Uie Kingdoms of Cochin and Travancore. 71 



Malabar; and La Croze seems to have discharged his duty 

 to tlie pubUc in a most faithful, interesting, and able manner. 



Wh-en the Portuguese first arrived in this country, in the 

 beginning of the iGth centiirv, thev found a Christian church 

 using the Syrio-Chaldaic language established in the neigh- 

 bouihood of Cranganurc ; and, though it was published to 

 the woild many centuries before that period that such a 

 church existed, yet we find their ignorance expressul in 

 the wonder which it excited. 



These Christians met the Portuguese as natural friends 

 and allies, and rejoiced at their commg; but the Porluiiucse 

 were much disappointed at finding the St. Thonic Chris- 

 tians firmly fixed in the tenets of a primitive church, and 

 soon adopted plans for dra"^'ing away from their pure faith 

 this innocent, ingenuous, and respectable people : however^ 

 after using, for nearly a century, all the customary arts and 

 abominable persecutions of the church of Rome to no pur- 

 pose, don Alexis de iNlcneses, the archbishop of Goa, ap- 

 peared amongst them ; and, by his commanding influence, 

 his zeal, and his learning, and on the authority of what he 

 called the council of Udian>per, forced the Syrian metropo- 

 litan, his priests and people, into the Roman pale. The 

 archbishop, however, had not long quitted the scene of this 

 triumph of bigotry, ere the people sighed for their old reli- 

 gion, and cherished it in private; but on the 22d of May 

 1G53 they held a congress at Aiiijgattc, and great numbers, 

 headed b)' tbeir^ metropolitan, revolted publicly from the 

 Rqmish couuDunion ; nor has all the infiuenccof the Roman 

 pontiff, and the kings of Portugal, been able to draw thcni 

 away again from their old laith. 



Leaving the history of this interesdng pcoi)lc, which is 

 afl'cctingly delineated in La Croze's book, [ shall, in this 

 report, confine myself move particularly to the existinii; state 

 iif Christianity in Malabar ; and, in order that your lordship 

 may havtj the subject clearly before you, f shall consider 

 t-ach sect of Christians by itself, under the head of, 1st, St. 

 'Jhomc, or Jacobite Christians ; 2dly, The Syrian Catho- 

 lics, who have been forced from the Jacobite cliureh into 

 tlic Romish pale; and, 3dly, The Latin church. 



K 4 Si, 



