11 



and the commissioners leaving- them carelessly exposed in the pub- 

 lic godowns, they were unfortunately lost ; but the rights are still 

 continued by prescription. 



The Mar Thomas, or Thomas Cana, whom I have just mention- 

 ed was an Armenian merchant of great wealth and noble family, 

 who came and settled in Travancore, probably about the fifth centu- 

 ry, although Gouves the Portuguese historian, makes him the con- 

 temporary of Perumal. He carried on an extensive traffic in the pro- 

 duce of the country and built two houses one in the south in the 

 kingdom ot Cranganore, the other in the north, probably at An- 

 gamale or the immediate neighbourhood. In the former of 

 these his wife resided, and in the latter, a christian slave with 

 whom he lU&d. By each of these he had children, and at his 

 death he left to his legitimate ofFsprijig his lands and possessions in 

 the south, and to his natural children all his property in the north. 

 The present christians in Travancore trace their descent from this 

 Mar Thomas, and of course those of the south are the more noble. 

 So proud are they of this distinction, that they do not intermarry with 

 others nor admit them to communion in their churches, nor use the 

 ministry of their priests. 



Some time after the foundation of Quilon, from which com- 

 mences the common epoch of Malabar ; — i. e. about A. D. 822— two 

 Syrian ecclesiastics arrived on that coast from Babylon, Mar Sha- 

 poor and Mar Firoze. They landed at Quilon, and the king, 

 .seeing the great reverence in which the christians held them, showed 

 them great favour, and among other privileges empowered them to 

 build churches wherever they pleased, and to baptize all that were de- 

 sirous of embracing Christianity. These privileges are still continued 

 to them, and the plates of brass on which they were written in 

 Canarese, Malayalim, Vizianagrum, and Tamul, were seen by 

 Alexis de Menezes, the Archbishop of Goa, in the year 1599. 



These two ecclesiastics are enrolled by the christians of St. 

 Thomas in the number of their saints, Cadeeshe : they are comme- 

 morated in their liturgy, and several churches were dedicated to their 

 honor. Menezes, who from not finding their names in his Roman 

 martyrology concluded they were Nestorians, erased their names 

 from the liturgies, and changed the titles of th,eir churches. 



The christians by this long course of prosperity became so pow- 

 erful that they threw off the yoke of the heathen princes, and elect- 

 ed a king of their own natipn. The first who bore that title, " the 

 King of the Christians of St. Thomas," was Baliarte. For some 



