. For this commission I was made choice of;
and, I know not by what hi