106 DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE. 
Finding argument vain, they had speedy recourse? 
to their ultima ratio- — the whip. All the votaries 
of Vulcan fled, when they saw their master re- 
duced to such an extremity. He himself, how- 
ever, continued to assert his dignity, till the blood 
began to stream from his back and shoulders, when 
he feelingly admitted that there was one God only, 
and that one not himself. In order to impress 
this important truth more deeply on his mind, the 
missionaries continued the " salutary flagellation" 
for some time longer, when they at length dis- 
missed him. 
The missionaries finding now, that they had lost- 
all credit and favour, both with court and people, 
judged it advisable to return to Massignano. 
The two following Narratives by the Italian Mis- 
sionaries, Carli and Merolla, are given in much, 
greater detail than those of their predecessors ; 
and though tinged with equal credulity and su- 
perstition, appear to present a considerable por- 
tion both of curious information and amusing in^ 
cident. 
In 1666, Pope Alexander VII. sent out two 
Capuchin friars, Michael Angel o of Rheggio, and 
Denis Carli *• of Piacenza, upon a mission to Con-? 
* The narrative was published by Carli in Italian. It; 
was translated and published in Churchill's Collection, 
