Inside is a gold box containing the remains
of the Saint, shown to people with a great feast once in a century.
We made many excursions around and about Goa. In consequence of the
dreadful climate they had of course to be either very early or very late.
I shall never forget the moonlight scenery of the distant bay. The dull
grey piles of ruined, desolate habitations, the dark hills clothed with a
semi-transparent mist, the little streams glistening like lines of silver
over the plain, and the purple surface of the creek--such was our night
picture of Goa. We made two boat expeditions together--one to see a
coffee plantation, in which is a petrified forest. Each expedition
occupied two or three days. We embarked for the first in a filthy
boat, full of unmentionable vermin, and started down the river in the
evening, with storms of thunder and lightning and wind preluding the
monsoon. On arrival we toiled up two miles of steep, rocky paths
through cocoa groves. At the bottom of the hill was a little rivulet,
and pieces of petrified wood were sticking to the bank. As we ascended
the hill again we found the petrification scattered all over the ground;
they were composed chiefly of palms and pines; and most interesting they
were. We returned from this expedition with our skins in a state of
eruption from the bites of the lice and the stings of the mosquitoes.
Our last day at Goa was a very pleasant one.
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