nothing more. Four guards were stationed in each long gallery, open,
indeed, at each end, but awfully silent, as if it were the passage of
a catacomb. If, however, he wanted anything, he might tap at the inner
door, when a jailer would come to hear the request, and would report to
the alcayde, but was not permitted to answer. If one of the victims, in
despair, or pain, or delirium, attempted to pronounce a prayer, even to
God, or dared to utter a cry, the jailers would run to the cell, rush
in, and beat him cruelly, for terror to the rest. Once in two months the
inquisitor, with a secretary and an interpreter, visited the prisons,
and asked each prisoner if he wanted anything, if his meat was regularly
brought, and if he had any complaint against the jailers. His want after
all lay at the mercy of the merciless. His complaint, if uttered, would
bring down vengeance, rather than gain redress. But in this visitation
the holy office professed mercy with much formality, and the
inquisitorial secretary collected notes which aided in the crimination,
or in the murder of their victims.
"The officers of Goa were;--the inquisidor mor or grand inquisitor, who
was always a secular priest; the second inquisitor, Dominican friar;
several deputies, who came, when called for, to assist the inquisitors
at trials, but never entered without such a summons; qualifiers,
as usual, to examine books and writings, but never to witness an
examination of the living, or be present at any act of the kind; a
fiscal; a procurator; advocates, so called, for the accused; notaries
and familiars. The authority of this tribunal was absolute in Goa.
There does not appear to have been anything peculiar in the manner of
examining and torturing at Goa where the practice coincided with that of
Portugal and Spain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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