380 M A L 
the year 1698. They made it however an exprefs condi- 
tion with the pope, that he Ihould appoint no vicar-gene- 
ral who was not by birth either a German, Dutchman, or 
Italian ; the company referving to themfelves the right of 
rejecting him if they have any exception againft his per- 
fon ; and that, in general, he muft conlider himfelf as fub- 
jeft to the company’s orders. His paltry allowance of 
about 400 rupees per annum, is paid by the Congregatio de 
Propaganda Fide ; and his refidence is at Varapoly, in a 
convent of his own order, which is alfo fupported by the 
Propaganda. His diocefe extended formerly as far as the 
political influence of the Dutch could reach ; and with the 
gradual decline of their power he alfo loll lucceflively the 
greateft part of his churches; which returned either un¬ 
der the Portuguefe bilhop of Coilan, or the vicar-general 
of the Syrian churches brought over to the Latin rite; fo 
that at prefent only fourteen churches remain under his 
epifcopal jurifdiftion. 
The ruins of an old Syrian or Neftorian church are ftill 
extant, on a rifing ground at the ealtern extremity of the 
village of Coorty, two miles diftant from Ramiferam 
Gate, on the high road leading to Trichoor. It was the 
firfl Chrittian temple that Tippoo’s bigoted fanaticifm 
doomed to deftru£tion, after his fuccefsful ftorm on the 
too-extenfive and feeble barrier, the Travancore lines, in 
1790; from whence a general conflagration of all Hindoo 
temples and Chriftian villages, with their churches, mark¬ 
ed the progrefs of the deltroying holt as far as Varapoly ; 
and, in the fpace of three days, thirteen large, and in 
many refpects handfome, piles of building, were laid in 
ruins. 
Almoftall templesbelonging to the St. Thome Chriftians 
in Malabar, are built in the fame ftyle, and nearly upon 
the fame plan. The facade with little columns (evident¬ 
ly in imitation of the Ityle of architecture prevalent in 
Alia Minor and Syria, from which the Chriftian religion, 
and with it the model of their temples, appears to have 
been tranfplanted into Malabar) being every-where the 
fame ; only that thofe belonging to the old Neftorians, or 
Schifmatics, have preferved their ancient fimplicity; and 
that the fronts of luch. as adopted afterwards the Latin 
rite, and acknowledged the fupremacy of the Roman fee, 
are decorated with laints in niches or baflo-relievos, and 
that foine of the moft confpicuous have an arched choir. 
The largeft Chriftian temple was at Alangadee, or Man- 
gatte, five miles from Paroor ; and, to judge from the pre¬ 
sent ruins, it muft have been a very handfome and noble 
ftrufture. At Angamalee, the feat of the Syrian metro¬ 
politan, there were not lefs than three fpacions temples; 
but they have all been converted into heaps of ruins, by 
the deltroying hand of the Myforean invader, as was alfo 
the neat church and college built by the Jefuits at Am- 
blagatte. The great number of fuch fumptuous build¬ 
ings as the St. Thome Chriftians poirclfed in the inland 
pai ts of the Travancore and Cochin dominions is really 
furpriling; fince fome of them, upon a moderate calcula¬ 
tion, mult have colt upwards of a lack of rupees, and 
few lefs than half that fum. How different mull have been 
the fituation of this people in former times, in comparifon 
with the wretched condition in which we behold them at 
prefent! lcarcely able to ereCt a Hied for their religious 
meetings over thofe fplendid ruins, that attelt at the lame 
time then former wealth and prefent poverty. In the 
fame proportion that their opulence decreafed, their po¬ 
pulation appears alfo to have diminilhed. Alangada con¬ 
tained, before the year 1750, more than a thoulknd Chrii- 
tian families, who lived in fubftantial houfes, of which 
the ruins are ftill extant, and bear evidence to the fail. 
O' thole families not full one hundred are now remaining, 
and thole in the moft abjtft Hate of mifery. The fame 
melancholy contrail is oblervablc at Angamalee, and many 
other formerly-opulent Chriftian towns and villages. 
Their priltine flourifliing condition, and even opulence, 
however, can ealily be accounted for. The bulk of the 
St. Thome Chriftians confifted moftly of converts from 
M A L 
the Brahmin and Shoudren call; and not, as the New 
Chriftians, or profelytes made by the Portuguefe midi* 
onaries, of the lowed tribes. The St. Thome Chriftians 
poffeffed, in addition, another fource of wealth, which 
was trade. They were, in fact, the only, at lead the prin¬ 
cipal, merchants in the country, till the Arabs fettled on 
thecoaft; and they continued in a flourifliing fituation, 
till towards the middle of the prefent aera, when the rajahs 
of Travancore and Cochin overturned the whole fyltem 
and laws eltablilhed by the celebrated Cheruma Perumal; 
and, after difpoffeffing the independent rajahs of Paroor, 
Alangada, Tekencoor, Waddakencoor, Porka, Coilan, 
Callicoilan, and many other petty Nair chiefs, under the 
name of Caymals, who formed the Hates of the country, 
and were long a llrong barrier againft the attempts at ab- 
folute power by the rajahs ; they divided into unequal 
fhares the whole of the conquered countries, of which the 
rajah of Travancore appropriated to himfelf by far the 
greateft part, and introduced the prefent oppreflive fyltem 
of government; if that can be called fuch, which is in faft 
an injudicious imitation of the late Myforean fyltem of 
finances ; without the order, regularity, and in fome man¬ 
ner impartial adminiftration ol juft ice, which is neceflary 
to fupport it, and without which it mult unavoidably de¬ 
generate into endlefs and generally-deftiuftive fchemes of 
extortion and rapine, that foon or late muft bring fuch un¬ 
happy countries, let their natural refources be ever fo great, 
to the lowed ftate of wretchednefs ; as is already the cafe 
both in the Travancore and Cochin dominions. 
Befides the original Malabars, many other people have 
been allured to fettle here, by the profits of trade; fuch 
as Moors, Arabians, Perfians, and a colony of Jews, who, 
as they pretend, are the polterity of the ten tribes carried 
away into captivity by Shalmanefer: thefe dwell in a fe- 
parate town, in which are three fynagogues ; the towq, 
or village, which they inhabit, and where they are em¬ 
ployed in trade, has received the appellation of Makwan- 
Sieri. 
Cranganore was fold by the Dutch to the king of Tra¬ 
vancore, taken from him by Hyder Ali, and re-taken by 
the Englilh in 1790. Cochin, Quilon, Qnila-Quilon, and 
the other fettlements of the Dutch, or, the coalt ot Mala¬ 
bar, have fhared the fate of the greater part of their Indian 
pofteffions, and are actually in the hands of the Englilh. 
Wilkes's Hijl. oj Myfur. Afiatic Rcjiarc/ies , vol. vii. art. 13. 
MALABAR' NPGHTSHADE. See Basella. 
MALABAR'-NUT'-TREE. See Justicia. 
MALABA'THRUM, f. Among the ancients, an ex¬ 
cellent fweet-lcented ointment. 
MALABA'THRUM, or Indian Leaf , f. in botany. 
See Tamalapatra. 
MALABRI'GO, a harbour on the coaft of Peru, in the 
South Sea. 
MALA'CA, in ancient geography, furnamed Ftzdera- 
torum by Pliny; a maritime town of Baetica; a Carthagi¬ 
nian colony according to Strabo; fo called from Malack, 
lignifying “fait a place noted for pickled or falted filh. 
Now Malaga, a port-town of Granada in Spain. Lat. 
36.40. N. Ion. 4. 45. W. 
MALACAT'LAN, a town of Mexico, in the province 
of Mechoacan : fixteen miles fouth-ealt of Colima. 
MALAC'CA, or Malaya, a peninfula of Alia, at 
the extremity of the kingdom of Siam, furrounded by 
the fea, except at its junction with this kingdom. The 
northern limits are not Itriftly defined ; but the peninfula 
is reckoned to be about 8o°, or 560 Britilh miles, in length, 
and in medial breadth about 150 miles. It derives its 
name from the Malays, who are moltly Mahometans, and 
in a conliderable degree civilized: but the inland parts 
feem to be poffeffed by a more rude native race, of which 
our'knowledge is very imperfefl. 
In the lalt century, Mandelfto, or rather Olearius, who 
publilhed his voyage, deferibes Malacca as divided into 
two kingdoms, that of Patani in the north, and that of 
Johor in the fouth. The former was inhabited by Malays 
and 
