Deadly Illusions

Book excerpt: This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858. Excerpt: ... XI. THE LOSS OF THE "CONCEPTION." N the sixteenth century Portugal was a great naval power. Her flag was to be seen flying in every port in the world, and her colonies and possessions were very numerous and extensive. She had a flourishing settlement in India, upon the Malabar coast, the affairs of which were administered by a governor, who bore the title of Viceroy, and whose seat of government was at Goa. From this point missionaries proceeded into the interior, to spread, amid the swamps and jungles and sands of that vast country, the holy religion of Jesus. At that period the art of navigation was very imperfectly known; and not the least perilous portion of a missionary's enterprise was the voyage he must undertake before he could reach the scene of his labours. The records of the age are full of heroic actions performed by priests on their way to distant lands: of endurance under famine; of devotion during pestilence; of courage in shipwreck; of patience amid the thousand disasters with which their ocean course was beset. But few narratives of this class are more touching than the accounts we have received of the loss of the Portuguese ship "Conceptiou" in the year 1555, on board of which three Fathers of the Indian Mission had taken their passage. It is the duration of suffering, far more than its intensity, that tries the heart and courage of a man; and it is far more affecting, if it be less thrilling, to hear of calm and generous fortitude under lingering torture from starvation, thirst, heat, and disease, than of unshrinking boldness in the most terrible shipwreck that ever cost the lives of a crew. On the 22d of August, 1555, the " Conception," Captain Noluc, bound from Lisbon to Cochin, a port on the coast of Malabar, ran aground, at three o'...