igh altar, near
which stands the Archbishop's chair, are the features most worthy of
attention. The cathedral is, indeed, a stately pile, the nave being
over 70 feet high and 140 feet long, and the total length of the
building more than 270 feet. The vestries and sacristies are full of
rich vestments and valuable plate, now seldom seen except by a few
priests, or an occasional foreign visitor like ourselves, or, at still
rarer intervals, by the general public when a grand exhibition is
held, to which the faithful flock in crowds. Even the exhibitions have
been discontinued of late years, for it was found that the gathering
together of a large concourse of people in so unhealthy a locality led
to the spread of infectious disorders. The site of Old Goa is, indeed,
terribly malarious. The Government having abandoned the city, it was
deserted by everybody else, the finest houses, after standing empty
for years, gradually falling to pieces, so that literally not one
stone remains above another. Old Goa was one of the headquarters of
the terrible Inquisition, and until comparatively recent days its most
cruel decrees were there executed with stern and heartless rigour. The
tower of the Cathedral of S. Caterina contains five bells, the largest
of which, still in daily use, is the same which was formerly tolled on
the occasion of the _auto-da-fe_. It was quite thrilling to listen to
its deep knell, and to think that those same tones must have fallen
upon the agonised ears of the poor victims of an odious tyranny.

[Illustration: Inquisition Stake, Goa]

Close to the cathedral once stood the Palace of the Inquisition, a
vast and magnificent building, the space occupied by which is now
filled with dense jungle. It is the home of venomous snakes, not to be
met with in any other part of the island. Probably some special shrub
or herb which they like grows there and nowhere else. From the
cathedral we passed across an open space to visit the Church of Bom
Jesus, containing the chapel and tomb of St. Francis Xavier, and a
fine altar, in the centre of which stands a colossal image of St.
Ignatius of Loyola. St. Francis (who died at Sanchan, in Malacca)
rests in a crystal and silver coffin within a magnificent sarcophagus.
The body, clad in the richest vestments, is said to be still, after
the lapse of three centuries, in a wonderful state of preservation--a
fact testified to by the chief surgeon of Goa in an official report
made in