Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1903-03-19
OLD GOA THE GOLDEN
ITS SITE is NOW ONLY A VAST AND
GRASSY TOMB.

The Once Splendid Portuguese city
In India a Magnificent Wilderness.
Its Masterpiece of Art the Tomb of
st. Francis Xavier.
1t was said that during the prosper
Gus times of the Portuguese in India
you could not have seen a piece of iron
In any merchants house, but all gold
and silver. They coined immense guam
titles of the precious metals and used
to make pieces of workmanship in
them for expectation. The very sol
diers enriched themselves by COM
merce.
But then at last came the inquisition,
which celebrated its terrible and deadly
rites with more fervor and vehemence
at Goa than in any other place. Reli-
gious persecution, pestilence and wars
with the. Dutch, disturbances arising
from an unsettled government, and,
above all, the slow but sure workings
of the shortsighted policy of the Portu-
guese in intermarrying and identifying
themselves with the Hindoos of the
lowest caste, made her fall as rapid as
her rise was sudden and prodigious.
In less than a century and a half aft
er Da CANA had landed on the Indian
shore the splendor of Goa had departed
forever. The inhabitants fed before
the deadly fever which soon fastened
upon the devoted precincts of the city,
and IN 175S the viceroy transferred his
headquarters from the ancient capital
to Pariina, about eight miles distant.
Soon afterward the religious orders
were expelled, leaving their magnif-
cent converts and churches all but ut
terly deserted, and the inquisition was
suppressed upon the recommendation
OF the British government.
The place is now a grass grown will
derness. But still the firm and well
built causeways of this olden city and
its molderlng splendors are reminiscent
Of echoing pageants and the tramp Of
armies which once sounded there. AS
we tread the ancient wharf, a long,
broad road, lined with double row of
trees and faced with stone, a more sug-
gestive scene of desolation can hardly
be conceived. Everything around teens
with melancholy associations, the very
rustlings of the trees and murmur OF
the waves sound like dirge for the de-
parted grandeur of a city,
Towering above a mass of ruins
solitary gateway TANKS the entrance
to the Strada Diretta, the Straight
street, so called because almost all the
streets in old Goa are laid out in cur
yilnear form. 1t was through this
portal surmounted by the figures of
st. Catherine and Vasco da Cana that
the newly appointed yiceroys of Goa
passed in triumphal procession to the
palace.
Beyond the gate level road, once
populous thoroughfare, leads to the
Terra dt Sabaio, large square front
ing the Primacial, or Cathedral of st.
Catherine. who became the patron
saint of Goa when the place was cap
tured by Albuquerque ON the day of
her festival Groves Of eocoay palms
and mango topes now lRcumber the
ground once covered by troops of horse.
The wealth, the busy life and the lux
ury Of the OLD place elfe dead. Kites
r%rv9br96Inst the crumbling halls
.esounded with the ban
o. the dance, and naught but
.Soid monks and nuns keeps vigil
Aid its desolation today.
But Goa possesses one treasure of
great interest This is the tomb of
francis Xavier, the great jesuit mis-
sionary to the east. 1t is to be found in
the Church of Bon Jesus. 1t is mas
terplece of art which is lost to all but
tile casual visitors to old Goa. Some
have ycntured to suggest that no other
mausoleum in India or even in Asia ex-
eept the TAI Mahal can equal it. 1t is
built of rich marble OF variegated col
ors. The lowest stage is Of red and
purple jasper and Carrara alabaster
adorned with statuettes and cherubs
The middle stage is of green and yellow
jasper decorated with beautiful bronze
plates representing incidents in the life
of the saint. The highest of the three
stages is surrounded by lovely rail-
ing of red jasper marked with white
spots, the adornments being figures Of
angels, while its middle portion is
graced with columns elegantly carved,
whose intervening spaces are surmount-
ed by arches showing further incidents
r - Life Of the saint. The friezes Of
.ho Four Iat,Sgal columns are of black
stone and the Nl,Rths of yellow jasper.
surmounting this yest stage lies the
coffin overlaid with siVer, gorgeous
receptacle embellished with many ex-
quisite specimens of Meier work.
Jumps of silver depending Nround COM
plete the adornment of the Nhrine. 1t
is worthy relic of Goa's depSrted gio-
ry.
The bell of the Augustinian convent
stili rings forth its vesper peal aaove
this old city Of ghosts, and 1t is imIps-
sible TO forget the effect of the d9ep,
mournfril notes az they strike upon the
ear. Never was heard a more bearilful
moro sqday musical sunL.5as than
that Which calls in vain from the tower
Of the Augustinians to the forsaken and
solitary city.
II is all summed up in the eloqueAt
apostrophe of Sherer: "Goa the golden
exists no more; Goa, where the aged
Da Cana closed his glorious life; Goa,
where the immortal Camoens sang and
suffered 1t is now but vast and
grassy tomb, and it seems as If its thin
and gloomy population of priests and
frlars were only spared to chant re-
QUEENS for its departed souls."-St
James Gazette.
She Had a Winning Way.
Nodd-Come around to my house to-
night and play poker.