Page 67 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

have been sincere - at all events, were it otherwise, they did us
no harm’.
Goa, when Loch saw it, was no longer that splendid city which
it had been when the Portuguese Viceroy lived there, whose
churches had given Popes and Cardinals to the Roman See. The
only British subject in Goa was a Mr. Forbes, a Scot with a
Portuguese wife. He accompanied Loch when he made his offi­
cial call on the Viceroy, and then took him, in his barge, about
ten miles up the wide, smooth inlet to the old city, once the
capital of the great Portuguese Empire in the East. They were
rowed past high cliffs, covered with vegetation, and wooded
islands, where tall trees threw deep shadows over the glassy water,
and the only sound was the splash of the oars. Then, suddenly,
on rounding a point the old town came into view.
‘Before us were the ruins of magnificent churches, palaces, the
Inquisition and the dockyards, built at the top of, and at the foot
of a hill; the city, overlooking the water, which was here two
miles wide, was backed by blue, misty mountains.’ But in the
great dockyards which were built by the Portuguese when they
were at the height of their power, there was only ‘one miserable
brig of war’. Most of the buildings, on closer inspection, were
seen to be ruinous, and the gardens, which had once surrounded
them, were overgrown and reverting to jungle. But some of the
churches and monasteries were still in use, and in a good state of
repair. The grandeur and richness of the decoration inside them
was a contrast to the forlorn condition of many of the other
buildings. It was owing to the unhcalthincss of the old town and
its bad climate, that most of the inhabitants of Goa had moved
from the city to the new settlement near the harbour.
On their way back, Loch was shown a vessel under repair,
which had been rammed by a sword fish. The crew described
the incident. The ship was on her way from Coromandel when
suddenly they felt a violent shock, as though the ship had struck
a rock, which was impossible as they were in deep water. For
some time, she was quite unmanageable. They were near the
Maidive Islands, and from there they came to Goa. When the
ship was examined in dock, it was found that the long, bony
snout of a sword fish had entered eighteen inches into the wood,
and had loosened the stern part of the vessel.
In the evening, Loch came ashore again to dine with Forbes and
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