i66 WESTERN H I N D O O S T A N. 



*' 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 of 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 of one of 

 *' the parties. When a woman becomes a widow, fhe forfeits 

 " her dowry if married within a twelve-month after the death 

 " of her hufband. Thefe are the cuftoms and manners which 

 " the Chrijlians in Craj^gamre, as well as many other-parts of 

 " India, have obferved with the utmoft fidelity, from the time 

 " of St. T'bomas." 



When Gama arrived on this coaft, there were about two hun- 

 dred thoufand of them in the fouthern parts of Malabar ; during 

 thirteen hundred years they had been under the Patriarch 

 oi Babylon^ who appointed \}ii€vs: Metarcne or Archbifliop. They 

 were extremely averfe to the do6trine of St. Francis de Xavier, 

 when he came among them, and abhorred the worfliip of im- 

 ages, 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 eftabliflied at Goa. Xavier had never troubled his new 

 converts with any inftrudlion, nor ever inftilled into them any 

 knowlege of the principles of the Chrijlian religion, any farther 

 than implicit obedience to the head of the church. He gave 

 them crucifixes to worfliip, and told them, they were then fure 

 of heaven. His preaching was fubfervient to the political in- 



terefts 



