_ 193 _ confess and had never been successful, as she afterwards admitted. When the Father heard of the obduracy and wretchedness of this woman, he went with the orphan boys to her house, and took her aside and spoke to her as the Lord suggested. She could hardly speak for her tears, and when Father António had finished talking to her she said that she wished to leave the sin in which she was living and go to Ormuz, because this Muscat is friendly but a Moorish land, and there is no church of ours, and she began at once to get ready. The Father went back to the ship leaving one of the boys with her to bring her to the ship. She had many difficulties to overcome, because they would not let her go, neither the man with whom she was, nor others whom she served because there was no other Portuguese woman and there are always many Portuguese there as it is a trading port and one promised her a chain of heavy gold if she would stay, while the boy, who is virtuous and chaste, was pressing her to go aboard. They also hid her best slave, to see if that would move her to stay. But as though strengthened by the Lord, she resisted everything and went aboard with almost nothing. We vacated the cabin in which we had travelled for her and her black servants.
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