﻿37S ACCOUNT OF THE ST. THOME CIIRISTIAXS 



plicity, ar.d that the fronts of sucli as adopted after- 

 'H'urds the Latin rite, and acknowledged the supre- 

 jrtacy of the Roman see, are decorated with Saints in 

 niclies or basso-relievos, and that stnne of tlie most 

 conspicuous h.ad an arched choir. — The hirgest Chris- 

 tian temple was at Alangacke or Manga ttc, rive miJes 

 from Faroor, and to judge from the j.>resent ruins, it 

 must have been a very handsome and noble struc- 

 ture. At Angamalcc, tlie seat of the Syrian Metro- 

 politan, there were not less th.in three sp;;cious tem- 

 ples, not inferior to the sj^ecimen exhibited in the 

 ruins of Coyr/j/. But they have ail been converted 

 into heaps of rui.is, by the destroying hand of the 

 Mijsorcan invader, as was also the neat church and 

 colleo-e built by the Jesuits at Amhlagatte 



Tnh great number of such sumptuous buildings as 

 the aSV. [home Chri.stians possessed in the inland parts 

 of the Travancore and Coc////? dominions is really sur- 

 prising ; since some of them, upon a moderate calcu- 

 lation, must have cost upwards of one lack of rupees, 

 and few less ttian liaif that sum. How diiferent must 

 have been the situation of this people in former times, 

 in comparison with tiie v.retched condition in v/hich 

 we behold them at present ! scarcely able to erect 

 a cadian shed for their reiigious meetings over those 

 splendid ruins, that attest at the sanse time their for- 

 mer wealth and present pi)verty. In the same pro- 

 portion that their opulence decreased, their popula- 

 tion appears also to have diminished, yilangada con- 

 tained, before the year !7.3»>, more than a thousand 

 Christian families, ^\ ho lived insubstantial liouses, 

 of whiclithe ruins are still extant, and bear evidence 

 to the fact. Or those families not full one hundred 

 are now remaining, and them I found in the most 

 abject state of misery. Tjie same melancholy con- 

 trast is observable at Angamalee, and many other for- 

 merly opulent christian towns and villai^es. 



' Til EI 11 



