_ 197 _ to confess, receive the Holy Sacrament, and often to scourge themselves, whilst others come to perform the meditations of the first week and make general confession. 14. Father António preaches in the principal church on Sundays and Holy Days and hears confession in the hospital and in the town. There are more confessions here than anywhere else, because almost the whole fleet which has now gone to the Basra strait confessed and took the Sacrament, as did another one which has gone elsewhere. Your Reverence should take note of this, and our dear Fathers and Brothers should petition Our Lady to give him strength to deal with all this, because this country enfeebles the faculties. Father Master Gonçalo was very healthy, but a year and a half weakened him a great deal; Father Master Gaspar left here in good health because he has such a constitution that I have never seen anyone, in Portugal or in India, who could endure what he does. 15. In this country, Father, a Father of the Society can do much, and would do still more if it were not for the great facilities there are here for abominable sins. The Portuguese mix very much with the Moors and live in their houses with them; and if they are aggrieved by anything that they have deserved they disappear at once to the
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