ft firft day of "July is kept as a holiday, in honor of St, Thomas,
“ not only by thefe Cbrijiians, but many of the Pagans alfo.
“ There are likewife convents for the priefts, and nunneries
“ for their women, who adhere to their vows o f chaftity with
“ the utmoft probity. Their priefts are allowed to marry once,
“ but excluded from taking a fecond wife. Marriages amongft
“ other people cannot be annulled, but by the death o f one o f
“ the parties. When a woman becomes a widow, fhe forfeits
* her dowry i f married within a twelve-month after the death
“ o f her hulband. Thefe are the cuftoms and manners which
“ the Cbrijiians in Crahganore, as well as many other parts of
“ India, have obferved with the utmoft fidelity, from the time
“ o f St. Thomas'.”
W h e n Gama arrived on this coaft, there were about two hundred
thoufand o f them in the fouthern parts of Malabar; during
thirteen hundred years they had been under the Patriarch
o f Babylon, who appointed their Metarene or Archbifhop. They
were extremely averfe to the doitrine o f St. Francis de Xavier,
when he came among them, and abhorred the worihip of images,
which they confidered as idolatry. They refufed to ac-
knowlege the Pope’s fupremacy, and at length were per-
fecuted as heretics, with all the horrors of the inquifition,
newly eftabliihed at Goa. Xavier had never troubled his new
converts with any inftrudion, nor ever inftilled into them any
knowlege of the principles of the Cbriflian religion, any farther
than implicit obedience to the head o f the church. He gave
them crucifixes to worihip, and told them, they were then fure
o f heaven. His preaching was fubfervient to the political interefts
•
terefts of his country;; his abilities,, and his labors for that end
were amazing. In him appeared all the powers which, in after
times, gave to his order that vaft importance in the affairs of
the univerfe. I will conclude this article with faying, that out
of the fifty thoufand inhabitants found in Bednore when Ayder
Alii took poffeilion o f it, thirty thoufand were Cbrijiians,
“ who,” fays his hiftorian, i. p. 83, “ were endowed with great
“ privileges.”
Cranganore, and a fort on the oppofite fide of the river, named
Jaeotta, gave rife to the important war of the Myfore. They
had been taken from the Portuguefe by the Dutch, and pofiefied
by the laft a hundred and fifty years. Ayder Alii, feeing the
eonvenieney o f Cranganore to his Myforean kingdom, in 1780,
feized and garrifoned it. In the eniuing war, the Dutch re-
poffeffed themfelves. of it. In 1789 Tippoo Sultan, the fucceflor
o f Ayder, determined to make himfelf mafter o f it, in right of
his father.. He railed a mighty army, which fo alarmed the
Dutch, that they refolved to difpofe o f the two forts to the
Rajah o f Travancore, an ally o f the Engli/h, in order to divert
the ftorm from themfelves. Tippoo marched with his forces,
and attacked the lines o f Travancore. The battle between his
army and that of the Rajah, the latter in defence o f Cranganore,,
on May ry 1790, was. the fignal o f the general war, on which,
commenced the firft campaign in June following. The con-
dufion o f that glorious war was the putting us in pofleflion o f
the whole coaft, from Caroor as far as mount Billy, a trad o f a.
hundred and twenty miles.. This is the refult o f the partition
treaty..
Cochin’.