“I was not satisfied with what I had seen or said at the Inquisition, and I determined to go back again. The inquisitors were now sitting on the tribunal; and I had some excuse for returning, for I was to receive from the chief-inquisitor a letter, which he said he would give me, before I left the place, for the British resident in Travancore, being an answer to a letter from that officer. “When I arrived at the Inquisition, and had ascended the outer stairs, the door-keepers surveyed me doubtingly, but suffered me to pass, supposing that I had returned by permission and appointment of the inquisitor. I entered the great hall, and went up directly towards the tribunal of the Inquisition, described by Dellon, in which is the lofty crucifix. I sat down on a form, and then desired one of the attendants to carry in my name to the inquisitor. As I walked up the hall, I saw a poor woman sitting by herself, on a bench by the wall, apparently in a disconsolate state of mind. She clasped her hands as I passed, and gave me a look expressive of her distress. This sight chilled my spirits. The familiars told me she was waiting there to be called up before the tribunal of the Inquisition. While I was asking questions concerning her crime, the second inquisitor came out in evident trepidation, and was about to complain of the intrusion, when I informed him I had come back for the letter from the chief-inquisitor. He said it should be sent after me to Goa; and he conducted me with a quick step towards the door. As we passed the poor woman, I pointed to her, and said, with some emphasis, ‘Behold, father, another victim of the holy Inquisition!’ He answered nothing. When we arrived at the head of the great stair, he bowed, and I took my last leave of Joseph à Doloribus, without uttering a word!” Dr. Buchanan makes various reflections on his detail of the visit which he paid to this dreadful institution. He states, “The foregoing particulars concerning the Inquisition at Goa, are detailed chiefly with this view--that the English nation may consider, whether there be sufficient ground for presenting a remonstrance to the Portuguese government, on the longer continuance of that tribunal in India; it being notorious, that a great part of the Romish Christians are now under British protection. ‘The Romans,’ says Montesquieu, ‘deserved well of human nature, for making it an article in their treaty with the Carthaginians, that THEY SHOULD ABSTAIN FROM SACRIFICING THEIR CHILDREN TO THEIR GODS!’ It is surely our duty to declare our wishes, at least, for the abolition of these inhuman tribunals (since we take an active part in promoting the welfare of other nations), and to deliver our testimony against them in the presence of Europe!” CHAPTER XIX. LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE INQUISITORS.