Sunday, July 5, 2009

Jesuit On The Sights He Saw In Goa, India

A state barge with a gilded awning, manned by eighteen rowers in scarlet frocks and caps, the latter fronted with a wrought plaque of hammered silver, waited under the walls of Fort Agoada, on the northern horn of the bay; and a British revenue schooner, protecting the salt trade, tacked backwards and forwards across its mouth. The barge pulled alongside; the Viceroy, unable to come on board—his wife lay in a dying state—sent the chief officers of his Government to offer a welcome to Lord Ripon, his viceregal brother from Bombay. It was then determined that the party on board the Clive should find themselves off the quay of Old Goa by seven next morning, where they were to be received with due honours on landing. The Archbishop kindly offered to say Mass at the shrine of St. Francis Xavier as soon as we landed ; and it was arranged that the visitors should be taken round the antiquities of the city before leaving the place to embark once more on board the Clive.

Link (here) to the full account given by

Fr. John Hungerford Pollen, S.J.


Writer; born in 1858 in London, England; died there in 1925. Educated at Munster, Germany, Oratory School, Birmingham, England, and London University. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1876, and was ordained in 1891. He devoted his life principally to the study of the history of the Society of Jesus and the lives of English, Irish, and Scottish Catholics since the Reformation. He was vice-postulator for the beatification of the English martyrs, and one of the founders of the Catholic Record Society. He was the author of Acts of the English Martyrs (1891), The Bedingfield Papers (1909), Papal Negotiations with Mary, Queen of Scots (1901), and English Catholics in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (1920), and a contributor to The Month and the Dublin Review. Link (here)

Photo is of a modern barge in Thailand but I think you can get an idea of what Fr. Pollen, S.J. was writing about.

1 comment:

Gerard said...

Useful links on the state of the World Heritage site! Might interest you!

http://bygerarddsouza.blogspot.com/2011/10/old-goa-master-plan-scuttled.html