6 HISTORICAL REMARKS ON 



VII. It is the received tradition among the Mala- 

 bars, that Shermanoo Permaloo was, juft at the com- 

 pletion of the diftribution of the Malabar country, ap- 

 plied to for fome provilions by an Erary, or perfon of 

 the cow-herd caft ; who, with his brother, had, dur- 

 ing the preceding warfare, come from their native 

 town of Poondra (on the banks of the Cavery, near 

 Errode) to his aiTiftance, and had proved the principal 

 caufe of his fuccefs again ft Rajah Kijhen Rao's army; 

 upon which Shermanoo, having little or nothing elfe 

 left, made a grant to him of the very narrow limits of 

 his own place of abode at Calicut; and having further 

 bellowed on him his own fword and ancle chainlet, and 

 other inlignia of dignity, and prefented him with water 

 and flowers, (which appears to have been uniformly 

 the ancient fymbol of donation and transfer of pro- 

 perty in this part of India,) he authorifed and in- 

 ftructed him to extend his own dominions by arms, 

 over as much of the country as he fhould find defer- 

 able ; a difcretion which this adventurer (who is the 

 anceftor of the prefent Samoory or Zamorin) im- 

 mediately began to act upon, and to endeavour to 

 carry its object into execution, by the forcible acqui- 

 sition of the diftricts adjoining to the prefent city of 

 Calicut •> and ever fince his family appear to have, 

 in the true fpirit of their original grant, (which is 

 the boaft and glory of its prefent reprefentatives,) been 

 either meditating new conquefts, or endeavouring to 

 maintain the acquifitions they have thus atchieved by 

 Sheo Ram, or Shermanoo Permaloo' s fword ; which they 

 aflert to have ft ill preferved as a precious relick, and 

 to have converted into an object of domeftic adora- 

 tion, as the in-ftrument of all the greatnefs of their 

 houfe. 



VIII. Anterior even to this epoch of the partition of 

 Malabar, the Neftorians had fettled and planted Chris- 

 tianity on this coaft; and with thofe of the Roman 

 Catholic communion, that arrived feveral centuries 



4 after. 



