Note 4 — LETTER FROM CARRION TO RUEDA

We have had the latest news from two Portuguese fathers (who had come here previously from the provinces, and who on that account did not fall into the clutches of the sparrow-hawk), which is reduced to saying that about thirty fathers are left in that empire—about ten or eleven in the court of Pequin, and the others scattered through its vast provinces. Those of the court are living openly with the license of the emperor and the rest are keeping hid. But all lack the aid which formerly was sent to them from Goa. May God aid them and give them strength to leave the shore after so fierce a storm, and withdraw us all from the other storm which is lashing all the vast body of the Society.4 San Pedro Macati, July 8, 1765.