The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-04-17
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 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
mercc.
But then at last came the inguisition.
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 fed before
the deadly fever which soon fastened
upon the devoted precincts of the city,
and in 1888 the vicerOy transferred his
Headquarters from the ancient capital
to Parjina, about eight miles distant.
Soon afterward the religious orders
were expelled, leaving their magniti-
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 grass grown will
derness. But still the firm and well
built causeways of this olden city and
it's 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 double row of
trees and faced with stone. a more sug-
gestive scene Of dcsolation 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 mass of ruins a
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
| hiS,
portal surmounted by the figures Of
st. Catherine and Vasco da Cana that
the newly appointed viceroys of Goa
passed in trumphal procession to the
| palace.
Beyond the gate level road, once a
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
t her festival. Groves of cocoanut palms
, and mango TOPICS 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
E and cobras infest the crumbling halls
which once resounded with the ban
6 quet and the dance. and naught but 9
= few old monks and nuns keeps vigi
= amid its desolatiOn today.
But Goa possesses one treasure O
great interest. This is the tomb o
=, Francis Xavier. the great Jesuit mis-
u sionary to the east. 1t is to be found il
! the Church of Bon Jesus. 1t is mas
terpiece of art which is lost to all bu
the casual visitors to old Goa. Som
have vcntured to suggest that no Othe
e mausoleum in India or even in Asia eS
+, cept the TAI Mahal can equal it. 1t
n built of rich marble of variegated co
q ors The lowest stage is of red an
e purple jasper and Carrara alabaSte
& adorned with statuettes and cheruD'
e The middle stage is of green and yello'
S. jasper decorated with beautiful bronz
y plates representing incidents in the lii
of the saint. The highest of the thre
t. stages is surrounded by lovely raj
II ing of red jasper marked with whit
IS spots, the adornments being figures
le angels while it's middle portion
Of graced with columns elegantly carve
ID whose intervening spaces are surmoun
d. cd by arches showing further inciden
h. in the life of the saint. The friezes
u. the four lateral columns are Of blat
p stone and the plinths Of yellow jaspe
y Surrounding this last stage lies tt
r. coffin overlaid with silver, a gorgeo'
70 receptacle embellished with many e
y. uuisite specimens of relief wor
- Jumps of silver depending around col
plete the adornment of the shrine.
p" is IA worthy relic of Goa's departed 81
~, ~.
7" The bell of the Augustinian conve
ne still rings forth its vesper peal abo
81 this old city of ghosts. and it is impl
'n sible to forget the effect OF the dec
ho mournful notes as they strike upon t