Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1903-01-30
OLD GOA THE GOLDEN
ITS SITE is NOW ONLY A VAST AND
GRASSY TOMB.

Ehe 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 piece of iron
in any merchants house, but all gold
and silver. They coined immense quan-
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 inqulsition,
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 century and a half aft
er Da Cana had landed on the Indian
shore the splendor of Goa had departed
forever The inhabitants fled before
the deadly fever which soon fastened
upon the devoted precincts of the city,
and in 1853 the viceroy transferred his
headquarters from the ancient capital
to Parjina, 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 inquisiton 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 moldering 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 a double row of
trees and faced with stone, 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 flanks the entrance
to the Strada Diretta, the Straight
street, SO called because almost all the
streets in old Goa are laid out in cur
vilinear form. 1t was through this
portal surmounted by the figures Of
st. Catherine and Vasco da Cana that
the newly appointed viceroys of Goa
passed in triumphal procession to the
palace.
Beyond the gate level road, once
populous thoroughfare, leads to the
Terra di 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 cocoanut palms
and mango topes now incumber the
ground once covered by troops of horse.
The wealth, the busy life and the lux
ury Of the old place are dead. Kites
and cobras infest the crumbling halls
which once resounded with the ban
quet and the dance, and naught but
few old monks and nuns keeps vigil
amid 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
terpiece of art which Is lost to all but
the casual visitors to old Goa. Some
have ventured to suggest that no other
mausoleum in India or even in Asia eX-
cept 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 a 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
in the life of the saint. The friezes of
the four lateral columns are of black
stone and the plinths of yellow jasper
Surmounting this last stage lies the
coffin oyerlaid with silver, gorgeous
receptacle embellished with many ex-
quisite specimens of relief work.
Lumps of silver depending around COM
plete the adornment of the shrine. 1t
is worthy relic of Goa's departed glo-
ry.
The bell of the Augustinian convent
still rings forth its vesper peal above
this old city of ghosts, and it is impos-