194 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [N.S., XIX, 
most distant states of the East.! Friar John de Monte Corvino 
writing from Cambalik (Pekin) on January 8, 1305, says that 
years before, at a place fully 20 days ii Cambalik, he had 
converted a Nestorian King, George, “ of the illustrious race 
of the great king who was called Prester John in India. And 
Friar John de Monte Corvino had been sufficiently es in 
Malabar and on the Coromandel Coast to make us suspect that 
some of the Christian Princes in China were connected with 
Christian Princes in India. In 1330, Pope John XXII. sent 
Bishop Jordanus to Quilon with a letter which began as fol- 
lows: “ Nobili vireo domino Nascarinorum et universis sub eo 
Christianis Nascarinis de Columbo, venerabilem fratrem Jordan- 
um.’ * The chief of the Nazarene Christians at Columbo or 
Quilon may have tay a petty Christian King, the Baliarte of 
lortuguese writers and Malabar traditions. As late as 1439 
Pope Eugene IV. sent envoys (to the Christian King of 
Malabar 4) with a letter which commenced thus: “To m 
most beloved son in Christ, Thomas, the illustrious Emperor 
of the Indians, health and the apostolic benediction.—There 
he 
and also oe who are the subjects of your kingdom are true 
Christians.” 
taining a dove with a cross; t reater peed: of the 
town of Diogil, which we pa on suspect to be Diamper, 1s 
brought out by a double cross. rom this it must not be 
concluded that the King of Columbo, the name of which w 
not understood and was represented by a dove, was a Christian, 

_ | L’ Abbé Hue, Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet, aii 
York, 1884, Vol. 1, p. 96. Henry Yule thinks = is ———. of th 
Negus of Ethiopia. Cf. Encyel Britann., XIX (1885), p. 717, ” 
2 Marcellino da Civezza. O.M.C , Storia pret dette ‘isola 
Premcsoctine. Vol: 3, Roma, 1859, pp. 137 n 67 n In in . 6, pp. 336- 
340 of the same work see a Pet gs on the firs eis ara: ce of the name 
Prester John. M. da Civezza thinks the name appears iad in 1145, when 
the Syrian Bishop of Gabala was sent to Pope Eugene III. The article 
on Prester John in the Cath. Encycel. XII, ola is very instructive. 
o Carpini 
For other references to Prester John of India s ni (1248), 
the Armenian writer Sempad (1248), and Pandata Pg ae ae v Yule’s 
aw 3 gs Britann., NIX (1885), pp. 716, ¢ 
le’s Friar Jordans ee Soci sea 
voi I psy the last hes from T. K. Joseph’s orihie. 4 “Malabar Chris- 
tran Dynasty, in t dvandrum Baily i eS 25-2-1922, He gives 46 
reference Wadding’s Annales Minorum 
‘ Joannes de India’ entioned in S Mice’ s P.G.L.T. (Patree Graect 
Latine tantum editi), Vol. 80. BP 1015-20. I do not find the collection 
at St. Mary’s College. Kurseon 
