Joel de Deus Magno
"After resting a little, I walked slowly to the place of the apparitions. When I got there, many people were praying and singing verses to Our Lady around the bush where the apparitions take place. This bush is a small holm oak that is already reduced to its trunk, so many are the branches that have been taken from it. I spent a few moments chatting with various acquaintances of mine. Many people could already be seen there at that hour.
Some friends of mine, who had meanwhile arrived and come to join me, and I went and sat in the shade of a tree, and there we stayed for quite some time. It was then that a vast crowd began to pour in. Innumerable people were coming from every direction, but it was above all from both sides of the district road that there was a real flood.
Vehicles of all sizes and all shapes followed one another without interruption. People came on foot, on horseback and by bicycle. The sight of the carts scattered over the slope, of the animals grazing in the shade, of the long line of motor cars on the road, of the gigantic heaps of bicycles, made an extremely interesting spectacle. Around astronomical noon, the exact hour of the apparitions, some thousands of people were crowded together at that place.
I am not versed in the science of calculation, but it seemed to me, and that was the general opinion, that more than five thousand souls were present. They were all anxiously awaiting the arrival of the children, who were already late.
Meanwhile a lad turns up with the sad news that the administrator of Vila Nova de Ourém, after telling the parents of the children, whom he had gone to visit, that he would gladly take them in his trap to the place of the apparitions, had wretchedly tricked them, putting the children in the trap and fleeing with them to Ourém. That is indeed what had happened. That wicked and cowardly man had betrayed all those people. There seems, however, to have been a special intervention of providence in all this, because that place, through which many people constantly pass, was almost deserted at that hour, the only eyewitnesses being the parish priest of Fatima and some friends who were on the veranda of the parish residence and with whom the administrator had been talking shortly before. The people, when they learned what had happened, were most indignant. Some friends and I went straight back to the village of Fatima. There we informed ourselves in detail of how things had happened. A few moments later some men arrived, very happy, saying that Our Lady had appeared. I immediately made for the place in all haste. The roads were already full of people commenting on the astonishing fact. I asked each group what they had seen. All with one voice said that they had heard a clap of thunder and seen, near the holm-oak shrub, a flash of lightning and a most beautiful cloud that rose into the air and shortly disappeared. In a word, everyone had been satisfied, and from what I heard various individuals from Vila Nova de Ourém say, the administrator seems to have put his life at great risk by abducting the children. Some educated and level-headed people told me that, although mysterious signs had been observed, there was not sufficient proof of a supernatural character.
Others assured me that they had noticed nothing abnormal.
Others finally proclaimed that, after one had spoken with the children, one could not doubt the reality of the apparitions”.
Depois de descansar um pouco, fui andando devagar para o local das aparições. Quando lá cheguei, estavam muitas pessoas rezando e cantando versos a Nossa Senhora em torno do arbusto, onde se verificam as aparições. Esse arbusto é uma pequena azinheira que está já reduzida ao tronco, tantos são os ramos que lhe teem tirado. Entretive-me alguns momentos a conversar com diversas pessoas das minhas relações. Já lá se via a essa hora muita gente.
Eu e alguns amigos meus, que entretanto chegaram e vieram juntar-se comigo, fômos sentar-nos á sombra de uma arvore e alli nos conservámos bastante tempo. Então é que começou a affluir imenso povo. De todas as direcções vinham innumeráveis pessoas, mas principalmente dos dois lados da estrada districtal é que era uma verdadeira enchente.
Vehiculos de todos os tamanhos e de todos os feitios succediam-se uns aos outros sem interrupção. Vinha gente a pé, a cavallo e de bicycleta. A vista dos carros espalhados pela encosta, do gado a pastar á sombra, da longa serie de automoveis na estrada, dos montes gigantescos de bicycletes, constituia um espectaculo sobremodo interessante. Pelo meio dia astronomico, hora certa das aparições, comprimiam-se nesse local alguns milhares de pessoas.
Eu não sou versado na sciencia do calculo, mas parecia-me e era essa a opinião geral, que se achavam presentes mais de cinco mil almas. Estavam todos aguardando anciosamente a chegada das creanças, que já tardavam.
Entretanto apparece um rapaz com a triste noticia de que o administrador de Villa Nova d'Ourem, depois de ter dito aos paes das creanças a quem tinha ido visitar, que as levava de boa vontade na sua charrete para o local das aparições, os ludibriara miseravelmente, metendo as creanças na charrete e fugindo com ellas para Ourem. Com effeito, assim tinha succedido. Esse homem, perverso e cobarde, atraçoara todo aquelle povo. Parece, porém, ter havido em tudo isto uma intervenção especial da providencia, porque aquelle lugar, em que passa constantemente muita gente, estava quasi deserto aquella hora, sendo unicas testemunhas oculares o prior de Fatima e alguns amigos que estavam na varanda da residencia parochial e com quem pouco antes o administrador estivera conversando. O povo, quando soube o que se tinha passado, ficou indignadissimo. Eu e alguns amigos voltámos logo para a povoação de Fatima. Alli informamo-nos minuciosamente do modo como as cousas se tinham passado. D'ahi a poucos momentos chegaram uns homens muito contentes dizendo que Nossa Senhora tinha apparecido. Dirigi-me immediatamente a toda a pressa para o local. As estradas vinham já cheias de gente que commentava o assombroso facto. A cada grupo perguntava o que tinham visto. Todos a uma voz diziam que tinham ouvido um trovão e visto junto da carrasqueira um relampago e uma nuvem formosissima que se elevou nos ares e a breve trecho desapareceu. Numa palavra, todos tinham ficado satisfeitos e pelo que ouvi dizer a varios individuos de Villa Nova d'Ourem o administrador parece ter arriscado muito a vida com o rapto das creanças. Algumas pessoas instruidas e ponderadas disseram-me que, embora se tivessem verificado signaes mysteriosos, não havia prova sufficiente de sobrenaturalidade.
Outras asseguravam que não haviam notado nada de anormal.
Outras finalmente proclamavam que, depois de se ter fallado com as creanças, não se podia duvidar da realidade das aparições”.
