"Thus terminated the act of faith; and whilst these wretches were conveyed to the banks of the river, where the viceroy and his court were assembled, and where the faggots on which they were to be immolated had been piled the preceding day, we were re-conducted to the holy office. "After remaining in the Inquisition until the 23d of January, we were then conveyed to the hall of the court, and thence separately summoned to the board of the holy office, to receive from the Inquisitor a paper containing the penances to which he was pleased to sentence us. I went in my turn, and was directed to kneel down, after laying my hands upon the gospels, and in that posture to promise to preserve the most inviolable secrecy concerning all that had passed, and had come to my knowledge during my detention. My judge then gave me a writing signed by his hand, in the words following: 1st. In the three ensuing years he shall confess and communicate—during the first year, once a month—and the two following, at the feasts of Easter, Whitsuntide, Christmas, and the Assumption of our Lady. 2d. He shall, if practicable, hear mass and a sermon every Sunday and holiday. 3d. During the first three years he shall repeat, five times every day, the Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria, in honour of the five wounds of our Saviour. 4th. He shall not form any friendship nor particular intimacy with heretics or persons holding suspicious doctrines, which may prejudice his salvation. 5th. And lastly, he shall be inflexibly reserved as to every thing which he has seen, said, or heard, or the treatment which has been observed to him, as well at the board as in the other places of the holy office." Such is a specimen of the practice of the Portuguese Inquisition, of which some further account will be given in the following chapter, from the late visit of Dr. Buchanan to Goa. The celebration of an act of faith in India, thus described by Dellon, is, as must have been observed by the reader, in some respects different from that in Spain; but though the procedure of the holy office in these countries may vary in some points of little moment, yet all the Inquisitorial tribunals uniformly agree in this, to sacrifice innocence, piety, and truth, to avarice, tyranny, and superstition. CHAPTER IX. The Inquisition at Goa has made little improvement since the time of Dellon—extracts from Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia—he visits Goa—becomes acquainted with the Inquisitor—visits the Inquisition—he pleads, in vain, to see the dungeons and the captives—his remarks on the efforts which ought to be made by Britain to abolish so odious a tribunal—true picture of the Inquisition by several writers—conclusion.