_ 358 _ of my salvation.(A) But I confess to Your Reverence that, although it is such a bad sign that I did not write more often, I do not forget the obligation and debt which I owe you, and while I may not appear as grateful and thankful as I should, in my soul I never cease to give many thanks to Christ for all the benefits, favours and mercies which you have done and do for me through the Society. Moreover, the Fathers who are in these parts can bear witness to the many times when I see and speak with them as well as the obedience and love which even if they are not as great as they should be, are as much as a man is capable of. Since I came from Portugal(B) I have sometimes been absent from this land, and I could not write. That is, I went to Ormuz(C) on the orders of the viceroy3 Dom Pedro Masquarenhas in the company of Baltasar Goncalves(D), nephew of Gaspar Goncalves, your Highness carrier, to get drugs, and this is where I suffered hardship, as Our Lord knows, and Father Antonio d' Eredea, who at that time lived in Ormuz, is a witness to this. But I (A) See his letters sent from Coimbra of 14 January and 13 February to Padre Ignatius Documenta Indica Vol 11 622-25. (B) He returned from Portugal to India in 1554 (Documenta Indica Vol III 17 211). (C) One would imagine he set sail from Goa to Ormuz in about the month of March or April 1555. (D) Cf Documenta Indica Vol III 211, 5.
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