‘The day was now far spent, and my companions were about to leave me. While I was considering whether I should return with them, Major Pareira said he would first introduce me to a priest, high in office, and one of the most learned men in the place. We accordingly walked to the convent of the Augustinians, where I was presented to Joseph a Doloribus, a man well advanced in life, of pale visage and penetrating eye, rather of a reverend appearance, and possessing great fluency of speech and urbanity of manners. At first sight he presented the aspect of one of those acute and prudent men of the world, the learned and respectable Italian Jesuits, some of whom are yet found, since the demolition of their order, reposing, in tranquil obscurity, in different parts of the East. After half an hour’s conversation in the Latin language, during which he adverted rapidly to a variety of subjects, and enquired concerning some learned men of his own church, whom I had visited in my tour, he politely invited me to take up my residence with him, during my stay at Old Goa. I was highly gratified by this unexpected invitation; but Lieutenant Kempthorne did not approve of leaving me in the hands of the _Inquisitor_. For judge of our surprise, when we discovered that my learned host was one of the inquisitors of the holy office, the second member of that august tribunal in rank, but the first and most active agent in the business of the department. Apartments were assigned to me in the college adjoining the convent, next to the rooms of the inquisitor himself; and here I have been now four days at the very fountain head of information, in regard to those subjects which I wished to investigate. I breakfast and dine with the inquisitor almost every day, and he generally passes his evenings in my apartment. As he considers my enquiries to be chiefly of a literary nature, he is perfectly candid and communicative on all subjects.