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gious veneration. His arrival and settlement on the coast, may 
perhaps at a future period be ascertained, with historical accuracy, 
to have taken place during the violent persecution of the sect of 
Nestorius under Theodosius the Second, or some time after. 
But the bigotted Portugueze missionaries laid hold of this name 
to renew the story of the arrival of St. Thomas the Apostle in 
India; who they pretended had converted a great number of idol- 
aters on the coast of Malabar, and afterwards on the other side of 
India, as far as Malliapoor , now St. Thome , where he suffered mar- 
tyrdom. 
“ All traditions and Malabar records agree, that the Syrian 
Christians, or Nazaranee Mapilas, were known, and had been 
settled on the Malabar coast long before either the Arabs or Jews. 
In the Malabar histories, the first mention of a Syrian colony of 
the Christians is made in the reign of Cocoorangon Perumal, 
who probably lived in the sixth century; a wealthy Syrian mer- 
chant, of the name of Thome Cannanes, is said to have landed 
at Oranganore , where he was well received, and induced to settle, 
by great privileges granted to him by the Perumal. He after- 
wards married two wives; one of the Nair, and one of some low 
caste; by whom he had a very numerous progeny, who after his 
death had great disputes about his inheritance. 
We find again mention made of two Syrian, or Chaldean 
bishops, at Coilan, or Quilone , about one hundred years after its 
foundation ; where they were extremely well received by the rajah, 
and permitted to build a church, which was still extant when Ca- 
bral first visited Quilone. The grants and privileges which they 
received from the rajah were engraved upon copper plates; which 
