1$23. ] St. T'homas and San Thomé, Mylapore. 213 
of time! If the history of Christianity be India before the 
Portuguese is to make any advance, it is to the Syrians, both 
in Malabar and Mesopotamia, and to italy that we have to 
look. Even the Chinese annals at times throw light on the 
Christians of India 
John de Mandeville does not appear to have copied from 
anyone when he wrote of Quilon: ‘‘ Thither go merchants 
often from Venice to buv pepper and ginger.””' The period 
then between Marco Polo and the Portuguese, a period for 
which nearly al] our European accounts of India were written 
by Italian merchants and missionaries, could be enriched by new 
itineraries from Italy. Other European countries too could be 
made yet to bring s their tribute to rele altar of knowledge : for we 
may well think that what attracted still m any Christians to 
India before the Portuguese was, od sid its spices and precious 
stones, but the shrine of St. Thom 
ngelo de Gubernatis writes in Hie Storia det V ht 
Italiani nelle "hadee Orientali, Livorno, 1875, pp. 7-8. 
that time [i.e. after the Pratica della Mercatura, by Pesuecus 
Balducci Pegolotti of I‘lorence, compiled in 1335], we have 
sundry itineraries. Of one of these, entitled ter eunti of 
Venetiis ad Indiam, ubi jacet corpus beati Thomae A posto 
(Itinerary for one going from Venice to India, where rests the 
body of the Blessed Apostle Thomas], there exists a MS. codex 
in the Magliabechiana. The itinerary shows the way by 
Rhodes, Jerusalem, Gaza, Salara, Aidab, Adam, Monte Maria, 
Ethiopia (sic), Charam (« now, in that city are crowned all the 
kings who are subject to Prester John (qui Presto Johanni sunt 
subditi. They say also that in that town there is a finer basi- 
lica than any to be found in the whole world »y. Anghuda, 
Schiahua § (in four days you might finish bird journey up to 
India, where rests the body of the venerable and glorious 
Apostle St. Thomas, through whom the Lord "God shows in- 
numerable miracles. For many reasons it is difficult for anyone 
to go farther. And few foreigners who go farther return 
thence. it Evidently the compiler of this itinerary, besides 

‘ Quoted from Yule’ s Friar 3 adenine 1. 
? Yule in his Hobson— Jobson, Ist. edn., p. ‘ai, says it was written c. 
343, and ‘* published by Gian present Pagnini de] Ventura of Voiterra 
4 vols., 4to. Of this work it woumatirates the 3ed volume. Extracts traas- 
lated in Cathay and the Way rss od gq. v. The 5th vo = me is a simil 
work by G. Uzzano, pa a 1440.” At p. xlv, Yu Uzzano's 
res seis della Seoaure;: ‘and says it forms the 4th vol, of 
Dec 
SM ght Anghuda be An ediva, an island at some distance from 
Guat ? sg tha: rip at Schiahua ; is pele the Shikali of Abulfeda, the 
Cyngilin of Odoric, i.¢., Cra anganore. Cf Yule’s Cathay, 1866, II. 455. 
* So then the Venetian cate whom Jobn de Mandeville brings 
to i would have gone to pay their respects to to a St. Thomas, 
