Page:Dumas - Tales of Strange adventure (Methuen, 1907).djvu/105

Rh monies at Goa take place only every two or three years, but they are all the finer for that very reason. Well, he was the devil of a fellow, and he did so well that, with Gods help, Ave arrived three days before the date of the great event.

"Thanks to him, I procured lodgings on the very day of my arrival with a Portuguese family. At first I had intended to make arrangements to take all my meals with the household; but the captain, who was the right sort, advised me to wait a bit, as Portuguese habits might possibly not be to my liking. As a matter of fact, being invited on the day of my arrival to dine with my hosts, and seeing them eat everything, even the soup, from the same dishes, I made up my mind to keep a separate establishment for the future. That very evening I searched high and low, and succeeded in finding a little house to let near the harbour. It was admirably situated, had a verandah and a charming garden; yet the rent was only two rupees a month, in other words, a trifle over five francs."

"Look here, Biard," I exclaimed, turning to my companion, "suppose we went to Goa."

"Well, well! " Biard returned, with the air of a man not displeased at the suggestion.

"Go by all means," said Père Olifus; "it's a fine country, where a man can live for next to nothing. There are magnificent women; only beware of the troa and the Inquisition."

"The troa, what is that?" I asked him.

"Just let me go on with my story," resumed Olifus, " and you will find out in due course. The house secured, it was the same as at Negombo, it had to be furnished, and this was equally cheaply done. Only as I had all my little fortune in the shape of [gold, I was obliged to have recourse to the public moneychangers, whose business is to give foreigners, at a high rate of profit, a miserable copper money in exchange for their gold and silver. Two or three times over in the course of the same day I visited them, and two or three times over had occasion to put my hand in my pocket. Now each time I did so people saw me extract five-florin and ten-florin pieces, and very soon the report spread through a poor impoverished town like ■Goa that a rich Nabob had come to the place. So the same evening I received visits from two or three noble dames and damsels, who, as is the custom of the country, sent in their servant to ask an alms, whilst they waited outside in a palanquin at the door, in case I wished to see them. I was still greatly fatigued with my journey, so I contented myself with sending them what remained of my copper money, two or three rupees or thereabouts, which further confirmed the popular notion that I was a rich merchant.

"Next day I visited the sights of the town—the churches, which are very fine, in particular that of Our Lady of Pity; the Royal Hospital, which is on the river banks and which I mistook at first for a palace; the square of St. Catherine, where is held a market all day and every day, supplying everything you can want, furniture, clothes, vegetables, utensils of every kind, slaves male and female; the Statue of Lucretia, which supplies water for the whole town, gushing from the wound she gave herself; the trees planted by St. Francis Xavier, which thanks to their sacred origin have never been touched either by axe or pruning-hook. Finally I returned home, convinced by my observations that the best trade to adopt amongst all I had seen was that of a fruit-dealer.

"This is how the business is conducted at Goa. You buy in the bazaar fifteen or so pretty slave-girls costing twenty or twenty -five crowns; you dress them elegantly, with rings on their fingers and ear-rings in their ears, and you put a basket of fruit on their head; then at eight o'clock in the morning you send them out into the town. Rich young men who are fond of fruit and talking to fruit-girls, invite them into their houses for conversation. Some of them empty their baskets as often as eight or ten times a day. Now, supposing this only brings in one rupee each time to their master, the latter of course only giving them what he pleases, as they are his slaves, it is clear that the business is not unprofitable.

"What struck me at first was the fact that the streets seemed frequented only by slaves, half-castes and natives. From time to time, it is true, you would see a palanquin go past carried by negroes, but so closely shut up as to leave nothing visible of the fair occupant, who for her part had openings so contrived as to let