/ 1 Km, 
 
 , '.. 
 
 JESUIT COSTUME, IN SOUTHERN INDIA 
 
THE JESUIT IN INDIA: 
 
 ADDRESSED TO ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED 
 
 IN THE 
 
 
 Lives of good men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime, 
 
 And, departing', leave behind us 
 Foot prints on the sands of time ; 
 
 Foot-prints that perhaps another, 
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
 
 A forlorn and ship-wrecked brother, 
 Seeing, shall take heart again. 
 
 Let us, then, be up and doing, 
 With a heart for any fate, 
 
 Still achieving, still pursuing, 
 Learn to labour and to wait. 
 
 BOST< 
 
 . T — It It h ^ 
 
 CI© 
 
 LONDON: 
 BURNS & LAMBERT, 17 PORTMAN STREET. 
 
 1852. 
 

 
 
The Writer has spent four years on the Madura 
 Mission in Southern India, and here describes 
 the past history, the present state, and future 
 prospects of this promising field of Evangelical 
 labour. 
 
 By letters received from India since this book 
 was put in the printer's hands, we are informed 
 that two more of our clergymen have fallen 
 victims to climate and privation. 
 
 Many valuable lives might be saved by send- 
 ing the sick fathers to the hills for a change of 
 air — but the poverty of the Mission renders 
 this impossible. 
 
 Subscriptions will be thankfully received by 
 Rev. James Brownhill, S.J. 9 Hill-street, 
 Berkeley-square ; V. Rev. Dr. CritTis, S.J. St. 
 Fr. Xaviers, Upper Gardiner - street, Dublin; 
 Thomas Barnewall, Esq. Commercial Bank 
 of London, 6 Henrietta-street, Covent-garclen ; 
 and the Joint Stock Bank, Pall Mall. 
 
 W. S. 
 Missr. Ap. S.J. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Preface i 
 
 The Vicariate Apostolic of Madura 1 
 
 Introduction of Christianity into India 25 
 
 Consequences of the Suppression of the Society of 
 
 Jesus 67 
 
 Sketch of the Efforts of Protestantism in Southern 
 
 India 81 
 
 Modern History of the Mission of Madura 122 
 
 The Hon. and Rev. Walter Clifford 141 
 
 The College of Negapatam 165 
 
 Actual State of the Mission 175 
 
 Conclusion 213 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The following little work pretends to no higher 
 character than that of an eye-witness's narra- 
 tive, and boasts of nothing more valuable than 
 its collection of facts. Whatever reflections the 
 author may have suffered to escape him can be 
 thrown aside by the mind that relishes them 
 not : the history will remain the same. 
 
 It is needless to detail to our readers the spirit 
 of a svstem so well known as that of the Jesuits, 
 or to remind them that, such as it was, its suc- 
 cess in bringing Heathen nations at least within 
 the pale of Christianity and of civilization, was 
 equal to what had been effected by any other 
 body. The reductions of Paraguay are well 
 known to all, as one of the most extraordinary 
 successes in the conversion of heathens to Chris- 
 tianity ever obtained since the early ages of the 
 Church. The early missions undertaken in the 
 country of which the following pages treat, were 
 likewise considered as a proof of what may be 
 effected by perseverance and self-denial, even 
 against almost insurmountable obstacles. Of 
 late years these missions have been resumed ; 
 
 B 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 with what success may be learned from the 
 following pages. 
 
 Our readers will easily here also be able to 
 discern the result of the opposite modes of 
 preaching Christianity pursued at present in 
 India ; the one, by everywhere distributing the 
 Holy Bible and sending into the villages Scrip- 
 ture-readers, who can convey its blessed words 
 even to those who know not how to read, and 
 can denounce to them the wickedness in which 
 they have been steeped from the cradle. The 
 other, by the preaching of men, who, with the 
 cross in one hand and the Bible in the other, 
 make Christianity more intelligible than the 
 unexplained Testament itself, and who shew 
 that heathens can be turned more easily from 
 the paths of darkness by tolerating such of their 
 customs as are not absolutely opposed to Chris- 
 tianity, and as far as possible smoothing to them 
 the way by letting them remain Indians, while 
 they cease to be heathens. It is hoped that all 
 who are interested in Foreign missions, all who 
 wish to assist those who are labouring in the 
 vineyard of the Lord, will find here matter for 
 serious reflection, and will ask themselves " am 
 I doing my duty ? should all the sacrifice, all 
 the toil be left to others, and shall I not share 
 it with them, at least by contributing my mite 
 to the good work." 
 
THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 OP 
 
 MADURA. 
 
 The Vicariate Apostolic of Madura is situated 
 in trie southernmost part of the Peninsula of 
 British India, and contains part of the Southern 
 Carnatic, the provinces of Tanjore, the small, 
 nominally independent, territory of the Tondi- 
 mau, Marava, Madura, and the country down 
 to Cape Comorin. It is bounded on the north 
 by a branch of the river Cauvery which falls 
 into the sea a little north of JSTegapatam ; on 
 the west by the Coorg chain of hills ; on the 
 south and east by the sea. Thus the district 
 extends from about 7*57 to 11 '50 north latitude, 
 and in the widest part is nearly three degrees 
 of longitude. The climate is very relaxing, as 
 the heat is almost continual, even in the months 
 equivalent to our winter ; but it is usually dry, 
 except in the periodical rainy seasons. The 
 months of March and April, when the sun is 
 
 b2 
 
2 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 going northward, are so intolerably hot that 
 everything that is touched, even indoors, feels 
 hotter than the hand, and exertion of mind or 
 body is most difficult, except very early in the 
 morning or after sunset. The heat often ex- 
 ceeds 100 Fahr. by day indoors, and does not 
 fall above 12 degrees in the night ; yet this is 
 the healthiest season of the year. In January 
 and February cholera is very common, arising 
 apparently from the frequent chills, which, 
 though never amounting to cold, are most try- 
 ing to constitutions enervated by the constant 
 heats. The population may be rated at nearly 
 four millions, partly Hindoos and partly Mus- 
 sulmen ; of the former, about 150,000 are 
 Christians, but the latter uniformly refuse to 
 listen to instruction. The following anecdote 
 will give some idea of their prejudice against 
 Christianity. " A native Christian Priest occa- 
 sionally visited the College at Negapatam ; like 
 our European Missionaries in India, he wore 
 his beard, which his caste among the Hindoos 
 do not, so that at a short distance he looked 
 more like a Mussulman than a Hindoo. One 
 day he came towards the place where a Maho- 
 medan teacher was giving lessons of Telingoo 
 
OF MADURA. o 
 
 to some pupils of the College ; as lie came in 
 sight, the teacher eagerly asked who he was ( 
 ' One of our Priests/ was the answer. ( But 
 what was he before ? was he ever a Mussulman?' 
 asked the moonsliee with eagerness. ( No, a 
 Hindoo.' i Oh ! well I am glad. If he had 
 ever been a Mussulman I would have stabbed 
 him this instant, though I know I should have 
 been hanged for it.' " 
 
 A slight sketch of the creed of the Hindoos, 
 by far the most numerous inhabitants of this 
 large district, may be thought interesting, and 
 indeed will be most appropriate as a preface to 
 our account of the introduction and present 
 state and prospects of Christianity in the Vica- 
 riate of Madura. 
 
 The more learned and sensible anions; the 
 Hindoos believe in one only God, called by 
 some Chivem, but more commonly Vishnou. 
 They look on him as almighty, and as the 
 source of all life, as the origin of time, the crea- 
 tor of all, the preserver of all, and at last to be 
 the destroyer of all. They even call him the 
 God of Gods, the only Lord. He is immense, 
 and like the light is present everywhere ; he is 
 eternal and born of none, he is all things and 
 
4 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 will exist in all times, lie is infinitely happy, 
 free from grief and care, truth itself ; the sonrce 
 of all justice, the ruler and disposer of all, infi- 
 nitely wise, without form, without figure, with- 
 out nature or name, or caste or parentage ; pure 
 to the exclusion of passion or inclination. He 
 knows himself, and is incomprehensible to all 
 but himself, so that the other Deities, who are 
 but his creatures, do not even comprehend his 
 essence. To him the sun and moon owe their 
 light, and his threefold power of Creator, Pre- 
 server and Destroyer are represented in the 
 triple figure called Trimourti. The numberless 
 Gods worshipped by the populace are but 
 imagined for minds too rude and weak to do 
 without material and palpable objects of adora- 
 tion. All this is distinctly contained in their 
 sacred books, and were it practically held, one 
 could scarcely wish a better foundation for 
 Christianity ; but not only are the mass of the 
 people buried in perhaps the grossest idolatry 
 recorded in the annals of the human race, but 
 even the very Brahmins, who profess to believe 
 all they find in these books, draw from them 
 ideas strangely similar to that Pantheism now so 
 rapidly spreading in Germany, and which many 
 
OF MADURA. 
 
 look upon as the new form of attack planned by 
 the enemy of man against Christian Europe. 
 " All/' say the Brahmins, " is Brahm," (another 
 name of the same Supreme Being described 
 above), "he is the soul of the world, and of 
 each being in particular; this universe is Brahm, 
 it springs from him, subsists in him, and will 
 return to him. He is the self-existent Being, 
 the form of endless worlds, which are all one 
 with him, as they exist through his will, which 
 is revealed alike in the creation, in the preserva- 
 tion, and in the destruction, in the movements 
 and in the forms of time and space." It is not 
 difficult to see how inevitably this doctrine 
 must, in uncultivated minds, lead to the grossest 
 idolatry, and such we find to be the fact, for the 
 Hindoos in general have lost all idea of the 
 Unity of God, and have multiplied divinities 
 according to every wild caprice of imagination 
 or passion ; some of them being such as decency 
 will not allow the mind to rest on for an instant. 
 Those that can be described may be briefly 
 detailed as follows. 
 
 It has been stated that the Trimouti or triple 
 idol, is originally but the representation of the 
 threefold action of the one Supreme God, sym- 
 
6 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 bolized in the sacred word Om, so holy that few 
 will pronounce it, though it is held as the sub- 
 ject of silent meditation; but it usually bears 
 three names : Brahma, the Creator ; Vishnou, 
 the Preserver ; and Siva or Chivem, the De- 
 stroyer ; represented as a figure with three 
 heads, and usually three bodies more or less 
 separated. Most Hindoos adore one only of 
 these powers, but some worship the threefold 
 power. 
 
 Brahma, the invisible head of the Brahmins, 
 is an emanation of the Supreme self-existent 
 Brahma above described, and the priest and 
 law-giver. He is said to have married Saras- 
 sonadi, the goddess of science and of harmony, 
 and is represented with four heads and four 
 arms ; in one hand he holds a circle, represent- 
 ing immortality ; in another fire, the emblem of 
 strength; with the third he writes in a book 
 which he holds in the fourth, to designate legis- 
 lative power. Some Hindoos think these repre- 
 sent the four Vedams, or sacred books, which 
 he is said to have written with his own hands 
 on leaves of gold. He has neither temples, nor 
 worship, nor disciples, having by an impudent 
 lie, to be related hereafter, drawn on himself 
 
OF MADURA. 7 
 
 the anger of Siva, who deprived him of the 
 homage of mortals, but his repentance obtained 
 for him the worship of the Brahmins, who pray 
 to him every morning. 
 
 Vishnou is more celebrated ; he is represented 
 with four arms, riding on the bird Garouda; 
 his wives are Latchimi, the goddess of riches, 
 and Boumidevi, the goddess of earth. The 
 former bore him Monmadi, who is the Cupid of 
 the Greek mythology, and who is armed with a 
 sugar-cane bow, and arrows tipped with flowers, 
 and is mounted on a parrot. He and his wife 
 Radi have no separate temples, but their figures 
 are carved in those of Vishnou. 
 
 The sacred books record no less than twenty- 
 one incarnations or avatars of Vishnou, but 
 nine of these are especially noted; they are too 
 wild and foolish to be worth narrating at length 
 in this place ; in the first he became a fish ; in 
 the second a tortoise ; in the third a wild boar ; 
 in the fourth a monster, half man, half lion ; 
 in the fifth a Brahmin dwarf, to humble the 
 pride of the giant Bely ; in the sixth a man, to 
 put down the giant Ravanen, King of Ceylon, 
 who made himself be worshipped as a God ; in 
 the seventh a man again, to live in solitude and 
 
8 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 penance, silently destroying the wicked whom 
 he met with ; in the eighth once more a man, to 
 teach mortals the practice of virtue and detach- 
 ment from this world ; in the ninth a black shep- 
 herd, to exterminate wicked and cruel kings. 
 The tenth avatar is expected impatiently, as the 
 end of the dominion of sin, and the beginning 
 of a new age, in which virtue and happiness 
 will reign alone on earth. Ridiculous as are 
 these transformations, their details would be far 
 more so, yet one finds in them many points of 
 resemblance with the history of our Lord and 
 Saviour, so striking as to leave no doubt of their 
 being borrowed from Christianity. 
 
 Vishnou is the second person of their Trinity, 
 taking flesh to free the world from evil, which 
 had spread so widely as to touch him with pity. 
 He says in one place, " Though by nature not 
 subject to be born or to die, though I rule all 
 creation, I yet command my own nature, and 
 make myself visible by my own power, and as 
 often as virtue becomes weak in the world, and 
 vice and injustice rise up, so often I am seen. 
 Thus I appear from age to age to save the just, 
 destroy the wicked and re-establish tottering 
 virtue." He came on earth by a sacrifice of 
 
OF MADURA. 9 
 
 which he alone was capable, to save it from cer- 
 tain destruction; he subjected himself to all the 
 weaknesses and miseries of humanity, and to a 
 cruel death to destroy evil, and to make virtue 
 reign ; he became a shepherd, a warrior, and a 
 prophet, to leave a pattern to mankind, yet he 
 is all the time the God of all, the representative 
 of the invisible Being by whom he was sent, 
 and powerful, just, good and merciful like him ; 
 compassionate even to his enemies, and requir- 
 ing from his followers faith and love, and a true 
 and spiritual worship, a desire of being united 
 to him, self-denial and a contempt of the world ; 
 he alone can make people holy, and give eternal 
 happiness. Here again we have ideas which 
 would make the introduction of Christianity 
 easy were they really current among the people, 
 but unfortunately they are known only to the 
 more learned among them, and even with them 
 have little influence on their practice, they are 
 therefore no check to the grossest idolatry and all 
 its consequences of systematized sensuality. To 
 continue our sketch of their better known fables 
 — Brahma and Vishnou were struggling for pre- 
 eminence, and the universe shook with the 
 combat, when the Supreme God appeared in 
 
10 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 the form of an endless column of fire, and terri- 
 fied, they paused. He promised superiority to 
 whichever should first find the extremity of this 
 column, and Vishnou, in the form of a wild 
 boar, spent a thousand years in digging, but in 
 vain. Brahma meanwhile, in the form of a 
 swan, soared upwards for 100,000 years, but 
 without success ; tired he went to Vishnou, and 
 told him he had reached the summit of the 
 column, showing as proof, a flower, which spoke 
 and confirmed his falsehood; but the column 
 opened, the eight elephants who support the 
 earth spouted blood, the clouds were burned, 
 and the Supreme God appeared, laughing deri- 
 sively, and cursing Brahma, who cast himself 
 at Siva's feet, and received pardon so far as to 
 be worshipped by the Brahmins. Had we 
 space we might multiply such tales almost in- 
 finitely, but we have said enough to excite the 
 gratitude of those to whom truth has been re- 
 vealed, and to make them pity the millions who 
 are buried in such gross darkness. A petrified 
 shell, called Salagranan, is often worshipped as 
 an idol of Vishnou, because it sometimes has 
 nine different shades of colour, which are con- 
 sidered emblems of these nine avatars. It is 
 
OF MADURA. 11 
 
 carried in a white linen cloth, with the greatest 
 respect, bathed with many ceremonies, and the 
 water is drunk as a means of purification. 
 
 Siva, the third God of the Trimourti, has 
 two opposite aspects : under the names of 
 Bhava, Baghis, Bhogovan, &c, he is the father 
 and benefactor of all, his forehead is adorned 
 with a crescent, he rides on the bull Nandi, and 
 holds in his hands the lotus and the good ser- 
 pent; but under the names of Cala, Hara, Ougra, 
 &c, he seems to change his nature : he is the 
 god of destruction, the conqueror of death and 
 of demons, fearful of aspect, with long sharp 
 teeth, flames for hair, and human skulls for a 
 necklace, while his girdle, and the bracelets of 
 his many arms, are fierce serpents. He delights 
 in blood and tears and in the most cruel ven- 
 geance, and he rides a tiger. The Hindoos of 
 his sect look on him as the only God, and give 
 him a wife named Parvati, who resembles the 
 Phrygian Cybele : she is often worshipped to- 
 gether with him, but sometimes has separate 
 temples. 
 
 Their son Pollear presides over marriages ; 
 he is represented under the most monstrous 
 forms, and is so venerated that his image ap- 
 
12 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 pears in every temple, under trees, by the road 
 sides, and our missionaries have sometimes 
 difficulty in dissuading Christian women from 
 wearing it among their ornaments. But we 
 cannot pursue to their full extent the degra- 
 ding idolatries of these poor people ; their 
 divinities have been said to amount to 83,000, 
 and many animals are among the number ; 
 especially the monkey, for whom the worship- 
 pers of Vishnou have a peculiar regard, so 
 much so that they consider it a most meritorious 
 act to give him food, and they salarn* to him 
 every morning when they first meet him. The 
 Garouda, or Malabar eagle, is also adored by 
 Vishnou's followers, and on the holy day that 
 we Christians give to the divine worship, they 
 often meet to adore the Garoudas, and feed 
 them with meat. To kill one of them would 
 be considered a crime equal to manslaughter. 
 Siva's followers venerate the bull, which is 
 sacred all over India. The serpent too, espe- 
 
 * Salam is originally a Turkish word, and is a general 
 word of salutation of the Mussulman population in India. 
 The term is in some measure adopted by the Hindoos, and 
 the way of offering it is different according to the caste of 
 the person performing it and the rank of the person recei- 
 ving it. 
 
OF MADURA. 13 
 
 cially the cobra capella, is held in great respect; 
 temples are erected to these reptiles, and those 
 which find their way into houses often receive 
 sacrifices, and what they prefer, food. But not 
 content with adoring brute creatures, they make 
 gods of rough stones. Frequently, in travel- 
 ling through the country, one may perceive a 
 number of rough stones arranged in a straight 
 line or a circle by some devotee, who has rub- 
 bed them over with saffron; another takes it 
 into his head to offer up a sacrifice of a cock or 
 a lamb to these stones, and smears them over 
 with the blood ; this is sufficient to render 
 these stones holy hi the eyes of the neighbour- 
 ing people, who immediately begin to worship 
 them, and perhaps before long some rich native 
 builds a temple on the spot. Such has been 
 the origin of many of the most famous temples 
 in India. Others have arisen from a suniassi, 
 or penitent, affixing a rag of his clothes to a 
 bush, in token of the holy emotion he felt acci- 
 dentally in the spot; seeing this, others imitate 
 his example, and soon the bush is counted 
 sacred, and all hung with rags ; a stone is 
 placed before it, reddened with the juice of the 
 betel nut ; perhaps a wall is built around, and 
 
14 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 if a rich man take a fancy to build a temple 
 there, idle Brahmins will crowd to it, festivals 
 will be held, and it becomes a celebrated place. 
 
 Many Europeans would willingly persuade 
 themselves that all this is but symbolical, and 
 that God is thus honoured in His works ; the 
 testimony of the learned Brahmin Ramohim 
 Boy should be conclusive to the contrary. He 
 devoted much time to the study of Hindooism, 
 in order to assist in the propagation of that 
 Christianity which he cannot be said to have 
 himself learned, since he died a Unitarian, but 
 in his endeavours to convince his countrymen 
 of the folly of idolatry, he showed the additions 
 continually made by the Brahmins to their 
 sacred books, and he testifies to the complete 
 forgetfulness of all idea of one Supreme Being. 
 He says they do not look on their idols as em- 
 blems of Him or His power, but firmly believe 
 in the reality of their numberless gods and 
 goddesses, all possessing complete and indepen- 
 dent power ; to make them propitious, the 
 temples are erected, and the ceremonies per- 
 formed, and it would be considered a heresy to 
 think otherwise. 
 
 The morality of their sacred books is higher 
 
OF MADURA. 15 
 
 than would be supposed from the preceding 
 sketch, and in several respects approaches to 
 the Christian law. They require prayer, fast- 
 ing, works of benevolence, patience in suffer- 
 ing. Frequent bathing, which in such a climate 
 is necessary for health, is also enjoined. In 
 the details regarding the obligations of each 
 caste, are some wise regulations, mingled with 
 much foolish superstition. Those who execute 
 works useful to the public, such as tanks, tem- 
 ples, places of shelter for travellers, will be 
 reckoned among the good and rewarded ; those 
 who burn with love and wisdom will go to the 
 heaven of Brahma himself, and will share the 
 delights of the gods. The wicked will endure 
 indescribable torments : those who are disres- 
 pectful 'to their parents, or to the Brahmins, 
 will burn in fire ; calumniators and slanderers 
 will be stretched on beds of red hot iron, and 
 forced to feed on ordure ; the voluptuous, the 
 indolent, and the hard-hearted will be cast into 
 burning caverns, and trampled by elephants, 
 who will feed on their flesh. But these tor- 
 ments, though of immense duration, will not be 
 eternal ; at length their bodies will be resusci- 
 tated, and they will live again, unless they 
 
 c 
 
16 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 have drunk of the water of the Ganges, which 
 exempts from a fresh trial of this painful life, 
 The reward of the good will never end. 
 
 They believe in the doctrine of metempsy- 
 chosis, that is, the transmigration of souls ; they 
 think that, after more or less punishment, a 
 soul will live again in a form suited to its 
 deserts, rich or poor, of high or low caste, 
 often even that of a beast, and therefore many 
 of the natives will not destroy life in any shape. 
 Before the introduction of this doctrine, there 
 is no doubt that human sacrifices had been 
 offered in all parts of India ; now they shew 
 their devotion to their gods and goddesses by 
 offerings of fruits and flowers, works of penance, 
 or of usefulness to their fellow creatures, and 
 splendid festivals in honour of their divinities. 
 The magnificence of their temples, and the 
 riches amassed in them, are perfectly astonish- 
 ing. Among other ceremonies of their festivals, 
 the idol is sometimes placed on an enormous 
 car, and dragged in procession through the 
 streets, and fanatics have frequently been known 
 to throw themselves before this chariot, that 
 they might be crushed under its wheels. This 
 has however become rare of late years, in con- 
 
OF MADURA. IT 
 
 sequence of the active interference of the British 
 government, and the number of pilgrims has 
 consequently very much diminished. 
 
 Europeans who think so much of the light 
 and easy practices required or recommended 
 by Catholicity to remind us of the sufferings of 
 Christ, would hardly believe what the Hindoos 
 endure in honour of their false gods. Some 
 will, at certain festivals, allow themselves to be 
 suspended from a height by iron hooks passed 
 through the muscles of the back; others will 
 walk on burning embers barefoot; some go almost 
 or quite naked, wandering about, eating only 
 enough to preserve life, and subsisting on alms ; 
 others have made a vow of silence ; some travel 
 about bearing Ganges water, others dancing 
 and singing the praises of Vishnou; some peni- 
 tents tear themselves with whips, or have them- 
 selves chained for life to the foot of a tree, or 
 preserve for years some painful attitude, such 
 as holding their arms raised above their heads 
 so that they cannot feed themselves, or keeping 
 the hands clenched till the nails have been 
 known to grow out through the palm to the back. 
 But it would be endless to relate the ingenious 
 tortures which are practised by these unhappy 
 
 2 c 
 
18 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC. 
 
 creatures, and in which they glory, considering 
 themselves happy beyond all others, and exalted 
 by their performance. The custom of Suttee, 
 or the burning of widows on the funeral pile of 
 their deceased husbands, need not here be 
 alluded to, as the English government make 
 every effort to check it, and for many years it 
 has ceased in the South of India, with which 
 our Mission is principally interested. Of the 
 frightful licentiousness authorized and encou- 
 raged under the name of religion we will not 
 speak — but nothing in the annals of heathen 
 Greece or Rome, nothing among the practices 
 of the early heretics exceeded it. 
 
 A brief mention of the castes into which the 
 Hindoos are well known to be divided may be 
 interesting. The chief of these are the Brah- 
 mins, said to have sprung from the head of 
 Brahma, and therefore superior to all others, 
 and enjoying many privileges. They are con- 
 sidered the interpreters of the gods, and are 
 the depositaries of all knowledge, but they 
 usually lead a very idle and evil life. Many 
 of them hold small civil appointments under 
 the English Government, and they are certainly 
 
OF MADURA. 19 
 
 the cleverest and most intriguing race in India, 
 but comparatively few of them have become 
 Christians. The next caste is that of the Chat- 
 rias, or warriors, who are said to have sprung 
 from the arms of Brahma; then the Vissias, 
 labourers and merchants, who came from his 
 body; and the Soudas, or artisans, from his 
 feet. The names of the castes vary somewhat 
 in different parts of the country : in Madura, 
 the next to the Brahmins are the Moodeliars 
 and Vellalers, and some of both castes have 
 become Christians, — some of them even are 
 among the most fervent. Their rank makes 
 them very useful as an encouragement to others. 
 After them come the Maravers, who are con- 
 sidered noble, and among whom many were 
 converted by the early Missionaries; but lat- 
 terly the entire privation of spiritual instruction 
 and aid, and the violence of evil passions, 
 have made most of them relapse into idolatry. 
 They are the robber caste — fierce and harsh. 
 Their numbers have rapidly diminished, and 
 they are not now a large caste, or by any 
 means rich. The Odiages, or labourers, rank 
 next, and are both numerous and wealthy. 
 And there are several lesser divisions before 
 
20 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 we reach the lowest class of all — the wretched, 
 despised Paria. All these castes are subdivided, 
 as the different names which one caste fre- 
 quently bears will sufficiently indicate. The 
 Soudras are the most numerous, and the sub- 
 divisions of this caste are endless. Every one 
 is obliged to follow the calling of his father. 
 Military service, commerce, agriculture, and 
 weaving, are honoured in all castes ; and the 
 three first may be followed even by Brahmins, 
 while the Paria is not forbidden to weave* 
 There are priests in every caste as well as 
 among the Brahmins. There are many tribes 
 not counted as castes at all ; the chief of which 
 is the outcast tribe — called Paria: they form 
 one-fourth of the whole population, and are 
 almost universally looked down upon and 
 shunned. Some think them the remains of a 
 conquered nation, the original inhabitants of 
 the country; but it is much more probable 
 that they consist of persons whose ancestors 
 were banished for crimes from the other castes. 
 Some of them are intelligent, and contrive to 
 amass considerable wealth : from amongst them 
 Europeans take the greater number of their 
 servants ; which fact alone has immensely con- 
 
OF MADURA. 21 
 
 tributed to tbe prejudices of the higher castes 
 against Europeans and their creed. The ex- 
 cessive humiliation to which they used to be 
 subjected by the superior castes is wearing 
 away rapidly. It would be impossible here to 
 enter into the many minor details of these great 
 divisions. 
 
 There are other religions besides Brahmin- 
 ism in India, — as Bouddhism, the sect called 
 Djainas; and the followers of Nawik; and, 
 finally, Mahomedanism. This last, the most 
 numerous next to Brahmanism in India, is too 
 well known to need any notice here, but of 
 the three others it may perhaps be interesting 
 to say a few words. 
 
 Boucldha is said to have been born in the 
 North of India, of the family of Sahya — one 
 of the most noble of the Brahmin caste. Many 
 wonders attended his birth, and prophets called 
 him the God of gods : his wisdom and beauty 
 were superhuman, and the people were never 
 weary of listening to him. Touched at the 
 woes of the human race he withdrew to a 
 desert, where he led so austere a life that his 
 health suffered, and the milk of 500 cows was 
 necessary to restore him. He then, at the 
 
22 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 request of the gods themselves, began to preach, 
 overcame the five worshippers who opposed 
 him, and spread his doctrines widely in India. 
 They appear to be merely a reformation of Brah- 
 minism, from which Bouddhism differs princi- 
 pally in having a regular hierarchy, governed 
 by a spiritual prince, in each country where it 
 exists : it is sometimes a complete ecclesiastical 
 empire — as, for instance, that of the Lamas of 
 Thibet. The Brahmins violently opposed it, and 
 between the third and seventh centuries of our 
 era India was deluged with blood by the two 
 sects, till at length the Bouddhists were driven 
 from the country. Their creed however, pre- 
 vails widely in Thibet, China, &c, and in the 
 island of Ceylon. Some learned writers are 
 much inclined to identify Bouddha with the 
 early heresiarch Manes, who certainly took 
 refuge in India during a portion of his career. 
 
 The sect of the Diainas appears also to be an 
 attempt to bring back the religion of India to 
 its original form ; they reject with horror the 
 Trimourti and all the fables connected with it, 
 the worship of animals, and all the Brahminical 
 superstitions. They believe in one Supreme 
 Being, who is absorbed in the contemplation of 
 
OF MADURA. 23 
 
 his own perfections, and in no way interferes 
 with this world; they believe matter to be 
 eternal, and admit the metempsychosis, and the 
 reward and punishment of men according to 
 their actions, but without any intervention of 
 the divinity. They never take food when the 
 sun is below the horizon, and always have bells 
 ringing, or gongs sounding, to prevent their 
 ears being polluted with the words of passers 
 by; they scrupulously clean their vegetables, 
 lest they should destroy animal life. They 
 have some well-endowed temples ; one in the 
 Mysore is in the centre of three mountains, on 
 one of which is a colossal statue of the cele- 
 brated penitent Goumatta, TO feet high, sculp- 
 tured out of a single piece of rock. 
 
 The religion of Nanuk is professed by the 
 Sikhs. They too reject the Trimourti, and 
 worship one Supreme Being, to whom they 
 address their prayers directly. "Warriors by 
 profession, they nevertheless cultivate the earth 
 and keep flocks. 
 
 There are also a few Parsees, followers of 
 Zoroaster, scattered through the country as 
 merchants at Bombay, and here and there 
 a few Jews, making perhaps about 100,000 
 
24 THE VICARIATE APOSTOLIC 
 
 in the whole of India. "Were it possible in this 
 short sketch to dwell at more length on this 
 subject, it would be interesting to point out the 
 extraordinary resemblances between Hindoo 
 traditions and Scripture history ; we find, dis- 
 figured by their wild idolatry, traces of the 
 lives of Abraham, Moses, Job, Samson, and 
 others, and several of the sacrifices have clearly 
 been borrowed from the Jewish law. Some of 
 their accounts of the creation and of the deluge 
 strongly recal and almost repeat the words of 
 the book of Genesis. They speak of the first 
 man and woman being created innocent and 
 falling into sin, also of an earthly paradise : the 
 history of Chrishna, for instance, has a singular 
 resemblance to that of Moses ; but our space 
 forbids us to pursue the parallel. The Hindoos 
 are supposed to be descended from Shem, 
 though it is probable that the race of Ham is 
 mingled with them, and as Jews were certainly 
 settled in India and China as early as three 
 centuries before the Christian era, they might 
 have borrowed much from them. We even 
 find a distinct prophecy of an expected Saviour 
 containing the very name of Jesus, and cer- 
 tainly more ancient than the coming of our 
 
OF MADURA. £5 
 
 Lord. The great antiquity once attributed to 
 Hindoo records, which carried them back far 
 beyond the Mosaic era of the creation, has 
 been distinctly disproved, and is now aban- 
 doned by all. Of the four yougarus, or periods, 
 into which they divide their history, the three 
 first are clearly fabulous, and are in fact so 
 reckoned by themselves, as they date every- 
 thing from the commencement of the fourth, or 
 iron age, in which we now Live ; it goes back 
 to the period of the deluge, and agrees won- 
 derfully with our common chronology, the dif- 
 ference being only sixty years. Many writers 
 whose acquaintance with this subject will not 
 be questioned, declare that all the histories and 
 antiquities of India confirm what is related in 
 our Scriptures. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 We find in the earliest Christian writers and 
 traditions that the Apostle St. Thomas preached 
 in India ; on this point the testimony of St. 
 Gregory Nazianzen, St. Jerome, Theodoret, 
 
26 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 and others is quite clear, and the traces of 
 Christianity found by the Portuguese confirms 
 the fact. Among others a plate of copper en- 
 graved with half obliterated letters was dug up 
 in 1543, and presented to Alphonsus de Sousa, 
 the Portuguese governor. A learned Jew deci- 
 phered it as a donation from a king to the 
 Apostle St. Thomas of land on which to build 
 a church. When the foundations of the for- 
 tress of Goa were being dug, they discovered 
 ruins of an old building, and among them a 
 bronze cross, with a figure of our Saviour fas- 
 tened on it. And what is yet more curious, in 
 1568 some Portuguese at Meliapore, wishing 
 to build a chapel on a hill near the tower, 
 where tradition said the Apostle had been mar- 
 tyred by the Brahmins, they discovered in dig- 
 ging a white marble slab, 2 feet long by 1 ft. 6 
 wide, on which was carved in relief a cross, 
 whose four points were flowers. It was sur- 
 mounted by a dove, which seemed to peck at 
 the top of the cross. Around it was a triple 
 arch, and beyond that, strange characters. The 
 cross and the stone were stained with blood. 
 After some time a learned Brahmin was found 
 who read the inscription in the following 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 27 
 
 words : — " Since the Christian law appeared in 
 the world, thirty years after the 21st of the 
 month of December, the Apostle St. Thomas 
 died at Maliapore where there was a knowledge 
 of God, and a change of law, and the destruc- 
 tion of the devil. God was born of the Virgin 
 Mary, was obedient to her for the space of 30 
 years, and was God eternal. This God taught 
 His law to twelve apostles, and one of them 
 came to Maliapore with his staff in his hand, 
 and built a church there; and the Kings of 
 Malabar, and of Coromandel, and of Pandi, and 
 of several other nations, willingly resolved, 
 agreeing together, to submit themselves to the 
 law of St. Thomas, a holy and penitent man. 
 The time came when St. Thomas died by the 
 hands of a Bralrmin, and made a cross with his 
 blood." Another Brahmin from a distant coun- 
 try gave a similar translation of it, without con- 
 cert with the first. All this was attested at the 
 time, and sent to Portugal to Cardinal Henry, 
 afterwards King. In 1521 a sepulchre was 
 found at Meliapore, containing bones and the 
 head of a lance, part of an iron-shod stick, and 
 an earthen vessel ; the traditions of the place 
 left little doubt that these were relics of the 
 
28 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 holy apostle. We dwell on these facts princi- 
 pally because they confirm what we have said 
 above of the traces of Judaism and Christianity 
 in the religion of the Hindoos; if Jews were 
 settled in India three centuries before our era, 
 and if St. Thomas preached Christianity there, 
 it is easy to see how disfigured portions of both 
 might have been mingled with the religion of 
 the country. Nothing is known of Christianity 
 in Judea for a length of time after the preaching 
 of the holy apostle, but it must have been 
 widely spread by him, from the great extent of 
 country in which are found persons boasting 
 that their ancestors were his disciples. About 
 the 9th century Nestorianism spread from Per- 
 sia, where it was very prevalent, into India, and 
 it exists there to this day. 
 
 After the settlement of the Portuguese in 
 India, Goa was erected into an archbishopric, 
 with several suffragan sees ; but the progress 
 of Christianity was very slight till the arrival of 
 the great apostle of the Indies, St. Francis 
 Xavier, one of the first associates of St, Igna- 
 tius, the founder of the Society of Jesus. He 
 landed at Goa, May 6, 1542, and at once devo- 
 ted himself to the reformation of the nominal 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 
 
 Christians whom he found there : for so addicted 
 had the majority of the Portuguese become to the 
 acquisition of worldly riches, that they wholly 
 neglected the duties imposed by their faith; while 
 if any poor idolater were convinced of the truth 
 by the efforts of the few missionaries then in the 
 country, he dared not embrace it for fear of 
 the oppressions of the Pagans. St. Francis 
 and his companions quickly changed the face 
 of Goa; and having wonderfully revived reli- 
 gion there, they went to preach along the coast 
 of the fisheries on the South-west extremity of 
 the Peninsula, where the inhabitants were so 
 oppressed by their Mahomedan masters that 
 they had sought the help of the Portuguese, 
 who came to their assistance ; in gratitude for 
 this aid they willingly listened to Christian 
 preachers. Almost the whole nation was con- 
 verted by the wonderful zeal of St. Francis; 
 and short as was his stay, the seeds he sowed 
 continue to fructify to this day, notwithstand- 
 ing the scarcity of religious teachers, and the 
 many other difficulties with which Christianity 
 in India has had to struggle. St. Francis 
 also preached on the Travancore coast, which 
 extends about 30 leagues: in a short time it 
 
30 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 was almost entirely Christian, and 40 churches 
 were built, surrounded by fervent congrega- 
 tions. Though deplorably neglected since, from 
 many circumstances to be detailed hereafter, 
 the majority of the inhabitants of this district 
 are even now Christians. The career of St. 
 Francis Xavier is too well known to every 
 reader of the Saints' Lives, and to every one 
 interested in the progress of Christianity among 
 heathen nations, to require further mention 
 here. It is enough to say, that finding so vast 
 a field was open to him, and how readily the 
 nations embraced the truth, he wrote repeatedly 
 to Europe for more missionaries, and many 
 joined him. Being Superior General of the 
 Missions of India, he could dispose of all who 
 came out as he saw best, and direct their ener- 
 gies to work out the good which he had begun 
 with such astonishing success. He attached 
 himself chiefly to those countries which listened 
 readily to his teaching. Once when he was 
 on the coast of the fisheries he disappeared into 
 the interior of the country for a week, and on 
 his return said that those people were not yet 
 fit for the kingdom of God, nor was anything 
 more ever known of his excursion into the 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 31 
 
 Madura district. At first there were none but 
 Portuguese Missioners in India, but gradually 
 Priests of other nations, and of various religious 
 orders came forward, and the progress of the 
 faith was very rapid. Among these Missioners 
 were many Jesuits : in the reign of Louis XIV 
 of France, as many as sixty French Jesuits were 
 sent out : they spread themselves over most parts 
 of India, and established several Missions, which 
 flourished till the destruction of the Society. 
 
 The object of the present memoir is to speak 
 of the Mission of Madura which was founded by 
 F. Robert dei Nobili, nephew of the cele- 
 brated Cardinal Bellarmine. Born in 1577, in 
 Tuscany, of a distinguished family, he entered 
 among the Jesuits at Naples ; and while still a 
 novice, the historian Orlandini, his master, fore- 
 told that he would do much to promote the 
 glory of God in India, — for which he offered 
 himself as soon as he had completed his studies. 
 On reaching Goa he was sent to the Malabar 
 coast : whence he proceeded into the kingdom 
 of Madura, where the king, an ally of the 
 Portuguese, had allowed a Christian church to 
 be built for the Paravas who resorted there 
 for tramc. F. Gonsalvo Fernandez, a most 
 
 D 
 
3£ INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 fervent and zealous Missioner, had laboured 
 there for fourteen years, but had not converted 
 a single native of Madura. The contempt felt 
 for the Portuguese in consequence of their 
 eating beef, drinking wine, and communicating 
 with Parias, made the people fear to degrade 
 themselves if they embraced their religion. 
 F. dei Nobili resolved to strike at the root of this 
 obstacle : he said — " I will become as a Hindoo 
 to save these Hindoos " : following the example 
 of St. Paul, and making himself all to all to 
 win all to Christ. After several years of study 
 and preparation, he, with his superior's per- 
 mission, presented himself to the Brahmins, 
 declaring, with strict truth, that he was not a 
 Portuguese, or, as they called them, Prangui, 
 but a Roman rajah — that is, a noble — and a 
 Suniassi — that is, a penitent who has renounced 
 the world and its enjoyments. The life to 
 which he thus condemned himself was most 
 severe : he could associate only with Brahmins ; 
 his Avhole food was milk, rice, herbs, and water, 
 once in the day ; his dress a long robe of 
 yellowish cotton, covered with a surplice of the 
 same ; a white or red veil on his shoulders ; 
 a cylindrical cap on his head ; and on his feet 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 33 
 
 wooden soles resting on props two inches high, 
 and held on by a peg passing between the 
 great toe and the next. To this he added a 
 cord, the distinctive mark of the Brahmin and 
 Rajah castes, but theirs consists of three threads 
 only, while his had three of gold and two of 
 silver, and supported a cross. He told them 
 that the three golden threads denoted the three 
 persons of the Blessed Trinity ; the two silver 
 ones the body and soul of the adorable Human 
 Nature of Christ; and the cross His Passion and 
 death. He separated himself from F. Gonzales, 
 and built a church and a house in the Brahmin 
 quarter of the city, where he buried himself in 
 prayer and solitude, never quitting his house, 
 and allowing visits with great difficulty. Curi- 
 osity is a great stimulant; and to those who 
 came to see him his disciple used to answer 
 that he was praying, or studying, or meditating 
 on the Divine law ; and when admission was at 
 length obtained, the Father was seen seated 
 cross-legged, in Indian fashion, on a dais two 
 feet high, covered with red cloth, and with a 
 carpet and a fine mat before him. All saluted 
 him by raising their joined hands above their 
 heads, and bowing them to the ground; even 
 
 v2 
 
84 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 the noblest did this ; and those who wished to 
 become his disciples repeated it three times, 
 and then went and stood behind him. 
 
 His very extensive learning, the purity and 
 perfection with which he spoke Tamul, and his 
 extensive acquaintance with Hindoo poetry and 
 literature, delighted everyone, and his fame 
 spread widely. The king wished to see him, 
 but as he did not think it yet time to appear in 
 public, the reply was, that the Suniassi was 
 absorbed in prayer and contemplation. It was 
 taken for granted that he did not wish to go 
 into the streets lest he should sully his eyes by 
 looking on women: so high was the idea of 
 his chastity : a virtue the more admired by the 
 Hindoos because it is very little practised. 
 
 But this vain reputation was not F. dei No- 
 bili's object, he aimed at the salvation of souls, 
 and to succeed the better in this he bound him- 
 y self by vow to follow this new and -painful life 
 till his death. His first conquest was a Gourou, 
 or priest, with whom he disputed four or five 
 hours a day for twenty days. An abstract of this 
 discussion would be both curious and interest- 
 ing, but only a short account can be here given 
 of his wonderful and most successful labours. 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 35 
 
 Gradually disciples collected around him, and 
 lie instructed them in the Catechism, and tried 
 them well before he granted them Baptism. 
 Several among them were very remarkable for 
 their holy lives, and Albert, the Gourou above 
 named, had great power over evil spirits, and 
 became distinguished for his sanctity. Posses- 
 sion * was common among the Hindoos, as may 
 well be imagined from the lives they lead, and 
 Albert cast out many demons, sometimes obli- 
 ging them first to testify publicly to the truth of 
 the doctrines preached by F. dei Nobili ; which 
 made a great impression on the heathens. The 
 good Father himself was also gifted with the power 
 of healing miraculously, and during the time that 
 he considered it conducive to the conversion of 
 the heathens to remain secluded, he several 
 times sent his reliquary, by some of the converts, 
 to sick persons, who were healed at its touch. 
 
 * To this day the visible action of the Evil Spirit is by- 
 no means uncommon in India, and what reason is there to 
 disbelieve the present existence of what we know on the 
 authority of Scripture to have unquestionably existed for- 
 merly? If Christianity has diminished the power of the 
 devil in Christian countries, we may naturally suppose that 
 his power remains unbroken where the cross has never been 
 planted. 
 
86 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 After a time his great success excited trie terror 
 of the Pagans and a persecution was raised 
 against him, but he quietly continued his pro- 
 ceedings, availing himself of the protection of 
 some powerful friends whom he had sectored ; 
 and the storm passed away, as did others at 
 different times. By degrees F. dei Nobili 
 showed himself more in public, as he found he 
 could venture to do so without shocking the 
 prejudices of those whom he wished to gain to 
 Christ. In one of his letters we find the fol- 
 lowing account of his day. 1st. The usual 
 exercises of the Society: that is meditation, 
 Holy Mass, self-examination, spiritual reading, 
 Divine office, &c. 2nd. Study of the Sanscrit 
 and Badage tongues, and of the Vedams, or 
 Sacred Writings of the Hindoos. 3rd. Com- 
 position of a large Catechism suited to the 
 people. 4th. Four instructions daily to Cate- 
 chumens and to Christians. 5th. Audiences 
 given to friends and to those curious to see him, 
 in which he had to listen patiently to the most 
 ridiculous tales. For forty-five years he led this 
 life, converting immense numbers, and gradually 
 associating: other Missioners in his labours .At 
 one time a ridiculous report reached Europe 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 37 
 
 that he had turned Pagan, and his uncle, Car- 
 dinal Bellarmine, wrote him a long letter to 
 remonstrate with him against such a crime, to 
 which he replied by showing the great influ- 
 ence he had gained by his way of life, and 
 giving a full account of his motives, which 
 entirely satisfied his holy and learned uncle. 
 
 His reasons for thus adopting native customs, 
 and mingling among the natives as one of them- 
 selves, have been much questioned not only by 
 Protestants, but even by Catholics, apparently 
 incapable of understanding the difficulties he 
 had to contend with, or of appreciating his 
 success. The contrast between the uselessness 
 of all the efforts of his holy and zealous prede- 
 cessor, F. Gonzales, and the numerous converts 
 made by him and those who trod in his foot- 
 steps, ought alone to be a sufficient reply ; but 
 when it is added that the good thus done has 
 not been effaced by the long years of spiritual 
 destitution which followed the destruction of 
 the Society of Jesus, and that he acted through- 
 out with the permission of his Bishop, we think 
 every cavil must be silenced. So clear and 
 forcible was his explanation, that it had great 
 weight in inducing Pope Gregory XV later on 
 
38 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 to allow the converted Brahmins to retain cer- 
 tain caste distinctions and customs, which though 
 apparently superstitions, were by themselves 
 looked upon merely as marks of their nobility. 
 The indomitable pride of the Brahmins, which 
 seems born with them and nurtured from their 
 earliest breath, has always been a great bar to 
 their conversion. The system followed by 
 Father dei Nobili was the only method which 
 ever met with success amongst them. Their 
 dread of lowering themselves among their fel- 
 lows by a change of religion, and being looked 
 upon as Parias for associating with Europeans 
 or Parias, was to most an insuperable barrier, 
 which F. dei Nobili removed in a great measure 
 by the manner of life which he led. This dis- 
 tinction of castes, and the contempt felt by the 
 members of the higher castes for all beneath 
 them, is still a great hindrance to the spread of 
 Christianity ; so much so that even Catechists 
 have been known to object to instruct those of 
 a caste inferior to their own, and when native 
 Hindoos have been educated and ordained at 
 Rome, those of a higher caste have found it 
 difficult to acknowledge their sacred character. 
 Father dei Nobili and a few others laboured, 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 39 
 
 as we have described, for five and forty years. 
 The Mission was supported entirely by the 
 resources spared with extreme difficulty by the 
 establishments in the province of Malabar ; 
 for as Madura did not belong to Portugal, it 
 received no funds from that country. The 
 strict poverty practised by the Missioners en- 
 abled four to subsist on a sum calculated for 
 only two : one was maintained by a small pen- 
 sion from his family; and two others by the 
 Rector of the College on the Fishery coast; 
 and by a house at Goa, with a little occasional 
 help from the General of the order. Had their 
 resources been greater, could F. dei Nobili 
 have carried out his plan of establishing a Col- 
 lege for Brahmin converts, and have been 
 seconded by a greater number of Missioners, 
 perhaps Paganism might have been destroyed 
 in Southern India. As it was, these hard- 
 working Missioners converted and baptized 
 fully 100,000 idolaters. At length, sinking 
 beneath his toils and privations, and nearly 
 blind, F. dei Nobili was recalled by his supe- 
 riors, first, to Jaffnapatam, and then to Melia- 
 pore, where he lived five years longer, exerting 
 what strength and sight he had left in com- 
 posing and dictating books in the native 
 

 
 40 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 tongue for the assistance of his fellow Mis- 
 sioners. 
 
 Throughout his career he had been particu- 
 larly devout to the Blessed Virgin, under whose 
 protection he jilaced his Mission. To spread this 
 devotion among his converts, he composed Ta- 
 mul verses in her praise. He died at Meliapore 
 in 1656, aged 80. 
 
 The loss the Mission experienced in him was 
 some years later compensated by the labours of 
 F. John de Brito, a Portuguese Jesuit, son of 
 a viceroy of Brazil, who chose the Madura 
 Mission as the most laborious, and who toiled 
 in it and in the neighbouring districts with 
 almost incredible success. He may be called 
 the founder of the Mission of Mysore, and is 
 supposed to have brought nearly 60,000 Hindoos 
 to the faith. He had made many converts in 
 the province of Marava, when the prince Ran- 
 ganadadeven forbad him under pain of death to 
 remain in the country or to preach to his sub- 
 jects. He withdrew for the time, intending to 
 return very shortly, as he could not resolve to 
 abandon his converts, and looked on martyrdom 
 as a great happiness. He was however ordered 
 by his superiors to go to Europe, as their 
 Procurator-General, and he reached Lisbon in 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 41 
 
 1687. The king of Portugal endeavoured to 
 detain him in Europe, but he replied that 
 many were capable of filling the high posts 
 offered him at home, but in Madura there were 
 few Missioners, and even if many should be 
 willing to go thither they had not the advan- 
 tage of knowing the language and manners of 
 the people as he did. On his return to Goa, 
 he did not even wait to recover from a severe 
 illness he had contracted on the voyage, but 
 proceeded at once to all the Jesuit establish- 
 ments in Madura, of which Mission he had been 
 appointed visitor. He then went to Marava, 
 where there were several churches scattered 
 among the forests. The heathen priests soon 
 put his life in such danger that he could not 
 remain two days in one place without great 
 risk; but the blessing granted by God to his 
 labours in the baptism of 8000 converts sup- 
 ported and consoled him during the fifteen 
 months which elapsed before his martyrdom. 
 Prince Teriadeven, one of the principal lords of 
 that country, which his ancestors had once ruled, 
 was seized with a mortal disease, and reduced 
 to extremity ; finding no benefit from his false 
 gods, he sent to beg F. de Brito either to come to 
 
42 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 him, or to send a catecliist to teach him the 
 doctrines of the Gospel; a catechist was sent, 
 who repeated a portion of Scripture over him, 
 and he was instantly cured. He again entreated 
 F. de Brito to come to him, which the holy 
 Missioner ventured to do, and celebrated with 
 him the Feast of the Epiphany in company 
 with 200 newly baptized converts His zeal, 
 his powerful preaching, and the joy displayed 
 by the new Christians, so struck Teriadeven 
 that he begged to be baptized also, but F. de 
 Brito told him he did not yet know the pure 
 life required by Christianity, and that it would 
 be a sin before God to baptize him till he was 
 duly instructed and prepared. He then ex- 
 plained to him the Gospel law regarding mar- 
 riage, which was very necessary, as Teriadeven 
 had five wives and a multitude of concubines. 
 He answered that this difficulty would soon be 
 removed, and instantly went to his palace, sum- 
 moned all his women, declared to them that he 
 was resolved to spend the rest of his life in the 
 service of so good and powerful a Master as the 
 God of the Christians, and that as His law 
 forbade more than one wife, the others should 
 receive a suitable maintenance, but he must 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 43 
 
 separate from them entirely. They tried to 
 move him by prayers and tears, but he was 
 firm. His youngest wife, who was a niece of 
 Ranganadadeven, went to her uncle with bitter 
 complaints, in which she was supported by the 
 heathen priests, who had long hated F. de Brito 
 because the number of his converts much les- 
 sened their income. They told the king that 
 the greater part of the temples were abandoned, 
 no sacrifices offered, no festivals held in them, 
 and that they intended to withdraw from the 
 kingdom, that they might not witness the ven- 
 geance which the offended gods would take on 
 all who countenanced such wickedness. Ranga- 
 nadadeven immediately ordered all the churches 
 to be burned, all the houses of the Christians 
 to be pillaged, and a heavy fine levied from all 
 who persisted in this creed, which orders were 
 so strictly obeyed that many Christians were 
 completely ruined. On the 8th January, 1693, 
 F. de Brito was seized, together with a Chris- 
 tian Brahmin named John, and two boys, who 
 would not leave him. Exhausted in health by 
 the hardships of the twenty years he had spent 
 in Madura, he was so weak that he fell repeat- 
 edly, but was forced by blows to rise and walk 
 
44 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 on, though his feet were bleeding and greatly 
 swollen. At one village they were exposed for 
 a day and a half to the mockeries of the people, 
 placed on one of the idol cars, and before they 
 reached the court a catechist, to whom F. de Brito 
 had given charge of one of the churches, was 
 added to their number. Prince Teriadeven 
 succeeded for a time in lessening the harshness 
 with which they were treated, but notwith- 
 standing his efforts, days passed in which no 
 food was given them but a little milk, once in 
 the twenty-four hours. He also tried to induce 
 Kanganadadeven to make some of his leading 
 Brahmins dispute publicly with F. de Brito, 
 but was answered by a command instantly to 
 worship some idols which were in the room. 
 He refused, saying he had lately been healed 
 of a severe illness by the holy Gospel, and 
 could not renounce it to the destruction of both 
 his soul and body. A young lord present, who 
 had also been healed by F. de Brito, obeyed 
 the king's command, and was instantly attacked 
 again with his disease, so violently that he was 
 soon at the point of death. He entreated to 
 have a Crucifix brought him, and cast himself 
 before it, begging God's pardon for his sin. 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 45 
 
 Hardly had he finished his prayer when he 
 found himself quite well. Ranganadadeven 
 next had recourse to magic arts, to compass 
 F. de Brito's death by the power of the gods ; 
 but he thrice repeated ceremonies which were 
 believed all over the country to be inevitably fatal 
 to any one they were used against, and of course 
 they had no effect on the holy Confessor. Another 
 ceremonial, believed to be all-powerful over 
 gods as well as men, was then tried, but equally 
 in vain. Still the king and the Brahmins only 
 repeated that F. de Brito was the most power- 
 ful enchanter ever seen, and they asked him if 
 his Breviary, which had been taken from him, 
 were not the source of his power, and whether 
 it would save him from their muskets. They 
 were just going to fire on him when Teriadeven 
 threw himself among the soldiers, and said he 
 would die too if they killed his beloved master. 
 He was so much respected that Ranganadad- 
 even dared not persevere, but sent F. de Brito 
 secretly to his brother,' who lived at Orejour, a 
 distance of two days journey. His sufferings 
 before he reached this town were frightful ; for, 
 as he was too weak to walk, he was literally 
 dragged most of the way, and was fed on no- 
 
46 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 thing but a little milk. Ouriar eleven, the king's 
 brother, first commanded him to heal him, for 
 he was blind and paralytic ; but F. de Brito 
 replied that God alone could do this. He was 
 kept in prison three days, almost without food, 
 and at length was led to where a high post had 
 been fixed in the ground. A great crowd soon 
 collected. He was allowed time to pray in 
 silence, and then he embraced and pardoned 
 his executioners. They seized him, tore off 
 his dress, and seeing his reliquary hanging by 
 a string from his neck, and fancying it some 
 charm, cut it off by a blow of the sword, which 
 wounded him severely. They then tied a cord 
 to his beard, fastening it round his waist, to 
 bend his head forward, and were about to cut 
 off his head when two Christians rushed for- 
 ward, and threw themselves at his feet, protest- 
 ing they would die with him; they were dragged 
 away, and the holy Missioner's head struck 
 off with a heavy hatchet, February 8th, 1693. 
 To their astonishment, the body, though placed 
 so as to bend forward, fell backward, and the 
 almost severed head lay with the face upwards; 
 they hastened to cut it off entirely, as well as 
 his hands and feet ; they then fastened the 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 47 
 
 body to the post. The two Christians had their 
 ears and noses cut off. 
 
 We have related the career and death of 
 F. de Brito at some length, because his canoni- 
 zation is now under consideration. He is well 
 remembered even yet in the country, and there 
 is great devotion towards him and confidence 
 in his power with Christ. 
 
 The next remarkable name which appears in 
 the annals of the Mission is that of Father 
 Bouchet, who was the founder and builder of 
 the handsome church of Aour, about 1690. 
 Till his tune the Missioners had in general 
 concealed themselves as much as possible, living 
 completely among the natives, and following 
 their customs. Even with the greatest precau- 
 tions they were afraid to enter any considerable 
 village except by night. But F. Bouchet so 
 endeared himself to the people that he thought 
 he misfht venture to build a finer church than 
 had yet been attempted, and to serve it more 
 openly. The church of Aour stands in a large 
 courtyard, the inner walls of which are painted, 
 and ornamented at equal distances by high 
 pillars, on which rests a cornice surrounding 
 the buildingr. The altar is at the intersection 
 
 o 
 
 E 
 
48 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 of the cross, and eight tall columns support an 
 imperial crown, its sole ornament. Gold and 
 azure abound in the inside, and the whole 
 architecture is a mixture of European and 
 Indian, which produces a very good effect. 
 The church is under the invocation of the 
 Blessed Virgin, and was much frequented as a 
 pilgrimage. It is still a place of great resort, 
 but is one of the many churches founded by 
 the Jesuits, and served by them till the sup- 
 pression of the Society, which have since fallen 
 into the hands of the Goa clergy, and are now 
 held by them in defiance of the Vicars Apos- 
 tolic, by a fictitious authority from the crown 
 of Portugal : fictitious, because the power of 
 Portugal never penetrated even for a moment 
 into the interior of the country. 
 
 Experience, and the example of these fathers, 
 proved that Missioners in the interior must 
 practise the austerities displayed by the Hindoo 
 penitents, and accordingly they dressed, as 
 F. dei Nobili had first done, in a piece of 
 yellow cotton, with wooden sandals ; they lived 
 on rice boiled in water, with a few tasteless 
 vegetables, and sometimes a little milk ; they 
 drank nothing but water, often muddy and 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 49 
 
 bad, and slept on the bare ground, or at most 
 on a tiger-skin spread on boards. They lived 
 in mud cabins thatched with straw, which in 
 the rainy seasons were often very damp, and 
 their whole furniture consisted of a few earthen 
 vessels, with palm leaves for plates and dishes. 
 God blessed their zeal : some of the princes 
 granted them protection, and the people crowded 
 to hear them and to be baptized. The fatigues 
 they underwent, riving on such bad food, are 
 almost incredible. It was usual to prepare the 
 Christians for each Confession as if they had 
 never made one before, by repeating for them 
 detailed acts of faith, hope, charity, and contri- 
 tion, and the numbers of penitents were often 
 so great that the Missioner could hardly find 
 time to say his Breviary. Often troops of two 
 and three hundred would come down, with their 
 wives and children, having brought with them 
 barely rice enough to support them on their 
 journey, and allowed by their masters but a 
 limited time of absence. The Missioner was 
 frequently obliged to spend the whole night 
 hearing the Confessions of the men, after having 
 listened all day to the women, till, between 
 want of sleep and want of proper food, he 
 
 e2 
 
50 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 could hardly bring himself to eat when there 
 was a moment to do so. The fervour of these 
 poor Christians was most edifying ; they would 
 often travel two days' journey, or more, to re- 
 ceive the Sacraments, and attend some religious 
 festival : many of them perhaps might fall short 
 of provision before it was over, being very 
 poor, and the richer ones would subscribe to 
 purchase rice enough to enable them to reach 
 their homes. The devotion displayed at these 
 festivals was often most delightful to the Mis- 
 sioner, who saw by it that his sacrifice and 
 labours had not been vain. 
 
 In the beginning of the last century the Jesuits 
 had added to the Missions of Tanjore, Maravaand 
 Madura, that of the Carnatic, which extended 
 nearly 200 leagues in length, and contained 16 
 flourishing congregations ; there were also many 
 Christians in Bengal, and in the dominions of 
 the great Mogul. The French Mission of Pon- 
 dicherry alone numbered fully 60,000 native 
 Christians, and was increasing daily ; and with- 
 out counting the Northern districts there were 
 at least 1,200,000 Christians in the Peninsula. 
 Nor were these conversions ephemeral. The 
 Missioners, treading in the footsteps of St. 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDI^ . 51 
 
 Francis Xavier, spared neither time nor toil, 
 and never baptized without ample preparation, 
 and repeated entreaties on the part of the 
 Neophytes. The innocent lives of the Chris- 
 tians, and their firmness under persecution, 
 showed them worthy of the graces they re- 
 ceived. The change of life produced by bap- 
 tism was truly wonderful, and so astonished 
 the heathens that they imagined the holy oils 
 were some magic charm — so little could they 
 comprehend such a complete alteration. Here- 
 ditary crimes were eradicated; converts from 
 the robber castes ceased to steal ; and Mission- 
 ers have declared that they have heard the 
 Confessions of whole villages of Christians with- 
 out finding one individual guilty of a mortal 
 sin. Their firmness under persecution was 
 even more extraordinary, for the Hindoos are 
 a cowardly people, and very accessible to flat- 
 tery, but Christianity seemed to change their 
 nature, and to inspire them with the most 
 generous and heroic faith. 
 
 One instance of the fortitude displayed under 
 persecution by a Christian convert is too re- 
 markable to be omitted, though it was by no 
 means a solitary case ; but it is told in con- 
 siderable detail in the letters of the Missioners. 
 
52 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 Nilen Pilley was of the Vellala caste, and 
 born a heathen. His penetrating mind and his 
 good qualities won the esteem of all who knew 
 him, and he was very religious in his own 
 way. God, who intended to call him to a 
 knowledge of the truth, tried him with heavy 
 losses, which grieved him the more because he 
 was married. He had formed a friendship 
 with a French officer, named Benedict Eustache 
 de Lanoy, who one day seeing him in very low 
 spirits, spoke to him of the rapidity with which 
 the goods of this world pass, and advised him 
 to put his trust in the one true God, and he 
 would find his melancholy vanish. Such con- 
 versations were frequently repeated, and the 
 French officer explained the Christian faith to 
 him. He reflected in the silence of night on 
 all he learned, contrasting the perfections of 
 the true God with the actions attributed to his 
 false ones, and at length he told his friend he 
 would become a Christian. Benedict de Lanoy 
 sent him to F. Franzodi Buttari, an Italian Priest, 
 who then had charge of that portion of the 
 district. The Father, fearing that his Pagan 
 relations, and the danger of losing his employ- 
 ment, might counteract his faith, deferred bap- 
 tizing him, but the young convert so earnestly 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 5S 
 
 begged for it, protesting that, having once 
 known the true God, he would rather lose for- 
 tune and life than abandon Him, that at length, 
 after being taught all that was necessary, F. 
 Franzodi baptized him under the name of 
 Devasagayam, the Indian word for Lazarus. 
 
 He immediately endeavoured to win his 
 friends and relations also to Christianity. He 
 first tried his wife, who considered Christians 
 as degraded, because all classes of them wor- 
 shipped the same God. Devasagayam reminded 
 her that the same sun gave light to the highest 
 and to the lowest castes, the rain fell on all 
 alike, and they all trod on the same earth. 
 Gradually he converted her, in spite of the 
 eager remonstrances of her mother, who as- 
 sured her that if she became a Christian, no 
 family of equal rank would marry her children. 
 She was baptized under the name of Guana- 
 pou, which means, i( spiritual flower." He 
 converted several of his relations afterwards; 
 and the Brahmins, who were very much in- 
 censed at his opposing their false gods, waited 
 their opportunity of punishing him. Father 
 Franzodi wished to build a church, and De- 
 vasagayam went to one of the principal Brah- 
 
54 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 mins about the court, and begged him to ask 
 the king for leave to cut wood for this purpose. 
 The Brahmin replied by violent threats : to 
 which Devasagayam only answered that he 
 was ready to bear anything they chose to 
 inflict, and returned home, praying earnestly 
 that God would give him courage and con- 
 stancy. The Brahmins easily obtained an or- 
 der to have him put to death, and soldiers were 
 sent to seize him. He had already sent word 
 of his danger to his friend Captain Benedict 
 Eustache, who came and persuaded the sol- 
 diers to delay a little : meanwhile a priest 
 came, and heard Devasagayam's Confession, 
 gave him the holy Communion, and exhorted 
 him to be courageous. As he was taken away 
 by the soldiers, several persons met him, and 
 said he had degraded himself by becoming a 
 Christian, but if he would adore the gods of 
 his forefathers he might be restored to the 
 king's favour. He replied that he valued no 
 honours but those never-ending ones promised 
 by the King of heaven and of earth to His faith- 
 ful followers. When the king heard this, he 
 ordered him to be ironed and closely confined. 
 Benedict sent a friend to comfort him, which 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 55 
 
 reached the king's ears, and he sent a message 
 to the officer, desiring him not to meddle with 
 what did not concern him. Devasagayam con- 
 tinued praying earnestly that Christ would, 
 through the merits of His sacred Passion, ena- 
 ble him to suffer with courage. 
 
 Next day the king ordered him to be taken 
 to a neighbouring forest, and there to have his 
 head cut off; and that all who had become 
 Christians should be persecuted. Some sol- 
 diers brought him word of the sentence, and 
 he exclaimed : " I have long hoped for this 
 happiness : your news is a source of great joy 
 to me." On his way to the forest he was in- 
 sulted by the country-people, but he answered 
 cheerfully, and prayed as he went along. 
 
 A fresh order from the king commanded him 
 to be cast again into prison, and he lamented 
 the delay, fearing God did not think him wor- 
 thy to suffer. 
 
 Soon afterwards the king commanded that he 
 should be led from village to village mounted on 
 a bull, and struck with rods : that when he was 
 all over wounds he should be rubbed with 
 pepper, — which should also be put into his 
 eyes, nose and mouth ; and that, when he was 
 
56 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 thirsty, he should have water from a cesspool 
 to drink. This barbarous command was exe- 
 cuted. Devasagayam repeated unceasingly the 
 name of Jesus, and bore his ever-renewed tor- 
 ments so heroically, that the people cried out 
 it was a miracle ; yet many insulted him. One 
 day his guards left him for a short time, and a 
 Christian stole quietly up to him* and read 
 him our Lord's Passion : when he came to the 
 scourging at the pillar, Devasagayam stopped 
 him, and shedding many tears exclaimed, 
 that what he was enduring was not enough. 
 Next day, as they were rubbing the pepper 
 into his eyes, he said it was a good remedy for 
 the sins committed by sight. Another day 
 that the guards, either through pity or forget- 
 fulness, omitted the pepper altogether, he re- 
 minded them of it, on which they tore his flesh 
 again with blows, and left him in the hot sun, 
 with only corrupted water to drink. He re- 
 flected on the gall our Saviour tasted, and 
 swallowed it as if it had been perfectly pure. 
 
 He was then, by the king's command, kept 
 in chains before the palace ; but the Christians 
 crowded to him to be healed of their diseases ; 
 and the king, enraged that a punishment he 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 57 
 
 had inflicted to destroy Christianity, only made 
 it more known, had him removed to a distance, 
 and chained to a tree ; where he was left with- 
 out a roof to shelter him from sun or rain. 
 His sufferings here were very great, but he 
 was comforted and encouraged by a letter from 
 Captain Benedict. After a time he was again 
 removed, and a roof of palm leaves given him. 
 
 The executioner of this district had no chil- 
 dren, and had vainly offered numberless sacri- 
 fices to his gods to obtain them : hearing that 
 many were cured by Devasagayam's prayers, 
 he spoke to him on the subject, and was as- 
 sured that he would have a son, which accor- 
 dingly happened not long afterwards. 
 
 The martyr wept continually for his past 
 sins. He had a tender devotion to the Blessed 
 Virgin and St. Joseph; so that they appeared 
 to him in his sleep, and with them was our 
 Lord, shining with light. Devasagayam awoke 
 his companion, but the vision had disappeared, 
 leaving only a brilliant light. The news of this 
 vision spread about, and Christians and awa- 
 kened heathens crowded to see him. The king, 
 enraged to find that all he did to degrade him 
 only made him more honoured, had him re- 
 
58 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 moyed again, and commanded that he should 
 be left to die of hunger ; but those who came 
 to see him brought him food secretly. He also 
 had the happiness of again going to Confession 
 and receiving the Holy Communion. 
 
 To terrify the Christians the king next com- 
 manded that they should be stripped of their 
 property : many fled to another territory, and 
 many, though grossly ill-used, remained firm in 
 their faith. Devasagayam was accused as be- 
 ing the cause of their obstinacy, and would 
 have been beheaded had not a Hindoo peni- 
 tent, a great friend of the king's, represented 
 that it was disgraceful to put a man to death 
 for his religion ; so his torments were renewed. 
 One of the officers of his guard resolved to cut 
 off his head ; and the executioner who had 
 obtained a son by his prayers warned him of it, 
 and offered to help his escape. He wrote to 
 consult Father Madrindram, the nearest Mis- 
 sioner, who replied that a soldier who had 
 served his prince long would lose his reward if 
 he were to fly at the moment of battle, and 
 Devasagayam refused to escape, to the astonish- 
 ment of the executioner. He was soon after- 
 wards removed again, and once more chained 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 59 
 
 to a tree, where he was left ten days without 
 shelter. The Christians were forbidden to ap- 
 proach him, but the guards did not enforce the 
 order. 
 
 Nearly three years had thus passed after his 
 arrest, when the king gave a secret order for 
 his execution. He learned it supernaturally, 
 and took leave of his wife, begging that after 
 his death she would go into another country, 
 lest her relations should persuade her to apos- 
 tatize, and promising that God would protect 
 her if she were steadfast in her faith. He then 
 made the sign of the cross over a sick girl who 
 was brought to him, and healed her, and then 
 prayed earnestly till the soldiers came to take 
 him to a solitary place and shoot him. He 
 told them he knew what they intended, at 
 which they were much surprised. Finding he 
 could not walk as fast as they wished, they 
 made him lie down, and passing a stick through 
 the irons that fastened his hands and feet, 
 carried him, which was excessively painful, as 
 the irons wounded his limbs. On reaching the 
 spot he begged a few minutes to pray, — which 
 was granted, — and then they fired three mus- 
 kets at him ; he fell severely wounded, exclaim- 
 
60 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 ing — ff Jesus, save me " ; and they fired again 
 and killed him. They then withdrew, having 
 taken off his irons and cast his body into a 
 ditch. The Christians buried it in the Church 
 at Cattar, and many were cured by the earth 
 stained with his blood. He was put to death 
 on the 14th January, 175£, seven years after 
 his baptism. 
 
 The native Hindoo princes were not the only 
 persecutors of the Holy Catholic faith : the 
 Dutch settlers along the coast rivalled and even 
 surpassed them in cruelty. On the Coast of the 
 Fisheries a Dutch preacher wished to persuade 
 a Parava chief that the faith he taught was 
 superior to that the Paravas had received from 
 their ancestors : the chief replied that he must 
 prove it by working miracles at least equal 
 or superior to those of the great Xavier ; that 
 he must raise a dozen dead to life, and heal all 
 the sick. Force was then tried, but equally 
 without success. Many endured scourges and 
 tortures with the courage of the ancient mar- 
 tyrs, and their mothers rejoiced in their suf- 
 fering thus for the sake of their Saviour. 
 Children when threatened with death knelt 
 down, and with clasped hands declared them- 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 61 
 
 selves glad to die for Christ. Many other 
 converts suffered much from their heathen 
 relatives, and were sometimes obliged to give up 
 all they possessed, and carrying their children 
 with them seek a subsistence in some other 
 place ; yet persecution, sickness and death, 
 they cheerfully accepted from the hands of 
 their merciful God, rather than abandon His 
 holy law. 
 
 These flourishing Missions had often much 
 to suffer, first from the internal wars among 
 the native princes, in which their undisciplined 
 troops scattered themselves over the country, 
 and destroyed all before them, killing such 
 of the inhabitants as had not hidden themselves 
 in inaccessible places, and forcing the Missioner 
 to seek a refuge on the sea coast, or in the 
 mountains. On his return he often found his 
 church burned, and his flock dispersed. All 
 this became still worse when Europeans took 
 part in these wars ; the hatred they excited in 
 those against whom they fought, and their con- 
 duct so opposed to their religion, weakened 
 the effect of its holy doctrines and morality, 
 and the more the Europeans became known, 
 the greater was the prejudice against Chris- 
 
62 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 tianity, as being the creed they professed but 
 did not practise. This aversion became so 
 violent that in some districts a heathen of good 
 standing would not even venture to acknow- 
 ledge an intimacy with Christians. 
 
 The controversy among the Missioners them- 
 selves regarding what were called the Malabar 
 rites, was another circumstance which seriously 
 checked the conversion of India. It is impos- 
 sible for Europeans who have not lived in 
 India to imagine the power of custom over the 
 Hindoos ; to them it is a supreme law, and all 
 that goes against it is blamable and degrading. 
 To oppose their customs would have been to 
 alienate them entirely from Christianity, and 
 most of the Missioners therefore tolerated all 
 such as were not clearly forbidden by the law 
 of God or of nature. Persons ignorant of the 
 country attacked these concessions fiercely, and 
 in their accusations mingled with the customs 
 permitted by the Missioners to their neophytes 
 many which they steadfastly opposed, as for 
 instance the wearing of the Taly, a jewel en- 
 graved with an idolatrous figure, worn round 
 the neck by married women in token of mar- 
 riage, like the wedding ring in Europe. 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 63 
 
 In 1703 Cardinal cle Tournon, Apostolic 
 Legate in India and China, examined the ques- 
 tion, and decided against the toleration of some 
 of these customs ; the Archbishop of Go a, the 
 Bishop of St. Thomas, the Jesuit Missioners, 
 and others, appealed from this decree to Rome. 
 Pope Clement XI confirmed the decree tempo- 
 rarily, but appointed persons to examine the 
 case more fully. It was long debated at Rome, 
 and in 1727 Clement XII repeated the confir- 
 mation of Cardinal de Tournon's decree. How- 
 ever, it was found impossible to observe it 
 practically. A fresh examination took place, 
 and some modification of it was permitted in 
 1734, allowing for a time the omission of some 
 of the ceremonies of Christening, the most offen- 
 sive to Hindoo prejudice, such as the use of 
 saliva, and the breathing in the child's face, 
 recommending, but not obliging the Missioners 
 to give the name of some Saint to those they 
 baptized, and requiring them to observe, as far 
 as possible, the regulations of the Council of 
 Trent regarding marriages, which Hindoo cus- 
 tom would have celebrated in the childhood of 
 the parties. Some of the festivals to which the 
 Hindoos clung were prohibited, but others 
 
64 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 were allowed, and no penalties of censure were 
 attached to this brief. The Missioners in gene- 
 ral received it with joy, but some thought it 
 did not sufficiently take native prejudices into 
 consideration, and sent fresh petitions to Rome; 
 however, in 1739 Pope Clement by a brief re- 
 quired from every Missioner in the country, 
 or who should hereafter go thither, an oath of 
 obedience to this decision, and it was cheer- 
 fully taken. Benedict XIV, his successor, pub- 
 lished a bull containing a complete history of 
 the discussion, confirming the brief of Cle- 
 ment XII, and ordering that any Missioner 
 who would not obey it should be sent back to 
 Europe. The Jesuits at once accepted this 
 bull ; they had always opposed the wearing the 
 taly, and introduced instead a trinket engraved 
 on each side with a cross, and fastened with a 
 parti-coloured string of an indefinite number of 
 threads, instead of the yellow cord of 108 
 threads worn by the heathens. To prevent 
 superstitious customs at weddings, they obliged 
 a catechist to attend them, accompanied by a 
 Christian Brahmin, to see that our holy law 
 was observed ; but finding the horror of the 
 Hindoos for the use of saliva and breathing, in 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 65 
 
 the Christening ceremonies, they, with due sanc- 
 tion of the bishops, continued to dispense with 
 them. The greatest difficulty was about the 
 Parias. To have any intercourse with them, 
 and especially to visit them in their huts, was 
 to become an object of hatred to all other 
 castes, who would not afterwards accept any 
 service from a Missioner who had done so. 
 After vainly endeavouring to overcome this 
 prejudice, it was proposed to Benedict XIV 
 that there should be a separate class of Mis- 
 sioners for these poor creatures, which was 
 approved, and some of the Fathers at once 
 devoted themselves to this painful duty, sepa- 
 rating themselves entirely even from their bre- 
 thren in the same country, and enduring all 
 the privations imposed on this out-cast class. 
 One Missioner would be seen moving about on 
 horseback, or in a palanquin, eating rice dres- 
 sed by Brahmins, and saluting no one as he 
 went along ; another, covered with rags, walked 
 on foot, surrounded by beggars, and prostrated 
 himself as his brother Missioner passed, cover- 
 ing his mouth, lest his breath should infect the 
 teacher of the great. 
 
 This extraordinary measure succeeded for a 
 
 f 2 
 
66 INTRODUCTION OF 
 
 time, but it has now been entirely discontinued, 
 as no longer essential. Sincere indeed must have 
 been the honesty of purpose, and admirable the 
 spirit of self-devotion which could prompt a man 
 of education and rank to become thus the apostle 
 of the outcast, and to cut himself off entirely from 
 the only human consolation which remained to 
 him in his exile — the sweet converse and com- 
 pany of his fellow-labourers and brothers in 
 Christ. The outburst of long-suppressed love 
 and affection in the earnest embrace of two early 
 friends and near relatives who met privately 
 after months of separation as Brahmin and Paria 
 Missioner, is beautifully described in one of the 
 early letters from the Missioners. 
 
 One of the most remarkable labourers in this 
 painful Mission was F. Artaud, who has been 
 called the Apostle of the Parias. He used to 
 collect them in a courtyard near the church) 
 and instruct them unweariedly ; they would sit 
 around cross-legged, and listen with eagerness ; 
 not a week passed in which he did not win 
 seven or eight, and often a far greater number, 
 to the fold of Christ. In 1748, it is estimated 
 that there were at least 385,000 Christians in 
 the eastern part of the Indian peninsula, and a 
 
CHRISTIANITY INTO INDIA. 67 
 
 greater number on the western side, besides 
 several flourishing Missions in the north of Hin- 
 dostan, whence the faith was rapidly spreading 
 over all parts of the country. The island of 
 Ceylon was so completely Christian when the 
 Dutch took possession of it in 1650, that all 
 their cruel persecutions could not eradicate it, 
 though they actually sent to the main land for 
 idolatrous priests to re-establish Buddhism, and 
 prohibited the landing of any Catholic Missioner. 
 Yet the faith was so rooted in the hearts of the 
 people, that after 145 years of persecution it 
 still lingered, like fire beneath ashes, to burst 
 forth brilliantly when Priests could again ap- 
 pear. 
 
 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION OF 
 THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 
 
 The source which principally supplied India 
 with Missioners was suddenly to be dried up : 
 in 1773 the Society of Jesus was suppressed by 
 a brief of Clement XIY. The Malabar Mission 
 was then entrusted to the Bishop of Tabraca 
 and the Seminary of Paris. The Fathers of the 
 society who were then on the Mission conti- 
 
68 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 imed the good work they had begun, and 
 deeply as they regretted their own superiors, 
 they punctually obeyed those now assigned to 
 them by Providence, looking on the new Mis- 
 sioners sent to Madura as beloved brothers 
 and fellow-labourers. Most of the remaining 
 Jesuits were old men, who had toiled for years 
 among the natives, and were looked on by 
 them with the greatest respect. Had we space, 
 a sketch of their labours would be most in- 
 teresting, but we must proceed with our narra- 
 tion. F. Mosac, the superior of the Mission, 
 gave way at once to the Bishop of Tabraca, by 
 whom he was superseded after forty years of 
 labour, during which he had baptized above 
 40,000 persons, chiefly sick children. He lived 
 but a short time longer, occupied in prayer and 
 the exercises of an interior life. The new and 
 the old Missioners worked on harmoniously, till 
 the great French revolution destroyed the Semi- 
 nary for foreign missions at Paris, and for 
 many years afterwards the Christians of India 
 were left with but very few Priests. In 1802 
 the French missions in that country had but 
 fifteen European clergy besides the bishop, and 
 most of these were old men, too weak to pene- 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 69 
 
 trate into the interior of the country. They 
 were assisted by four native priests. The Mis- 
 sion was divided into ten districts, several of 
 the more inland of which had but one Priest, 
 who, though perpetually travelling from place 
 to place, could scarcely visit each congregation 
 of his scattered flock once in a year. 
 
 In 1817 there were but five or six aged 
 European priests, and a Vicar Apostolic, in 
 the whole of this Mission ; there was a little 
 college at Pondicherry, where from time to 
 time a few native priests were ordained. A 
 few years after, the establishment for Foreign 
 Missions sent a few clergy out to this country, 
 and in 1824 there were fifteen priests ; but 
 many of them were old, and had they been in 
 the most vigorous health they could have done 
 but little among so many Christians, scattered 
 over such an immense extent of country. The 
 Vicar Apostolic wrote most pressingly for a 
 supply of Missioners, stating that there were 
 congregations of 3 or 4,000 souls who saw a 
 priest but once in two years, and that even 
 those who had a Missioner living amongst them 
 were very insufficiently attended: for what could 
 one man do among 7 or 8,000 souls, scattered 
 sometimes upwards of thirty-five miles apart ? 
 
70 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 In 1830 lie had the grief of seeing some 
 Christian families, who had been entrusted to 
 the priests of a neighbouring district, from the 
 impossibility of attending to them, and who 
 had long vainly implored to have French or 
 Jesuit Missioners sent to them, give them- 
 selves up to the Protestants. In 1836, Mgr. 
 d'Halicarnasse, who had toiled for forty-seven 
 years in this Mission, which he had governed 
 as vicar apostolic for twenty-two years, got 
 M. Bonnand, Bishop of Drusipare, appointed 
 his coadjutor, and soon afterwards died. There 
 were then but sixteen priests in the whole Mission 
 of Pondicherry. The congregation of foreign 
 missions, which has to supply five large coun- 
 tries in the east, found it so impossible to pro- 
 cure priests enough for Madura, that the pro- 
 posal of the Propaganda to send Jesuits there 
 again was gladly accepted. In 1837 four mem- 
 bers of the society reached Pondicherry, and 
 five more followed during the two subsequent 
 years. Spread over the interior of the country, 
 they at once endeavoured, under the guidance 
 of Mgr. de Drusipare, to revive the old Chris- 
 tian congregations. By a brief of 1836 various 
 vicariates were established in Asia, according 
 to the wants of the different countries. The 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 71 
 
 island of Ceylon was erected into a separate 
 vicariate apostolic : Madura, Tanjore, Marava, 
 and the Mysore, were committed to the charge 
 of Mgr. Drusipare, as vicar apostolic of the 
 Coromandel coast; the former dioceses of St. 
 Thomas and Meliapore were annexed to the 
 vicariate apostolic of Madras ; the ancient dio- 
 ceses of Cranganor and Cochin to that of 
 Malabar ; and authority over all these was 
 given to the Vicar Apostolic of Verapoly ; 
 Malacca, and the country beyond the Ganges, 
 were subjected to the vicariate apostolic of Ava 
 and Pegu, and another vicariate was established 
 at Bombay ; Calcutta was also made a se23arate 
 episcopal charge, and some few years later was 
 made an archbishop's charge, Dr. Carew being 
 raised to that dignity. To these we must add 
 the Archbishop of Goa, formerly primate of the 
 Indies, whose diocese has been narrowed to the 
 small limit of the Portuguese possessions. These 
 arrangements of the Holy See have been dispu- 
 ted by certain Portuguese and Indo-Portuguese 
 priests, who, themselves unable to manage this 
 immense country, cannot bear to see it trans- 
 ferred to other hands. 
 
 To understand the state of things in this res- 
 
72 CONSEQUENCES OE THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 pect, to explain the fatal opposition of Portugal 
 and those influenced by her to the new ar- 
 rangements of the Pope, to describe, in short, 
 what is called the Goa schism, which has so 
 miserably checked the progress of religion in 
 India for many years past, it is necessary here 
 to give a slight sketch of what may be called 
 the political history of Christianity in India. 
 
 Among the Portuguese navigators who found 
 their way to Hindostan by sea in the 15th 
 century, were many knights of the Order of 
 Christ, one of the military -religious orders in- 
 stituted to fight against Mahomedanism. Many 
 persons then thought that an attack made on 
 those Eastern countries whence Islamism de- 
 rived its strength, would, by creating a diver- 
 sion, much benefit those who were endeavouring 
 to drive it from Europe, and with this view 
 these knights joined in the voyages of dis- 
 covery set on foot by the Infant Don Henry of 
 Portugal, their Grand -Master. To them, for 
 the protection of Christianity, the first attri- 
 butions of Indian territory were made by the 
 Holy See, and not to the Portuguese king or 
 nation. In those times the idea of taking pos- 
 session of a newly discovered country by plant- 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 73 
 
 ing the national flag had not arisen, and all 
 Europe considered the Pope as the arbitrator 
 of differences, and as having supreme spiri- 
 tual authority in the whole world. In the 
 first grants made later on by successive Popes 
 to the Portuguese crown of all the territory 
 they might conquer in India, no mention what- 
 ever was made of the right of patronage, as it 
 is called, which has been so fertile a source of 
 some good, and of great evil. Portugal was how- 
 ever authorized to build churches and monas- 
 teries in the countries she conquered, and to send 
 Missioners thither. Leo X was the first Pope 
 who granted any right of patronage in these 
 Eastern countries, but he attached to it, as a 
 condition, that Christianity should be main- 
 tained and protected by the government ; at 
 the same time the right of advowson was limited 
 to those districts of which Portugal then was, or 
 might afterwards be, actually possessed. On 
 these terms four bishoprics were, at different 
 times, erected in Hindostan, and in 1557, Goa, 
 the chief seat of Portuguese power, was erected 
 into an archbishopric, to which the others were 
 made suffragans. The kings of Portugal very 
 soon tried to claim under these grants far more 
 
74 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 extensive rights than had been intended by the 
 sovereign pontiffs, and Urban VIII refused to 
 allow them any influence (as they claimed to 
 have) over the nomination of bishops suffragan 
 to Manilla, and also over the bishops and 
 vicars apostolic sent to Japan in 1646, and 
 afterwards to China. Portugal not only pro- 
 tested vehemently against this resistance to her 
 aggressions, but ordered the governor of Macao, 
 under pain of death, to let no one enter China 
 who did not come from Portugal, and closed 
 the African missions in the same manner. In 
 this extremity, the power of nomination to the 
 sees of Cranganor and Cochin was yielded to 
 the king of Portugal, though both places were 
 under Dutch rule. Alexander VIII extended 
 the grant to the bishoprics of Pekin and Nankin 
 in China ; but it gave rise to such disorders 
 that in 1696 Innocent XII dismembered these 
 dioceses, to establish more solidly the authority 
 of vicars apostolic ; and the resistance of Por- 
 tugal to the change was vain. As for the epis- 
 copal sees in India, they were placed under the 
 patronage of this crown only on condition that 
 they should be regularly endowed by the king in 
 the districts he was master of; and the Holy See 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 75 
 
 never gave up the right of modifying the limits 
 of these dioceses, or making any necessary 
 changes, -whether they continued to be under 
 Portuguese dominion or not, as we find in the 
 brief issued by Clement X in 1673, Solicitudo 
 pastor alis, and also in the words contained in 
 the brief for the erection of each see, "Jus 
 patronatus ex meris fundationi et dotationi 
 competere" — "The right of patronage arises 
 solely from patronage and endowment." 
 
 It is therefore evident that in reducing the 
 extent of these ancient bishoprics, and even 
 in suppressing them, the holy see has acted 
 with uprightness and justice, while the resis- 
 tance of Portugal has been unreasonable. This 
 opposition has lost all shadow of reason, from 
 the endowments granted by Portugal having 
 completely ceased, so much so that in 1886 the 
 vicar apostolic of Verapoly writes — " Since the 
 change of government, the Court of Lisbon has 
 ordered the magistrate last sent out to Goa not 
 to give a farthing to ministers of the Gospel 
 employed beyond the Portuguese territory; we 
 may therefore feel assured that all pretension 
 to the right of patronage over the sees of 
 Cochin, Cranganor, and Meliapore, is aban- 
 
76 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 doned." The same prelate adds — " For a long 
 time there have been no Portuguese bishops at 
 Goa, at Cranganor, at Cochin, or at Meliapore," 
 and as Cardinal Fornari concludes, in accor- 
 dance with most doctors of canon law, " When 
 the cause for which the patronage was granted 
 ceased, the right of patronage ceases also." 
 
 The Holy See, however, hesitated to exer- 
 cise its undoubted right, and in 1832 Cardinal 
 Pedicini, Prefect of the Propaganda, pre- 
 sented a request to the Portuguese Ambassador, 
 that his Sovereign would either fulfil the obli- 
 gations undertaken with regard to the Indian 
 bishoprics, or would renounce pretensions which 
 put a stop to all good in that country, and 
 rendered ecclesiastical government impossible. 
 He pointed out that Portugal now possessed 
 nothing but Goa, and had in the rest of its 
 former territories no claim but that of patron- 
 age, which it could not exercise. He therefore 
 suggested that the Portuguese Sovereign shoidd 
 name a new Archbishop of Goa, and that the 
 other Sees should in future be considered in 
 the same position as the foreign Missions usu- 
 ally are. Still nothing was done till Gregory 
 XVI determined to act decisively ; and began 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 77 
 
 by erecting, with the consent and approbation 
 of the English Government, Vicariates Aposto- 
 lic, at Calcutta, and at Madras, in 1834. Great 
 opposition was made to this by Portugal, but 
 the salvation of too many souls was at stake 
 to allow any yielding on the part of Rome to 
 claims so unreasonable. The Portuguese clergy 
 seemed to have long acted on the principle, that 
 it was better to let the people perish for want of 
 religious aid than to see them receive it from 
 Turkish bishops ; so they called the vicars aj)os- 
 tolic, whose titles were taken from extinct Sees 
 in Turkey. They now called in the help of 
 the secular power, and of the English Govern- 
 ment, to check the execution of the Papal 
 decrees. In 1886 the Sacred Congregation met 
 to find means of remedying such abuses, and 
 the celebrated Brief, Multa Prceclare, was care- 
 fully prepared, and meantime two more vica- 
 riates apostolic, at Ceylon and Madura, were 
 created. The latter was not filled up just then, 
 from certain circumstances, and its administra- 
 tion was temporarily committed to Mgr. Bon- 
 nand, Vicar Apostolic of the Coromandel coast. 
 In 1838 a special decree annexed the old dio- 
 cese of Meliapore to the Vicariate Apostolic 
 
78 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 of Madras, and those of Cranganore and Cochin 
 to that of the Malabar coast, or of Verapoly. 
 The Archbishopric of Goa had then been so 
 long vacant, that the Portuguese clergy in 
 India, having no one to recruit their numbers 
 by fresh ordinations, were gradually becoming 
 extinct, when unfortunately Portugal aroused 
 from its long apathy, and pretending to enter 
 into the views of the Holy See, demanded cano- 
 nical institution of a new Archbishop of Goa, 
 who, however, made a solemn promise to the 
 Roman Legate at Lisbon, that he would sub- 
 mit to the arrangements of the Brief, Multa 
 Prceclare. No sooner had he reached Hin- 
 dostan than he broke his engagement, and con- 
 firmed all that the Goa clergy had done to 
 oppose the new Vicars Apostolic of British 
 India. He even went farther, and availing 
 himself of some words inserted in his Bull of 
 institution, to which he gave an explanation 
 completely at variance with the intentions of 
 the Holy See, he claimed all the rights of 
 his predecessors, as Primate of India, notwith- 
 standing a Brief which accompanied the Bull, 
 and by which the Pope commanded him to 
 respect the jurisdiction of the vicars apostolic. 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 79 
 
 He immediately ordained an immense num- 
 ber of clergy of all grades, taken from every 
 rank of life ; many of them quite uneducated, 
 and but few in any degree competent for the 
 ministry. This step ensured a long continu- 
 ance of the nearly extinct schism caused by the 
 previous opposition of the clergy of Portuguese 
 origin to the establishment of the Vicars Apos- 
 tolic. The archbishop also encouraged the 
 intrusive Bishop-elect of Meliapore, nominated 
 by Portugal, but rejected by Rome, and never 
 consecrated; who, notwithstanding, proceeded 
 to the visitation of his assumed diocese, and by 
 so doing gave occasion to serious disturbances 
 in many places. It is needless to point out the 
 bad impression all this makes on the heathen 
 portion of the Hindoos, or its still more deplor- 
 able effects on the Christians, who can hardly 
 comprehend the point in question. 
 
 The impossibility of supplying European 
 Priests in sufficient numbers, had gradually 
 caused the missions in the South of India to 
 lapse almost entirely into the hands of the now 
 schismatic Goa clergy. They have possession 
 of most of the ancient churches, to which the 
 people are deeply attached, and where they 
 
 G 
 
80 CONSEQUENCES OF THE SUPPRESSION 
 
 prefer celebrating their festivals, and making 
 their offerings, which, of course, cannot be per- 
 mitted, as thus the schism would be supported. 
 
 The schismatic priests, unfortunately, spare 
 no efforts to calumniate and misrepresent the 
 legitimate Missioners, and to induce the people 
 to keep them out of the churches. They win 
 them over, in many cases, by giving the Sacra- 
 ment of matrimony without requiring previous 
 instruction, and by dispensing readily with the 
 forbidden degrees of affinity, even it is said 
 in some cases with the first. 
 
 In short, this unhappy schism is the great 
 obstacle to all the efforts of Catholicity in 
 India. Not only does it deprive our Missioners 
 of the funds necessary for their support — 
 funds which would even now be sufficient in 
 many cases for the maintenance of religion — 
 but it entails numberless expenses, which the 
 poor native Christians are ill-able to bear, 
 and which are an intolerable burden on the 
 scanty resources of our missionary funds. Often 
 new churches must be built, and in districts 
 where there are tolerable ones already; and 
 law suits must be carried on before the English 
 tribunals, which amount to a heavy expense; 
 
OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS. 81 
 
 and would to heaven that expense and conse- 
 quent privation were the worst evil entailed by 
 the schism. 
 
 Happily the recent translation of Mgr. 
 Torrer from the archbishopric of Goa to that 
 of Braga in Portugal, to which, after much 
 negotiation, his consent, and that of the Portu- 
 guese crown, have been obtained, has cut off 
 the main spring of the schism, and in our 
 sketch of the present state of the mission we 
 will speak of the progress made in gaining 
 over the poor Christians, and in some instances 
 their misguided pastors. 
 
 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF PROTESTANTISM 
 IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 
 
 A short account of another class of mission- 
 aries in India may perhaps interest the reader. 
 To us far less openly hostile than the schisma- 
 tics, they are formidable as regards worldly 
 means ; obtaining, however, but little success 
 among the people. These are the Protestants 
 of various sects, who endeavour, with all the 
 aid that wealth, and in some cases worldly 
 
 g2 
 
82 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 learning, can give, to spread their different 
 notions of Christianity among the Hindoos. 
 
 The first Protestant who ever landed in India 
 was an Englishman, named Stevens, who came 
 to Goa in a Portuguese ship in 1593, but he 
 was a mere adventurer, without any political or 
 religious object. Two years later the Dutch 
 appeared in the Indian seas, established them- 
 selves in Java and Sumatra, drove the Portu- 
 guese out of the Malaccas, and by degrees 
 conquered Cochin, and other important places 
 on the Travancore coast, and at length the 
 island of Ceylon, which they found almost 
 entirely Catholic. Wherever they became mas- 
 ters they made war on the Catholic Church, 
 not sparing the axe and the knife to enforce 
 at least outward conformity with the con- 
 fused mixture of Lutheranism and Calvinism, 
 preached by their ministers. As before men- 
 tioned, they banished the Catholic Missioners, 
 and prohibited their return under pain of death, 
 which several underwent in reward of their 
 endeavours to maintain the Faith among the 
 people. Finding that Protestantism made no 
 progress, the Dutch actually sent to the main- 
 land for Buddhist priests, in order to re-estab- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 83 
 
 lish in Ceylon idolatry which had been fast 
 disappearing. 
 
 Numbers of the natives still remained Chris- 
 tians at heart, preserving a sort of traditionary 
 recollection of Christian doctrines and prac- 
 tices, till, in 1815, the island fell into the hands 
 of the English, when, on religion being set 
 free, many loudly proclaimed their real belief. 
 Ceylon has been divided into two new Vica- 
 riates Apostolic, and there are now again 
 Catholic Missioners labouring among them, 
 permitted by the English Government, though 
 not assisted as the Protestants are. The Dutch 
 have lost all their possessions on the Indian 
 continent also, and therefore nothing further 
 need be said of their endeavours to enforce 
 their creed on the people : no trace remains of 
 their efforts : the storm and they who raised it 
 have alike disappeared, but Faith remains un- 
 broken and unimpaired. 
 
 A few years after the Dutch invasion, the 
 Danes tried, by more peaceful means, to plant 
 Lutheranism at Tranquebar, and on several 
 points of the coast. Their ministers shewed an 
 eager spirit of proselytism, but as they were 
 accompanied by their wives, and openly used 
 
84 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 spirituous liquors, in both respects going di- 
 rectly against the prejudices of the people, 
 they made no progress among the natives, be- 
 yond spreading among the Catholics of Tan- 
 jore some of their calumnies against the true 
 Church. In reply to these the learned Father 
 Beschi, of all the missioners one of the most 
 deeply skilled in the Eastern tongues, published 
 in 1728 a controversial work which produced a 
 strong impression on the native mind. The 
 Lutheran mission at Tranquebar was in any- 
 thing but a flourishing condition on the cession 
 of the place by purchase to England a few 
 years ago. 
 
 The foundation and gradual progress of the 
 English East India Company in Hindostan is 
 too well known to need an account of it here. 
 For a length of time their wars with the French, 
 the Dutch, and the native princes, occupied 
 them too completely to leave time or funds for 
 the propagation of their religion. An Anglican 
 Bishopric was established first at Calcutta, and 
 more recently, in 1834, by authority of King 
 William IV, two others were established at 
 Bombay and Madras. 
 
 In the beginning of the present century, 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 85 
 
 great numbers of ministers of various sects 
 crowded to India, where there was no longer 
 any risk of persecution. The Agents of the 
 London Society of Missions appeared in 1806 : 
 they have fifteen stations, and spend nearly 
 ten thousand a year in India. The Americans 
 were also among the first. In 1810 the Unita- 
 rians arrived. In 1820 came the Wesley ans. 
 In 1826 the Missionaries of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel arrived : they spend 
 about fifteen thousand a year. The Church 
 Missionary Society has also its emissaries, spen- 
 ding at least ten thousand a year : and Baptist 
 and Evangelical Missions have also been estab- 
 lished. In 1836 the New Society for Indian 
 Missions was set on foot: and the Methodists 
 are also making immense efforts. 
 
 In many cities there are representatives of 
 all these different creeds ; for each of the 
 above-named societies was instituted to remedy 
 some error in the teaching of the rest. Their 
 ministers are tolerably good friends on the 
 whole, but attack each other's doctrines sharply, 
 and this strikes the Indians the more forcibly, as 
 their numbers are but few ; and they frequently 
 contrast the perfect agreement in the teaching 
 
86 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 of the Catholic missioners with the contradic- 
 tions they hear from all the rest. It would be 
 interesting to note the changes in doctrine 
 which the various Protestant denominations in 
 India have passed through, and now daily- 
 undergo. The alterations depicted in Bossuet's 
 Variations, and more recently in Mohler's Sym- 
 bolism, are surpassed here : the Reformation is 
 unceasingly reforming itself, and would seem, 
 in its effect on the native mind, to tend to the 
 absence of all religion, or to pure Deism, as it 
 has done in so many cases in Europe. 
 
 The distribution of numberless copies of the 
 Sacred Scriptures in the native tongue was, of 
 course, the first method of spreading Christi- 
 anity adopted by Protestant ministers. It is 
 needless to dwell here on the extreme difficulty 
 of translating into Tamul a book such as the 
 Bible, one in which a single word misinter- 
 preted might often lead to the strangest errors. 
 The unceasing disputes among the learned 
 about the proper rendering of the sacred text 
 into the languages of modern Europe, the many 
 thousand faults stated, in the celebrated petition 
 formerly presented to the king by the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford, to exist in the English autho- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 87 
 
 rized version, would be enough to convince 
 any unprejudiced mind of the utter impossi- 
 bility of doing justice to the Inspired Volume 
 in a translation into Hindostanee by Europeans, 
 however well versed in the Eastern tongues : 
 so different are these in their genius from those 
 familiar to the translators, and from the lan- 
 guage in which the greater part of the New 
 Testament at least was composed. The Tamul 
 versions, got up with much pains by Protestant 
 clergymen of unquestionable talent, are not 
 indeed so strangely erroneous as those made 
 into the languages of North America, or, to 
 come somewhat nearer to the present day, those 
 now printed in New Zealand, and in Otaheite, 
 and in the Anglo-nigger dialect. But were 
 they as perfect as human learning could make 
 them, experience daily shows that the distribu- 
 tion of the Scriptures alone is not the way to 
 convert heathen nations. The Apostles, who 
 surely knew best how to spread the doctrines 
 of their Divine Master, did so by preaching 
 and oral instruction only. Armed with mira- 
 culous power, and an inspired command of the 
 languages of those they addresssd, they could 
 surely, had such been the will of God, have 
 
88 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 devised some means of disseminating the writ- 
 ten word more easily than by the slow and 
 expensive process of manual copying, and have 
 left versions in all the different tongues of the 
 globe to prevent mistranslation. Assuredly 
 then, they did not consider individual reading 
 of the Scriptures the way to bring the Gentile 
 races within the fold of Christ. The fruitless- 
 ness of the Protestant missions, their failure 
 almost everywhere to make even nominal Chris- 
 tians, and the sad condition of the morals of 
 the people where Protestantism has gained an 
 apparent footing, as in Otaheite, are undeniable 
 proofs that the Catholic missioner, following in 
 method as in doctrine the path trodden by the 
 Apostles, has found the true secret of winning 
 souls to Christ. 
 
 Independently of the millions of copies of 
 Scripture scattered throughout India, the Pro- 
 testants have distributed numberless tracts, some 
 of them directed to disprove Hindooism and its 
 many fables, and to teach the leading truths 
 of Christianity. These are by far the best 
 written, and are often really good. Some are 
 controversial on the points in question between 
 Catholics and Protestants. The Americans par- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 89 
 
 ticularly have published many stories against 
 Catholicity, turning into ridicule our religious 
 ceremonies, and the veneration paid to the 
 Blessed Virgin, to the Saints, and to holy 
 images. These tracts are distributed by ped- 
 lars paid to go round the country for the pur- 
 pose, and they are very clever in their business. 
 Many of them were originally Catholics, who 
 did not discover the errors of Popery till driven 
 for obstinate misconduct from the bosom of her 
 communion. Our Christians seldom take these 
 books, but the idolators do, not however to 
 read them : the cover is quickly torn off, the 
 pictures cut out, and the printed pages make 
 their way to the petty dealers. It is painful to 
 Catholics to see portions of Scripture applied 
 to such uses. 
 
 Many of the tracts distributed are clever, 
 though they do not shew the same command 
 over the Tamul possessed by the early Jesuits : 
 frequently they translate the English idiom so 
 literally as to be nearly or quite unintelligible 
 to the natives. But were they never so well 
 done, they could have little or no effect among 
 a population of whom but very few can read, 
 and where perhaps not one in ten of those who 
 
90 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 can will take the trouble to peruse the tracts 
 placed in their hands. The sums spent in 
 printing and distributing all these books are 
 almost incredible ; the Protestants themselves 
 are obliged to acknowledge how few converts 
 they have made, for in one of their tracts they 
 say that perhaps not one copy in ten thousand 
 is ever read, and of late years they have les- 
 sened the issue of them. Father St. Cyr, who 
 has traversed the district of Madura in almost 
 every direction, says that he never but once 
 met a Hindoo who said he had been converted 
 by reading ; he was not then baptized, but had 
 been promised a small pension by the Protes- 
 tant missionary on declaring himself a Chris- 
 tian. This purchasing of converts is common 
 among the Protestant ministers, and it is curious 
 that it should not have won over more of the 
 natives. The majority of their converts, except 
 in Tinnevelly alone, were already Christians, 
 and in Tanjore, Pratacendi, and Madura proper, 
 they have gained many — some of these by 
 carefully assuring them that their religion was 
 not in any degree different from that of St. 
 Francis Xavier ! To maintain this delusion, 
 they have in some places actually returned to 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 91 
 
 Catholie practices, which they had at first con- 
 demned, as for instance at Amapatty, where 
 about fifteen families turned Protestant ; the 
 minister at first assured them that Confession 
 was a modern innovation, but finding how 
 much they clung to it, he yielded, and for a 
 time heard the confessions of those who chose. 
 In the same way the Sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, as they call it, was at first administered 
 by distributing pieces of bread dipped in wine, 
 but after a time they, in some places, made the 
 bread like the Hosts used by the Catholic 
 clergy. Yet this imitation is by no means 
 general ; on the contrary, many of the Protes- 
 tant ministers exhaust the usual topics of abuse 
 and misrepresentation of Catholic doctrines and 
 practices, and though confuted again and again, 
 they persist in their assertions, as if they knew 
 the realities of the Catholic creed better than 
 those who profess it. 
 
 In many of the small stations their efforts 
 are directed rather to make the Catholics be- 
 come Protestants than to win the heathens to 
 Christianity. Several of their schools are in 
 Catholic villages ; their catechists are much 
 more often sent to these, than to those inhabited 
 
92 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 by pagans, nor, as has been already said, do 
 they hesitate to give money as a motive for the 
 desired change. The Hindoos are an imitative 
 people, and readily follow any example set by 
 their chiefs and by influential persons : a sum 
 of money given, or a pension paid monthly to 
 a few of these, will bring over many families 
 besides their own ; it is an almost irresistible 
 argument with a native, and the only one that 
 has much success in Protestantizing them. They 
 will not give up the gorgeous ceremonies of 
 idolatry for a sermon and a few prayers in a 
 mean-looking church ; they despise catechists 
 whom they know to be well paid, and whose 
 lives are by no means always calculated to win 
 respect ; and they turn their backs on married 
 clergymen, who, say they, drink spirits, eat 
 beef, and are served by Pariahs. But money 
 is powerful, and if faith be not deeply rooted, 
 or peculiar circumstances do not interfere, it is 
 often convincing. This does not refer to money 
 spent in supporting schools or catechists, but 
 in some cases to actual cash paid down to pur- 
 chase proselytes. Catholic Indians who had 
 become Protestants — as the expression is, for 
 their bellies — have gone to the Catholic mis- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 93 
 
 sioner, and said that if he would give them a 
 third part of the pension they were receiving 
 from the Protestant minister they would return 
 to the Catholic Church. His reply of course 
 was, that Christians who would sell themselves 
 were not worth buying. "Were money less prodi- 
 gally lavished, and motives of temporal interest 
 no longer held out, Protestant missionaries in 
 India would easily count their converts, whether 
 from Catholicity or from heathenism. We do 
 not wish to inveigh against Protestant mission- 
 aries. Are our own always irreproachable ? 
 Our business is merely to state a few facts. 
 
 Sometimes Catholics who have quarrelled 
 with their Priest declare themselves Protestants, 
 and this without an idea of the points of differ- 
 ence between the churches. Others have fol- 
 lowed their chiefs, purchased as has just been 
 said, and they must do so under pain of losing 
 their daily bread. Indeed great numbers of 
 those who call themselves Protestants remain 
 so merely because, in their attendance at school, 
 or in their dealings with Europeans, they have 
 done things by which their caste was forfeited. 
 But a few months ago, at a large meeting of 
 the natives at Calcutta, the report of which 
 
94 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 appeared in the English papers, it was openly 
 debated whether some means of regaining caste 
 privileges might not be found, less burthen- 
 some than the almost impossible one of wan- 
 dering for forty years as a penitent — the only 
 mode now prescribed. It was added that the 
 greater part of the so-called Christians em- 
 ployed by government, who are nearly all Pro- 
 testants, would gladly return to heathenism if 
 they could regain these beloved distinctions. 
 
 Money, however, is not the only means used 
 to enlist worldly interest on the side of Protes- 
 tantism. In several instances the ministers have 
 bought lands, and it needs little acquaintance 
 with India to know what immense power is 
 possessed by the lord of the soil. This power 
 has, on some occasions, been exerted relentlessly 
 against all who do not become and continue 
 Protestants — in name at least, for many of them 
 are never baptized ; often all that is required 
 of them is to sign a paper declaring themselves 
 members of the minister's congregation. 
 
 Another method sometimes used is rather 
 startling. The minister engages that some 
 cause then in dispute shall be favourably heard 
 before the tribunals, provided the applicant 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 95 
 
 will sign an engagement binding himself never 
 to quit the Protestant religion, under penalty of 
 from fifty to a hundred rupees. He then re- 
 ceives a recommendation, which is at all events 
 popularly believed to assist his cause power- 
 fully. The English government does not 
 lend itself to this ; indeed the use often made 
 by some of the Protestant missionaries of 
 the names of those in power in the country is 
 perfectly unauthorized, and unsupported by 
 facts, for there can hardly be, in any country, 
 a body of magistrates among whom there is so 
 high a principle of honour, or so much gentle- 
 manly feeling as in the civil service in India. 
 Pare exceptions may exist, and mistakes of 
 course frequently occur, but they are attributa- 
 ble almost entirely to the great difficulty of 
 coming at the truth through native subordi- 
 nates, on whom official reliance must neces- 
 sarily be placed. Instances often occur of 
 native employes receiving money, but in the 
 civil service of the present day this practice is 
 entirely prevented by the high principle of 
 honour which prevails. This does not prevent 
 the existence of a general, one might say an 
 instinctive feeling of hostility, on the part of 
 
 H 
 
96 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 the English government towards Catholicity, 
 which is shewn distinctly in the fact that the 
 government establishment for the orphans of 
 soldiers at Madras is so completely in the 
 hands of Protestants that it has been necessary 
 in the case of Catholic orphans, to give up the 
 great advantages of education it presents, and 
 found by subscription an establishment wherein 
 they can be maintained without sacrificing their 
 faith. 
 
 Nor is this all. A Catholic named Claude 
 Martin, a Frenchman of obscure birth, rose to 
 be a general in the English service, and accu- 
 mulated a very large fortune. He died in 
 1799, leaving, among other bequests, large 
 sums to found schools in his native city of 
 Lyons in France, and at Calcutta and Luck- 
 now in India. He did not expressly stipulate 
 about the religious teaching in these schools, 
 but evidently intended them to be open to all. 
 Were there an intention to exclude any, the 
 donor, being a Catholic, would have excluded 
 Protestants rather than Catholics. Neverthe- 
 less, regulations have been introduced which 
 absolutely close these schools against the co- 
 religionists of their founder ! 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 97 
 
 The most effectual effort made by Protestan- 
 tism in India, is the establishment of schools. 
 The Hindoos are perfectly aware of the great 
 value of learning, and will send their children 
 wherever it may be obtained. Those of high 
 caste are usually careful not to forfeit their 
 rank by infringing on their peculiar customs ; 
 though, as has been said, numbers of nominal 
 Protestants call themselves so only because 
 they were considered degraded as Hindoos. 
 The American missionaries at one time insisted 
 on all their pupils eating beef cooked by a 
 Pariah, the greatest degradation they could 
 devise ; and of course few but Pariahs would 
 attend. But in most schools no pains are taken 
 to Christianize the children beyond using the 
 Bible as a school-book, (which by no means 
 increases reverence or love for the Sacred 
 Volume), and making them attend Protestant 
 sermons, by depriving those who do not of some 
 pecuniary advantages. They are not baptized, 
 and comparatively few Hindoos, on leaving 
 school, continue even nominally Protestant. 
 Many of their scholars are the children of 
 Catholic parents, forced to risk their religion 
 by the sad want of Catholic schools. Of course 
 
 h2 
 
98 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 numbers of these are perverted, or at least 
 become indifferent to all religion; others, on 
 mixing again among their families, return to 
 the true faith. 
 
 Far more is done, we repeat, to win over 
 Catholic children than those of heathens : all 
 the usual falsehoods and mis-statements reg-ar- 
 ding Catholicity abound in the sermons of the 
 ministers to them.* The boys who show talent 
 are trained as catechists, and are, as such, 
 secure of a comfortable maintenance. The 
 difficulty of finding Protestant wives for these 
 and other employes of the missions induced the 
 ministers, seven years ago, to open schools for 
 native girls, which deeply shocked Hindoo 
 prejudices. None but Pariahs could be in- 
 duced to attend, and even these were usually 
 orphans. In some cases boys and girls beyond 
 the age of childhood were made to attend the 
 same schools, and the consequence was often 
 such immorality as cannot be detailed. 
 
 The large funds supplied to the various Pro- 
 testant missions enable them to maintain schools 
 almost innumerable, and of all sorts : day- 
 
 * A little more than a year ago a public competition was 
 opened at Calcutta for a considerable sum of money to be 
 given to the native who could produce the best paper 
 proving — " The Identity of Romanism and Heathenism ! ! " 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 99 
 
 schools, boarding-schools, and schools where 
 board, lodging and clothes, are supplied to the 
 pupils. It is impossible that such efforts among 
 the young should not have considerable effect, 
 at least in winning away those who, being al- 
 ready Catholics, though deprived of instruction 
 by the poverty of the Mission, have not the 
 prejudices of the heathen Hindoos to overcome. 
 Had the Catholics means to establish anything 
 like a sufficient number of schools they would 
 not only meet the wants of their own flocks, 
 but have their schools crowded with heathens 
 who would grow up Christians, being baptized 
 as soon as they were sufficiently instructed. 
 Necessity alone drives the unhappy Catholics 
 to risk their faith by attending other schools 
 than their own. 
 
 Another mode was attempted at Palamcottah 
 and Tinnevelly, where the ministers got posses- 
 sion of a district, and formed a sort of settle- 
 ment, in imitation of the well-known Reduc- 
 tions of Paraguay. All the Hindoos living 
 within this territory, about five thousand in 
 number, were obliged to destroy their temples 
 and idols, and give in their names as Christian 
 converts, but they were not required to receive 
 Baptism. It is said, that the greater part of 
 
100 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 them returned to heathen practices in a very 
 short time. 
 
 The incomes of the Protestant ministers are 
 very considerable. The salaries of those paid 
 by Government vary in general from 300 to 
 700 rupees, that is, from about £ 30 to £ 70 
 per month. Those who are supported by the 
 various missionary societies have usually 200 
 rupees, £ 20 a month if they are unmarried, 
 and 250 rupees, £ 25 a month if married. 
 
 In the preceding pages many strong asser- 
 tions have been made : names and instances 
 could easily be given, but have been pur- 
 posely avoided as invidious, it being the wish 
 of the writer to express what has been his 
 own impression on this subject — an impression 
 formed by four years' residence in the country, 
 and constant intercourse with clergymen of 
 high position, both by birth and education, 
 who have repeatedly been told by the natives 
 what is here advanced, and in so many and such 
 various ways, that it is impossible to withhold 
 all credence. What has been said, moreover, 
 will be in a great measure borne out by the 
 following pages. It is by no means the inten- 
 tion of the writer to assert, that all the Protes- 
 tant missionaries are self-seeking, and not in 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 101 
 
 earnest in their work : instances of real and 
 conscientious self-devotion are to be found, but 
 the general system pursued is certainly not 
 such as to command respect, or to convince 
 those who behold their work, that they are the 
 followers of the Apostles. 
 
 We have described the difficulties encoun- 
 tered by the early Catholic Missioners in India, 
 and the self-sacrifice which led to their suc- 
 cess. So much has intercourse with Europeans 
 lessened the bitterness of native prejudice, that 
 some of the most formidable of these difficulties 
 are now smoothed away. But this is not the 
 most striking point of contrast, between the 
 career of the first Catholic and that of the 
 modern Protestant preachers. The latter are 
 supported by all the influence of a Government 
 whose sway extends from sea to sea, from the 
 snowy mountains of Nepaul to the tropical 
 island of Ceylon : a sway respected by the 
 people for its justice, and considered by the 
 passive Hindoos all but irresistible. The 
 sums of money the ministers have spent within 
 the last thirty years cannot be rated at less than 
 200 lakhs of rupees, or about £ 2,000,000 ster- 
 ling, and yet their own organs do not show more 
 
102 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 than 32,000 native converts from heathenism, 
 being at the rate of at least £ 60 a head. 
 
 Catholics are not aware of the immense sums 
 contributed by Protestants to their missions. 
 In a condensed Report of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society we find that, since their 
 establishment in 1804, they have expended 
 £ 3,751,555, and that in 1850 alone they spent 
 £ 103,330. This is but one of many societies 
 employed in spreading their various and vary- 
 ing doctrines all over the world. We have 
 not at hand the means of ascertaining how 
 much of this large sum was given to the portion 
 of India with which we are principally con- 
 cerned, nor have we details of the money spent 
 there by any Protestant missions later than 
 1848; but in that year we find, in the Report of 
 the Madras Committee of the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts, 
 that they paid 170, 000 rupees, or about 
 £ 17,000, of which 50,197 rupees went for 
 missionaries' salaries, 21,965 rupees for cate- 
 chists and readers' salaries, 39,410 rupees for 
 schools and seminaries, besides 1,379 rupees 
 for school buildings'. In the same year the 
 Propagation of the Gospel Society spent 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 103 
 
 150,000 rupees; the Church Missionary So- 
 ciety 100,000 rupees ; and 280,000 rupees were 
 paid hy Government to Protestant chaplains, 
 all in the Madras Presidency. The German 
 Evangelical Mission of Canara, during the year 
 1848-1849, states its expenditure at 48,354 
 rupees, of which 20,715 rupees were for the 
 support of " 24 brethren and 15 sisters " (the 
 missionaries and their wives), 8,874 rupees for 
 schools, and 2,118 rupees for catechists. Their 
 Canarese school is attended by only 190 scho- 
 lars, only 13 of whom are said to be Protestants, 
 nor is it stated that these are baptized. These 
 missionaries boast that they are not required to 
 subscribe to any definite articles of faith, and 
 some of them denounce the members of the 
 Church of England, yet 11,175 rupees of the 
 above sum were contributed by Englishmen. 
 They report only three converts in the year : 
 but no wonder they make so few, for they are 
 busily purchasing land, and lending out money 
 at high interest, sometimes receiving double 
 the legal rate. 
 
 We have mentioned that much of the mis- 
 sionary expenditure is in printing and distribu- 
 ting tracts, and the degree of benefit thus 
 
104 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 produced we have briefly pointed out; but a 
 few details taken from their own reports may 
 prove on how large a scale they carry on this 
 mode of conversion, if such it can be called. 
 In 1848 the Madras Tract and Book Society 
 distributed, in round numbers, 71,000 tracts, 
 at a cost of 8,900 rupees. In the 31 years of 
 its existence it has disseminated 2,950,000 
 tracts, at an expense of 370,000 rupees. The 
 Madras Auxiliary Bible Society has circulated 
 550,000 Bibles, or copies of select portions of 
 Scripture, at an outlay of above 500,000 rupees. 
 The Rev. G. U. Pope, in his report for 1846, 
 speaks of applications made to him for books in a 
 newly visited district as a most encouraging sign : 
 the value attached to them, in very many cases, 
 is in reality no more than the curiosity of so 
 new a possession, and the use of them as waste 
 paper. Not long ago a Catholic priest travelling 
 through the country saw a boy flying a kite ; it 
 fell in the dust, and got dirtied and torn, but 
 the child merely said, " Oh, we will go to the 
 Padre and get another book." Some of those 
 who had been long under instruction by the 
 Protestant missionaries, on hearing the preach- 
 ing of Catholic Priests and seeing the Crucifix 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 105 
 
 which has ever been so valuable in illustrating and 
 impressing the holy law of Christ, have declared 
 that they have understood more in a few mo- 
 ments than they had learned from all the Bibles 
 and Bible lectures of the Protestant teachers. 
 This is not meant to imply that Catholics do 
 not respect and value the Bible, but only that 
 we do not consider the mere reading of it an 
 infallible method of converting heathens, or 
 that from it the uneducated are likely to learn 
 their religion. To the Catholic church is due 
 the preservation of the sacred volume amid the 
 inroads of barbarous nations ; she always en- 
 couraged its due use by the laity, and transla- 
 tions of it appeared in various European lan- 
 guages long before the so-called Reformation. 
 Venerable Bede, who died a. d. 735, had trans- 
 lated it into Saxon, the language of England 
 at that period; and in 1290 another version 
 was made into the English then spoken. It 
 had appeared in French before Luther began 
 to preach, and was printed in Bohemian, in 
 Flemish, in Italian, and in Spanish, half a cen- 
 tury before he was born. The Spanish trans- 
 lation had been completed and circulated by 
 St. Vincent Ferrer and his brother, with the 
 
106 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 sanction of the Inquisition ; while a Castilian 
 version had been made in 1284. German 
 translations of the Bible were so numerous, and 
 began so early, that it is said a history of the 
 German language might be traced from them, 
 the first being in 350, into the Gothic, from 
 which modern German has sprung. During 
 the seventy years that preceded the Refor- 
 mation, while the art of printing was still in 
 its infancy, and very expensive, upwards of 
 seventy editions of the Bible were printed in 
 Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Spain and 
 Bohemia. No trouble was spared to make 
 these versions accurate, and they would present 
 a most favourable contrast not only with the 
 strange translations made in modern days, by 
 Protestant missionaries, into scarcely known 
 heathen tongues, but even with the versions 
 issued by authority in England, of which the 
 one called Cranmer's Bible, which every parish 
 church was forced to possess, was said in a 
 subsequent royal mandate to be " disfigured 
 with unfaithful renderings," some of which were 
 corrected in King James's Bible, the present 
 authorized version, though learned Protestants 
 of all shades of opinion have admitted again 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 107 
 
 and again that it still contains many important 
 errors, and that a further revision is desirable. 
 
 But the greater part of the few converts the 
 ministers claim, are, as we have stated, unbap- 
 tizecl, and are held to their nominal profession 
 of Christianity only by gifts of land and money. 
 In a Protestant periodical, The Circulator , for 
 Dec. 19th, 1849, we find a letter complaining 
 bitterly of the converts at Tanjore. Swartz, 
 one of the early founders of this mission, had 
 great influence with the Rajah, and was enabled 
 to give to each of his neophytes a piece of land 
 rent free for a time ; supposing them now firm 
 in the faith, Mr. Guest, the present missionary ^ 
 endeavoured to obtain some small rent, but the 
 converts rebelled immediately, complaining that 
 he was depriving them of " privileges and 
 immunities coeval with their first reception of 
 Christianity." The correspondent goes on to 
 say, that " They originally flocked round the 
 missionaries to satiate their bellies with the 
 good things of the mission, and they wish still 
 to prey upon its vitals, and while the few who 
 held situations of emolument grudge, with all 
 the grudging of the most contemptible niggard, 
 to give one rupee for missionary purposes, they 
 
108 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 squander large sums on night orgies, dancing 
 girls, Brahmins, &c. The report of this same 
 mission in 1823, says, there is great immo- 
 rality. A great many have adopted heathen 
 customs ; many had fallen into the practice of 
 polygamy." 
 
 The numbers of converts in this mission were 
 estimated by Bishop Heber once at 40,000, in 
 another place at 15,000 souls, yet he found but 
 fifty-seven communicants, and but fifty for con- 
 firmation, though he was the first bishop who 
 ever visited them. In 1847 Mr. Guest, with 
 the help of six native catechists, and seven 
 masters and mistresses, had but 970 baptized 
 persons. 
 
 At Tinnevelly, the Rev. Mr. Pope reports, in 
 1849, that the numbers who had left his con- 
 gregation were very large indeed, and this 
 because he required them to send their chil- 
 dren to school, not to intermarry with heathens, 
 and to attend a Sunday school. In 1848 the 
 Rev. S. Habbs, at the Sathhankullan district in 
 Tinnevelly, complains of the continued and 
 very considerable reduction of his flock, which 
 he estimates at one-fifth of the whole, adding 
 that "great numbers of those who have em- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 109 
 
 braced Christianity in this province have done 
 so without any strong conviction of its posses- 
 sing claims to their belief very superior to 
 those of their old superstitions : and they were 
 received under instruction, simply in the hope 
 that such a conviction would supervene." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Newman, in his report on the 
 Palamcottah district of Tinnevelly for 1848, 
 after enumerating churches and schools built, 
 Bibles distributed, and Bible-readings, says he 
 doubts whether true knowledge of Christianity 
 is on the increase, adding that " several of 
 whom he had thought well, yielded up their 
 Christian profession and departed from this 
 world, after having long professed faith in 
 Christ, with a heathen mark upon their fore- 
 heads and the name of a false god upon their 
 lips." Another Tinnevelly missionary speaks 
 of 104 back-sliders, of whom thirty-three were 
 baptized and eleven communicants. This, by 
 the bye, shews that unbaptized natives are 
 reckoned as converts. In another instance 
 a Rev. Mr. Bilderbeck reports that he preached 
 at Ferampore to a large, crowded, mid respec- 
 table congregation : the entry in his journal 
 of .that day says, " There were few persons 
 
110 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 inside ; but about thirty persons stood out near 
 the entrance door, who were passers by." 
 
 The Teloogoo Missionaries of Masulipatam, 
 with more accuracy, report : " Our Teloogoo 
 congregation properly consists of only two 
 members, though four more, from their being 
 connected with either our girls' school or one 
 of the members, attend our Teloogoo services. 
 But besides these six baptized persons, there 
 are present at our Sabbath services all our 
 heathen girls, about thirty or forty of the boys 
 from our vernacular school, and most of our 
 heathen domestics, so that we frequently have 
 a congregation of about eighty souls." 
 
 The Rev. E. Sargent, writing from the Tinne- 
 velly district on the 30th June, reports the back- 
 sliding of two villages. He says of some of his 
 adherents : " their profession of Christianity is 
 not influenced by any higher motives than that 
 of having so long identified themselves with the 
 Vedan (the Protestant religion) they are now 
 ashamed to renounce it." 
 
 The Rev. P. P. SchafFter, writing from the 
 same Tinnevelly district in June 1849, tells us 
 that several hundred individuals of the Kurn- 
 vankolie congregation had renounced the pro- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. Ill 
 
 fession of the Christian religion, and that the 
 congregation " of Alankolum, having got back 
 their lands from the Brahmins, and being 
 now independent of the missionaries, shew a 
 great predilection for heathenish practices and 
 ceremonies." This requires some explanation : 
 in several districts the heathen heads of vil- 
 lages, and others in authority, had grievously 
 oppressed the poorer people, who found that 
 by attaching themselves to the Protestant mis- 
 sions they were protected, and this so unhesita- 
 tingly that they became oppressors in their 
 turn, to such an extent as to rouse the Pagans 
 against them; and bloodshed ensued. This was 
 the history of the well-known riots at Tinne- 
 velly a few years ago. The details would be 
 too voluminous for our space ; suffice it to men- 
 tion that the magistrates more than once ex- 
 pressed their surprise at the disturbances in so 
 many Missionary villages, and said that the 
 more Protestant natives there were in a place, 
 the more police they required. This affair has 
 by no means tended to attach the Hindoos to 
 Protestantism, as the outrages committed by 
 the proselytes, and defended by the missiona- 
 ries, were most gross and notorious, and the con- 
 
 I 
 
112 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 sequent reprisals of the Heathens were dreadful. 
 The so-called Christians disgraced themselves 
 on the trials which followed these riots by their 
 perjury and conspiracy. Mr. Douglas, the 
 Judge, says in 1846, " The records of the trials 
 themselves, as well as the experience of every 
 judicial officer who has been in the Zillah, will 
 affirm that the time and labour required to un- 
 ravel a single Tinnevelly case would suffice for 
 the disposal of two or three cases in almost 
 every other Zillah." Mr. E. B. Thomas, the 
 Collector, speaks of false accusations and con- 
 spiracy being rife, of " the adroitness with 
 which evidence is got together in support of 
 crime," alluding to cases in which Protestant 
 Christians were prosecutors, and Heathens de- 
 fendants ; and from these circumstances Mr. 
 Lewin could not help calling attention to the 
 fact of this district abounding beyond others 
 in missionaries. These are the Christians whom 
 Dr. Spencer, the Protestant Bishop of Madras, 
 held up at Bath in February 1848 as so supe- 
 rior to the Catholic converts, who in his opinion 
 " have but exchanged one species of idolatry 
 for another," who were, he asserts, well ac- 
 quainted with St. Anthony, St. Francis, and 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 113 
 
 the Virgin Mary, but scarcely one had heard 
 of the name of Jesus Christ. Catholics in Eng- 
 land are so accustomed to the credulity with 
 which their countrymen receive statements 
 against them, that they scarcely wonder at such 
 a charge being made, though some may be sur- 
 prised at a man who should be a gentleman 
 and a man of truth and honour, stating such 
 falsehoods ; whether he knew them to be such 
 or not, we leave to his own conscience, but had 
 it been possible to have placed any one of the 
 Tinnevelly Christians and a good Catholic na- 
 tive before the meeting, the Priests so calum- 
 niated would willingly have abided the verdict 
 of even so prejudiced an assembly. 
 
 These few instances are quoted merely to 
 shew how immense is the sum lavished on 
 whatever seems likely to contribute to the 
 spread of Protestantism, and to prove that, if 
 their success has not been equal to that of the 
 followers of St. Francis Xavier, it has not been 
 because they are less favourably circumstanced. 
 
 The advantages given to Protestants by Go- 
 vernment are numberless. The salary of the 
 few Catholic Chaplains allowed hardly ever 
 exceeds 100 rupees per month, or £ 120 a year; 
 
 1% 
 
114 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 more frequently it is only half that sum, and 
 even less, though they have charge of all the 
 Catholic soldiers, who in some regiments are 
 as numerous as the Protestants. Before 1830 
 there were hardly any European Priests in 
 India, and the 50 rupees per month, the usual 
 allowance to Catholic clergy for attending the 
 troops at a military station, was not very insuf- 
 ficient for men who were of the class of the great 
 majority of the Goa clergy, and who had other 
 means of support; nor was it very dispropor- 
 tionate to the work they did. But now ahnost 
 all the Priests in India are educated Europeans, 
 and are surely entitled to a support becoming 
 their station, and the far greater attention they 
 pay to their flocks. They cannot live as cheaply 
 as a native, nor is it desirable that they should: 
 in fact no one doubts the influence that social 
 rank and easy circumstances have in securing 
 respect from the uneducated; nor, wonderful 
 as is the self-devotion of the Catholic Priest- 
 hood in countless instances, can it be expected 
 that a sufficient number can be constantly found 
 to supply the wants of our large European 
 force in India, unless some of the comforts of 
 life are secured to them in return for their 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 115 
 
 indispensable labours. Protestant Chaplains 
 are, as we will shew, highly paid. But are the 
 services of the Catholic soldier less valuable 
 than those of his Protestant comrade ? are his 
 wishes, his feelings, less to be considered ? 
 They are in truth stronger towards his Priest 
 than those entertained by Protestants for their 
 clergy; disrespect to a Priest irritates the Catho- 
 lic soldier, and much ill-feeling has often been 
 caused by the non-recognized position of Catho- 
 lic Chaplains. A Protestant Chaplain has what 
 is called military protection ; an insult to him 
 would be punished as a military offence ; the 
 sentries are obliged to salute him as he passes 
 on duty, and he has access whenever he pleases 
 to barracks, hospitals, and soldiers' schools. 
 Nothing of all this is granted to the Catholic 
 Chaplain ; in some cases the right feeling of 
 the Colonel supplies, to some extent, the omis- 
 sion of regulations, but it depends on his indi- 
 vidual good will. A sentry is not bound to 
 salute a Priest, even when passing on official 
 duty, and this often creates ill-feeling among 
 the men, for a Catholic soldier salutes as a 
 matter of course, which his Protestant comrade 
 probably will not. Two soldiers walking to- 
 
116 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 gether off duty, have met a Priest ; one, being 
 a Catholic, salutes him ; the other, a Protestant, 
 does not, and on being asked by his comrade 
 refuses : the Catholic has been seen to walk 
 away, angry, knowing that if the Protestant 
 Chaplain had passed, he (the Catholic) must 
 have saluted him. Trifle as this may appear, 
 it shews the tendency of the marked distinction 
 so unwisely made. Nor is this the worst : there 
 are many Catholic Chaplains in India not paid 
 at all by Government. Some of the large, and 
 all the small military stations are dependent on 
 the unpaid services of any Priest who may 
 chance to be in the neighbourhood, and whose 
 time is already more than occupied with his 
 own flock. Even when there are a considera- 
 ble number of Catholics at a station, the autho- 
 rities have often refused to grant any allowance 
 for a Priest. Some time ago, at Mhow, in the 
 Madras Presidency, the Catholics applied to 
 the Bishop for a Chaplain, if possible a British 
 one, and the Pev. Mr. Birch was appointed; but 
 though the soldiers and their families, with the 
 native Christians attached to the station, num- 
 bered three hundred souls, Government refused 
 him any salary, while the Protestant Chaplain, 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 117 
 
 whose flock did not amount to a hundred indi- 
 viduals, received the usual sum allotted to his 
 rank. At Palamcottah, in the Madura district, 
 the Catholic artillery men are seldom less than 
 from twenty to thirty, and no Catholic Chaplain 
 is paid. At Wuzeerabad, where there is a 
 large number of soldiers, no salary is allowed 
 for a Priest. But these are only a few in- 
 stances, out of many, in which the Catholic 
 soldier is virtually taxed, by being obliged to 
 support, out of his small pay, the Priest whose 
 services are as necessary to his good conduct as 
 they are to his happiness here and hereafter. The 
 Catholic Chaplains have no grant for travelling 
 expenses, nor any retiring pension, whatever 
 may have been the length of their service. The 
 Protestant Chaplains maintained by Government 
 amount to twenty -nine ; of these, nine receive 
 700 rupees per month, or £ 840 per annum ; 
 the rest have 500 rupees per month, or £ 600 
 a year. They have besides 200 rupees per 
 month allowances, when on their journeys to 
 visit out-stations at fixed periods, and if they 
 leave India after seven years' service, have the 
 half-pay of a Major, £ 173 : 7 : 6 a year; if 
 they serve ten years, then* retiring pension in- 
 
118 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 creases to the half-pay of a Lieutenant-Colonel, 
 £200 : 15 ; if they remain eighteen years, three 
 of which may have been furlough, they have 
 on retiring the full pay of a Lieutenant-Colonel, 
 £ 365 a year. Should they be unable to serve 
 seven years, the shortest period which entitles 
 to these retiring pensions, they may be ad- 
 mitted to the benefit of what is called Lord 
 Clive's fund, from which they will receive 
 £ 63 : 17 : 6, and their widows half as much. 
 The widows of Chaplains who have served 
 seven years may receive, from the same fund, 
 the pension allowed to a Captain's widow, and 
 if the husband's service has been fifteen years, 
 that allotted to a Major's widow. A Chaplain 
 absent from India on furlough, after seven 
 years' residence, receives £ 191 : 12 : 6 per an- 
 num, and if obliged by illness to return to 
 Europe before the seven years, £ 127 : 15 per 
 annum. Besides these liberal salaries, they 
 receive considerable fees for marriages, regis- 
 tries of Baptism, and funerals, except in the 
 cases of the military. 
 
 It is well known that there are many Catho- 
 lic soldiers in the English service ; in some 
 regiments there are nearly as many as there 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 119 
 
 are Protestants, and no one has ever ventured 
 to hint that they are less brave, or have shrunk 
 from sacrificing their lives for their country; 
 yet their orphan children are systematically 
 excluded from the asylums provided for the 
 orphans of soldiers, by regulations which would 
 ensure the sacrifice of their religion if they 
 were placed there. Remonstrance has been 
 vain : we have stated elsewhere how the insti- 
 tution called the Martiniere at Calcutta has been 
 so managed as to exclude the co-religionists 
 of its founder. At Madras and Bombay Catho- 
 lic orphans are virtually excluded from all 
 Government establishments, and after vain 
 efforts to induce Government to alter such 
 rules as interfered with the faith of the chil- 
 dren, the Vicar Apostolic of Madras has been 
 forced to establish and maintain an orphanage 
 for the children of Catholic soldiers, for which 
 all aid from public funds has been refused. 
 
 The difficulties placed in the way of Catholic 
 Priests, who wish to instruct the Catholic chil- 
 dren in regimental schools, is another grievance : 
 there are certain regulations on the subject, 
 but they are often evaded, and practically the 
 permission may be said to rest with the Com- 
 
1£0 SKETCH OF THE EFFORTS OF 
 
 manding Officer. In 1849 the Right Rev. Dr. 
 Hartman, Vicar Apostolic at Patna, visited 
 Benares, a military station in his district, where 
 there was no provision for a Priest. He found 
 there were quite as many Catholic as Protes- 
 tant children in the schools, but that they were 
 utterly ignorant of the Catechism. He wrote 
 to the officer who had control over the school, 
 requesting that the Catholic children might 
 learn their catechism at the same hour as the 
 Protestant children did, which was the more 
 easy as one of the masters was a Catholic : the 
 officer granted the leave, but after a short time 
 the parents complained to the Bishop that it 
 had been withdrawn. He remonstrated in 
 writing, and received a reply enclosing a letter 
 from the Protestant Chaplain, stating that as no 
 other party was appointed by Government to 
 undertake any portion of this work, he con- 
 sidered it not only his duty but also his privi- 
 lege to exercise an entire control over the 
 religious instruction imparted in the artillery 
 school; and he considered the introduction of 
 a catechism unsanctioned by him was, on the 
 part of the schoolmaster, an infringement on 
 his authority ; he added, that the interposition 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 121 
 
 of a Vicar Apostolic residing at a distant station 
 was an encroachment on his just privileges. 
 Some time afterwards the Catholic Priest at 
 Chunar was recognized by Government as ap- 
 pointed to visit Benares once a month. Surely 
 the children of Catholic soldiers are entitled to 
 the superintendence of their own Pastor, and to 
 instruction in the creed of their parents, or else 
 a man in becoming a soldier legally forfeits one 
 of the dearest of privileges, is debarred from 
 fulfilling one of his strictest duties, that of lead- 
 ing to God the children whom God has en- 
 trusted him with. The commanding officers 
 of two regiments, successively stationed at 
 Trichinopoly, positively refused the verbal and 
 written demands of the Catholic Chaplain 
 for leave to superintend the religious instruc- 
 tion of the Catholic children within the regi- 
 mental school. These are mentioned as instances 
 of the spirit which prevails throughout India, 
 and of the impossibility of uniform justice with- 
 out proper regulations duly enforced. They 
 show that Catholic Chaplains, though receiving 
 what may be called an apology for pay from 
 Government, are but half-recognized : yet 
 attempts are often made to interfere with them 
 
122 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 in the performance of their duties. Lately a 
 nominally Catholic soldier died at Trichinopoly, 
 but as he was, from his neglect of religious 
 duties, out of the Church, the Chaplain refused 
 to perform over him the solemn burial service 
 of the Catholic Church : a friendly officer came 
 to the Priest and warned him that he might 
 get into difficulties with regard to his pay : he 
 replied : " Do you think I came to India for 
 the pay I receive ? — I came to fulfil my duties 
 as a Priest, and this is one of them." In this 
 instance no official notice was taken ; but here 
 again the want of due regulations might have 
 left the Chaplain at the mercy of a commanding 
 officer, and have subjected him to the loss of 
 the paltry sum allotted to him for his services, 
 because he adhered to one of the regulations of 
 his Church. 
 
 MODERN HISTORY OF THE MISSION OF 
 
 MADURA. 
 
 It has been already said, that after the French 
 revolution had prevented the Seminary for 
 Foreign Missions, who succeeded the Jesuits, 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 1£3 
 
 from sending out Priests, the Mission was sup- 
 plied, from Goa, with Clergy far inferior, both in 
 learning and virtue, to their predecessors ; nor 
 were they sufficiently numerous to have main- 
 tained religion on its former footing. The 
 consequence was, that many Catholic commu- 
 nities, wearied with the neglect, the extortion, 
 or the scandalous conduct of that brief genera- 
 tion of Clergy, joined the Protestants. The 
 greater part of these have been happily won 
 back already, and small as is the number of 
 Priests in the district, this source of perversion 
 is closed. But the evil had grown very great 
 before 1837, when, in consequence of the peti- 
 tion presented to the Pope, of which mention 
 has already been made, four Jesuit Missioners 
 reached Madura. They had many and for- 
 midable difficulties to encounter, above all the 
 schism, whose history is given in a previous 
 chapter. The Goa Clergy made every imagin- 
 able effort to force the people to adhere to them, 
 but often ineffectually, till the Missioner found 
 himself obliged to check some abuse to which 
 the people were attached, on which a whole 
 village would join the schismatics. They also 
 carried on numberless law suits for the churches, 
 
124 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 chapels and schools, to all which the Missioners 
 laid claim, as the only lawfully constituted 
 Catholic Clergy in the country. At one time they 
 succeeded in getting a decree from the English 
 Magistrate, declaring that all the churches and 
 chapels in the district were their's by right. 
 This was of course a great triumph, and the 
 Catholics were at once expelled from above sixty 
 churches ; but the Magistrate had exceeded his 
 powers, and the Catholics were enabled to con- 
 tinue this legal warfare, sometimes with success, 
 but at very great expense. In many cases 
 they have been forced to build new churches, 
 usually very small, with mud walls and palm- 
 leaf roofs, but sometimes really good buildings, 
 superior to the old. Still the Indian attachment 
 to what is ancient made the people cling to 
 their former places of worship. The Protes- 
 tant ministers, in most instances, aided the 
 schismatical party, which often went to almost 
 incredible lengths, in their opposition to the law- 
 fully appointed Missioners. The Schismatics did 
 not even scruple to use poison on more than one 
 occasion, and two at least of the Missioners are 
 believed to have died thus, whilst several others 
 endured serious and repeated illness, attributed 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 125 
 
 to the same cause. Nevertheless the schism 
 was rapidly dying away, partly by the conver- 
 sion of the greater portion of its supporters, 
 partly from the gradual extinction of the Goa 
 clergy, when, as has been related above, the 
 new Archbishop of Goa arrived in India, and 
 breaking all his oaths to the Holy See, revived 
 and gave new vigour to this great evil. Still 
 the schism is disappearing, and it is hoped that, 
 in a few years more, it will be reckoned with 
 the past. 
 
 In most places the house occupied by the 
 Missioner when he comes is a mud hut, per- 
 haps seven or eight feet wide by twelve in 
 length, and about seven feet high, thatched 
 with palm-leaves, without windows, without 
 even a door, and without furniture of any kind, 
 not so much as a table or a chair. If there is a 
 board of any sort to be found, he spreads on it 
 the mat, which is his only bed: his food is 
 nothing but rice, and curry made of lean, tough 
 fowls when they can be procured. 
 
 The immense size of the district adds much 
 to the toils of the Priests, who are obliged by 
 these law-suits, by sick-calls, and by the neces- 
 sity of visiting in turn each of the widely 
 scattered Christian villages, to be continually 
 
126 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 on the road. As far as possible they endeavour 
 to remain several days together in each village, 
 to instruct, to hear Confessions, to remedy 
 abuses, &c. But then they must proceed to 
 another, and thus they seldom have a fixed 
 dwelling, and except at a few central stations 
 they cannot afford time or money to attend to 
 their own comforts, or to what we should con- 
 sider the barest necessaries of life. 
 
 Amidst all these privations the Missioner 
 must go through his duties ; he must hear the 
 confessions of all who come, and their numbers 
 may be guessed at by the fact that, in the first 
 year, above 8,000 were heard, aud now the 
 Catholics are much more numerous; he must 
 besides instruct the people as well as he can, 
 and administer the other Sacraments. An in- 
 stance of the kind of people they have to deal 
 with may be worth relating. A Priest went to 
 a village for the first time, and enquired of the 
 assembled congregation if there were any chil- 
 dren to be baptized : no one replied. After 
 some minutes, one of the principal persons 
 brought an infant, and when the ceremonies 
 of the Christening were over, offered a small 
 piece of money. The Missioner refused it, 
 saying, he never took any payment for a Bap- 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 127 
 
 tism : immediately children of all ages were 
 brought in, and above fifty were Christened in 
 one village. 
 
 With all this, time must be found to preach 
 to the Heathens, and considering the other 
 labours of the Clergy, their success in this is 
 great. They do not neglect the mode of saving 
 souls so largely adopted in all our Missions, 
 that of baptizing dying children : in India the 
 fondness of the parents prevents children being 
 exposed as they are in China, and the Priest 
 finds them principally by visiting the sick, and 
 giving medicines as far as he can. Thus, as a 
 physician of the body he often first gains access 
 to a Pagan house or village, where, as a Chris- 
 tian preacher, he would have had no hearers. 
 
 Such is the life of men accustomed to Euro- 
 pean comforts, and often belonging to affluent 
 families. Is it wonderful that such toils and 
 hardships, in so trying a climate, should cost 
 many lives ? In the first ten years after the 
 establishment of the Mission, twenty-one priests 
 have died out of sixty-four, all of them young 
 men, and most had not reached the age of 35. 
 How many of these valuable lives might have 
 been saved, if the funds of the Mission could 
 
 K 
 
128 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 have allowed them less wretched dwellings and 
 better food ? The deaths of some were so edi- 
 fying that this sketch would be incomplete 
 without a few details. 
 
 The first who died was Father Fidelis Alex- 
 ander Martin;, one of the four first sent out, and 
 who had laboured with great zeal and success 
 in the Mission. He had lately been made 
 Superior of the Marava district, and was most 
 
 r 
 
 beloved by the Christians, and feared by the 
 schismatical party, on account of the numbers 
 whom he won over to the truth. Frequently 
 he reached a village at night, invited the people 
 to Confession, sat in the Church hearing them 
 till it was time to say mass next morning, then 
 after eating a little food remounted his horse 
 and continued his journey, taking no rest till 
 the heat of the day obliged him to seek shelter. 
 No remonstrance could make him take more 
 care of his health; he often made good resolu- 
 tions on the subject, but when anything was to 
 be done they were all forgotten. In May 
 1840, the four Missioners met at Pallitama, 
 and spent six days together making arrange- 
 ments about their duties, &c. They separated 
 on the 24th, and Father Martin went to cele- 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 129 
 
 brate the Feast of the Ascension in his own 
 district. On the 30th, F. Bertrand received a 
 summons to come and attend him, for he was 
 dying: he was nearly fifty miles off, but he 
 reached the neighbourhood by seven o'clock 
 next morning, and heard from some people 
 whom he passed, that F. Martin was better; 
 so he entered a Church, and prepared to say 
 Mass. The people began the prayers which are 
 usually said before Mass, and as they finished, 
 added — u and also for the soul of Father 
 Fidelis Alexander." F. Bertrand instantly 
 enquired, and found that he had died the 
 previous evening. He could not wait even to 
 say his Mass, but remounted his horse, and at 
 nine o'clock reached the place where lay the 
 body of his beloved friend. The calm face 
 shewed that he had not died of cholera, which 
 was then very prevalent, and to which he had 
 exposed himself in every way in his constant 
 attendance on the sick. The Christians were 
 still weeping round the body, and Father Ber- 
 trand learned from them, that on the 28th — 
 Ascension Thursday — he had felt ill, but in- 
 sisted on proceeding to the next Christian 
 village, and forbidding the people, who were 
 
 k2 
 
130 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 alarmed at his symptoms, to send for one of the 
 other Missioners, he insisted on saying Mass, and 
 then hearing Confessions till he became so ill with 
 dysentery that he was forced to lie down, and 
 allowed them to send for F. Bertrand. On 
 Saturday he was better for a few hours, but 
 a fresh attack in the afternoon carried him off. 
 He was perfectly resigned, and comforted his 
 weeping flock, saying : " I did not come to 
 this country to live in it for ever." He much 
 regretted dying without the last Sacraments, 
 but in this, as in all else, resigned himself com- 
 pletely to the will of God, and cast himself 
 with trusting love into His divine Arms. He 
 was buried in the enclosure which surrounds 
 the Church. The attachment of his flock, his 
 great reputation for sanctity, and the high 
 respect in which he was held, have made the 
 tomb an object of pilgrimage, and it is visited 
 by thousands every year. The people loudly 
 proclaim that very many sick have there been 
 cured, but the circumstances have not been 
 examined with sufficient care to allow of more 
 than a statement of the popular belief. It 
 seems, however, impossible to doubt that many 
 who have undertaken this pilgrimage from 
 
THE MISSION OF MADUKA. 131 
 
 great distances, so ill that their friends as- 
 sured them they could never reach the end of 
 their journey, have returned in health. There 
 have been as many as fifteen thousand col- 
 lected on the anniversary of his death, and 
 though the Missioners are careful to restrain 
 the veneration for him as far as may be, since 
 he has not been beatified by the Holy See, yet 
 it is an excellent opportunity of bringing num- 
 bers to the Sacraments, and reviving religious 
 feelings in their hearts. 
 
 Father de Bournet, who had been but a few- 
 months in the country, and had been placed 
 under Father Martin, survived him scarcely 
 twenty days. He had received news of his 
 friend's illness, and arrived too late ; he and 
 Father Bertrand spent five days together, and 
 as they parted expressed a hope that this leave- 
 taking might not be like that with F. Martin, 
 never to meet again on earth, but added, 
 " God's will be done." F. Bournet had pro- 
 ceeded through his district, and F. Bertrand 
 set out to rejoin him some days later. On the 
 13th of June he received a letter from him, 
 written in good health; that evening he learned 
 that he was dying ! He hurried forward, and 
 
132 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 found him alive, but very ill of a kind of ner- 
 vous fever. Father Canoz, now Bishop of 
 Madura, was with him, and for several days 
 they watched beside the mat on which he lay, 
 hoping sometimes that the worst was over, and 
 edified by his perfect resignation, which was 
 so entire that he refused to pray for recovery, 
 but only that God's will might be done. He 
 begged for Extreme Unction while they still 
 had great hopes that he might be spared, say- 
 ing it would give him courage to suffer as 
 much as God pleased to send him. He con- 
 tinually repeated the prayer, "Jesus, Mary, 
 Joseph, &c." and all the prayers suitable for a 
 dying man, and on the night of Friday after 
 Corpus Christi, 1840, he peacefully expired. 
 The house resounded with the sobs of the 
 Christians, who had already become much at- 
 tached to him, and who felt that they had now 
 lost a second most valuable guide in their path 
 to Eternity. 
 
 Till February 1843 the Mission lost no more 
 of its Priests, and several new ones had arrived 
 from Europe. Among them was Father Alex- 
 ander de St. Sardos, who reached Trichinopoly 
 in June, 1841, and rapidly acquired the Tamul 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 133 
 
 language, so that the Christians were delighted 
 with his instructions ; but he over-exerted him- 
 self deplorably in his zealous efforts to gain 
 souls to God. He often spent whole days in 
 the Confessional, deferring his Mass till a late 
 hour, and then resuming his labours. He 
 thought no length of time too great to gain a 
 sinner who would not readily give up an en- 
 mity, or do whatever else might be necessary 
 to make his Confession good. When the cholera 
 broke out, he devoted himself to the sick, 
 assisting them in every possible way, and when 
 implored to take care of his own life, replied 
 that he did not fear death; he endeavoured 
 always to keep his soul ready to appear before 
 God. On the 2nd of February, before he said 
 his Mass, he attended a child of ten years old ill 
 of the cholera, and after Mass had but little to 
 eat, for he never cared what was set before 
 him. He felt rather ill, but continued his 
 usual duties till evening, when he was forced 
 to give up : later, he sent a messenger to 
 F. Combe, who was about twenty-five miles 
 off ; he then endeavoured to say his breviary, 
 declaring that he must pray while he had 
 strength ; he told his Catechist that for several 
 
134 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 days he had felt a warning, while he was say- 
 ing Mass, that he should not live beyond a 
 few days. He then knelt before the altar, and 
 offered his life to God. They brought some 
 straw to spread his mat upon, and he lay 
 down, to rise no more. His sufferings were 
 very great, but he never complained ; he ex- 
 pressed some anxiety that F. Combe might 
 arrive in time, but it was in vain : he had been 
 dead above an hour, though F. Combe had lost 
 not a moment in setting out when he received 
 the message. 
 
 On the 18th of the same month F. Chavignon 
 was seized just as he was about to say Mass. 
 He had been hearing Confessions till late the 
 night before, and had had nothing to eat but a 
 little rice. In the morning he continued his 
 instructions to his flock, and then prepared 
 to say Mass, though his Catechist warned him 
 that he perceived symptoms of Cholera. Before 
 he could begin he sunk against the altar. He 
 was carried to his mat, and a messenger sent 
 for F. Gamier, the nearest priest, who arrived 
 at noon, and brought some remedies with him ; 
 but it was too late to save life, though he lin^ 
 gered till the morning of the 21st, perfectly 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 135 
 
 resigned to the will of God, and never uttering 
 a single word of complaint, though his suffer- 
 ings were intense. 
 
 On the 5th July of this same year, 1843, died 
 F. Louis Garnier, Superior of the Mission, and 
 one of the four who came out in 1837. Nor 
 was this the last loss the Mission sustained in 
 that fatal year. On the 30th July died F. Peter 
 Faurie, who had only arrived in India the pre- 
 ceding October. But the account of his last 
 moments will be found in the letters of Father 
 Clifford, in the next chapter. On the 16th of 
 October died another of the young Missioners, 
 Father Claude Deschamps, who had not been 
 above two months in the country. He was 
 very clever, and had made considerable pro- 
 gress both in English and in Tamul, but he 
 suffered severely from headache, which at first 
 he concealed, thinking it of no consequence. 
 As soon as he mentioned it, physicians were 
 consulted, but he continued to get worse till 
 the 14th October, when he felt so weak that he 
 begged to have the last Sacraments, though 
 those around did not think him in immediate 
 danger. He often exclaimed: "Oh! how pure 
 we must be to appear before God ! It is only 
 
136 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 at death that we can understand it." He then 
 begged the prayers of the Missioners, and for 
 some time was quite calm, but delirium came 
 on, and lasted for thirty-six hours ; it ceased 
 before he expired, but he was speechless, and 
 in the night of the 16th he died, to the deep 
 regret of his companions, who had become 
 truly attached to him, and had hoped much 
 from his zeal and talent. He had long fore- 
 seen his death : indeed he left France with a 
 conviction that his career would be short, and 
 amid the sufferings and privations inseparable 
 from a Missionary life he often exclaimed, 
 <( How happy I am ! God is pleased to be satis- 
 fied with my good will, and to accept my sacri- 
 fice at once ! " 
 
 Two more were yet to be added to the fatal 
 list of that year. Father Louis du Ranquet 
 was seized with cholera on the 7th of October ; 
 another of the Fathers, who was already on his 
 way to meet him and confer about the state of the 
 Mission, hurried forward on receiving the sad 
 news, and arrived in time to hear his Confes- 
 sion and give him the last Sacraments ; he re- 
 ceived every attention that circumstances would 
 allow, but on the 8th he peacefully expired. 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA 137 
 
 Father Francis Perrin survived him but a 
 few days. Like F. Deschamps, to whom he 
 was much attached, he had been in the country 
 but just twelve months, and was very young. 
 The account of his death will be found in the 
 letters of Father Walter Clifford. 
 
 For some months there was a respite, and 
 the next who died, Father Clifford, requires a 
 separate chapter. 
 
 In October 1845, died Father Louis Ber- 
 lendis, an Italian of great zeal and talent, 
 who had been the companion of the celebrated 
 Cardinal Odescalchi after he had resigned his 
 dignity to become an humble Jesuit. He 
 foretold to F. Berlendis, that he would die in 
 India, but this prophecy in no degree lessened 
 his earnest desire to be sent on Foreign Mis- 
 sions. His health was very delicate, and in his 
 journey across the isthmus of Suez, in Feb^ 
 ruary 1844, he had spat blood; the climate 
 of India did not suit him as had been hoped ; 
 the privations made necessary by the poverty of 
 the Mission pressed very severely on him, and 
 in August he was so ill as to leave little hope. 
 His admirable patience, and his loving confor- 
 mity to the will of God, were most exemplary, 
 
138 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 and to the last his Superiors hoped he might 
 be spared, as they knew how useful to the 
 Mission his varied knowledge, and his acquain- 
 tance with the medical art would be. On the 
 4th of October, he received the last Sacraments, 
 and died the following day, so happily that the 
 survivors hardly dared regret one who so evi- 
 dently exchanged his tedious sufferings for a 
 better life. 
 
 Again some months passed without death's 
 claiming fresh victims among the small number 
 of Missioners who were labouring in this great 
 harvest. But in July 1846 cholera again ap- 
 peared, and carried off no less than four of the 
 Fathers. The first was Father de St. Ferriol, 
 who was attached to Pratacoudi, whither he had 
 just returned after a journey to Negapatam to 
 make a retreat. He sank within little more 
 than twelve hours, dying July 19th. 
 
 On the same day at Negapatam, F. O'Kenny 
 was seized with cholera. He was an Irishman, 
 the only British subject on the Mission after 
 the death of the Hon. and Rev. Walter Clifford, 
 and had been sent out especially to assist in the 
 College lately established in that town, as will 
 be seen in a subsequent chapter. A few hours 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 139 
 
 after his illness was known to be cholera, one 
 of the boys in the school was also attacked, 
 and in spite of every effort died on the follow- 
 ing day. Father O 'Kenny lingered some hours 
 longer, and at one time there was a hope that 
 he might recover, but it was in vain : he died 
 July 21st. 
 
 Father Audibert had been ill even before 
 F. O 'Kenny, but his disease was not considered 
 at first to be cholera. As soon as this was 
 known, the boys in the school, who were 
 excessively alarmed, were sent home, or en- 
 trusted to the friends of their parents. In spite 
 of all that could be done F. Audibert, weakened 
 by privations and by previous illness, was soon 
 in a hopeless state. Till within a few hours of 
 his death he was perfectly sensible, but then 
 delirium came on, and after a violent attack he 
 fell into his agony, which lasted an hour, when 
 he peacefully expired, July 22nd. 
 
 The last victim was F. Barret, who had only 
 landed with two companions at Pondicherry on 
 the day of F. Audibert's death. They pro- 
 ceeded at once to Negapatam, F. Barret saying, 
 when he heard of the sad state of things there : 
 " My health is good enough for ordinary cir- 
 
140 MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 cumstances, but I can hardly hope to escape 
 the cholera : perhaps I may be attacked as soon 
 as I arrive : no matter ; I have made my sacri- 
 fice." He was not mistaken : he was taken ill 
 the very night he reached Negapatam, and 
 next morning made his Confession, and begged 
 to be allowed to make his vows, for he had but 
 just completed his two year's novitiate, and 
 having received the last Sacraments, he expired 
 in sentiments of joyful hope. 
 
 Till 1849 the Mission was spared further 
 losses by death; but in that year dysentery 
 carried off Father Ponsdevier, a young French- 
 man, who had been a lawyer of great promise 
 before he joined the Society of Jesus. He 
 made his novitiate in France, and then offered 
 himself for the Foreign Missions, and pro- 
 ceeded to Negapatam, and thence to Trichino- 
 poly, where he died of dysentery after about 
 two years of labour in the Mission. 
 
 In 1850, cholera again claimed a victim, and 
 this time also it was a young Priest, not or- 
 dained a year. Father Sartoris was a Savoyard 
 by birth, and had proceeded to India before 
 his noviceship was ended. He was one of the 
 first Priests ordained by the present Bishop, 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 141 
 
 Dr. Canoz, and was much beloved by his com- 
 panions. He had but just begun to labour 
 among the Natives, when he was sent to a vil- 
 lage where a violent dispute was raging, to 
 endeavour to reconcile the adversaries. He 
 was making some progress in this good work 
 when he was seized with cholera, which was 
 ravaging the village, and after a short illness 
 died. 
 
 In 1851 another Priest was carried off by 
 dysentery. Father Conneil was about 36 years 
 of age, and had been in India about four years. 
 In each of the years just mentioned, a young 
 novice had also fallen a victim to cholera; they 
 were young men from Goa, descended from 
 Portuguese ancestors, and of great promise. 
 One of them was of a very distinguished family 
 in Goa, and their loss was almost as much felt 
 by the Mission as that of the Priests whose 
 deaths have been mentioned at greater length. 
 
 THE HON. AND REV. WALTER CLIFFORD. 
 
 This Father was brother to the present Lord 
 Clifford, and was educated at the College of 
 Stonyhurst. Feeling himself called to a reli- 
 
14£ MODERN HISTORY OF 
 
 gious life, he decided on joining the Society of 
 Jesus, and his , novitiate was made at Home. 
 Having completed it, he returned to England, 
 was ordained Priest, and for some years la- 
 boured most zealously on the English Mission, 
 and distinguished himself by his indefatigable 
 exertions. 
 
 Being obliged to spend some time in France, 
 he met some of the Fathers who had been on 
 the Indian Mission, and conversed much with 
 them. Up to that time he had been opposed 
 to foreign Missions in general, saying that while 
 there was so much to be done at home, and so 
 few labourers, it was wrong to waste precious 
 lives among heathen and savage nations. What 
 he now saw and heard so completely changed 
 his opinion, that, after making a retreat to as- 
 certain what might be God's will in the matter, 
 he felt himself called to offer for the foreign 
 Missions, and was at once accepted and ordered 
 to proceed to India. He did not even return 
 to England to take leave of his friends and 
 relations, but on the £3rd February, 1841, em- 
 barked with FF. Wilmot, de St. Sardos, and 
 St. Cyr, on board the French ship " Ganges," 
 at Bordeaux. For the first few days they suf- 
 
THE MISSION OF MADURA. 143 
 
 fered much from sea-sickness, but as soon as 
 possible they laid down an arrangement of the 
 day by which they might, in some degree con- 
 form themselves to their collegiate regulations, 
 and on Sunday, March 7th, with the Captain's 
 consent, they prepared a little altar in the 
 cabin occupied by FF. Wilmot and St. Cyr, 
 and said Mass ; such as the crew as chose, and 
 could find room, being allowed to attend. The 
 space was so confined that, on the succeeding 
 Sundays, the Captain had the altar placed against 
 the mizen mast in the poop cabin, and there 
 each Sunday, while the voyage lasted, the Holy 
 Sacrifice was offered, in presence of most of the 
 crew and passengers. On Easter day they were 
 not far from the Cape of Good Hope, and the 
 festival was celebrated by the first Communion 
 of three of the sailors, whom the Missioners 
 had instructed and prepared, and by several 
 others fulfilling their Easter duties. Little 
 more than a week after, F. Wilmot was seized 
 with violent colic, which lasted for some days, 
 and which returned so frequently that he could 
 hardly be called well till he arrived in India. 
 There was no physician on board, and the vari- 
 ous remedies suggested in turn by those around 
 
 L 
 
144 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 gave little relief. His patience was most edi- 
 fying, offering all his sufferings for the success 
 of the voyage and the conversion of the Hin- 
 doos. 
 
 On the eve of Whit-Sunday, F. St. Cyr was up 
 by four o'clock, and two sailors slipped quietly 
 into his cabin to make their first Communion, 
 for which they had been preparing for some 
 time. At the beginning of the voyage they 
 had refused all instruction, and one of them 
 had his head filled with impious books. Grace 
 had however triumphed over both, and their 
 firm and decided characters gave great hopes 
 that they would persevere. Their conversion 
 was soon known throughout the ship, and ex- 
 cited much surprise. On Whit -Sunday two 
 more stray sheep entered the fold of Christ: 
 they were two of the officers, who had gone to 
 sea very young, and had never lost their faith, 
 though they had neglected their religious du- 
 ties, and had not yet made their first Commu- 
 nion, which they now did in a most edifying 
 manner. Two of the sailors also, who had not 
 fulfilled their duties at Easter, did so now, and 
 several who had, communicated again. One 
 only of the whole crew had refused, almost to 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 145 
 
 the last, to listen to instruction, but he too 
 yielded before they reached the shores of India. 
 They landed at Pondicherry on "Whit-Monday, 
 May 31st, after one of the most rapid voyages 
 on record. 
 
 The arrival of Father Clifford was a great 
 benefit to the Mission, which was entirely in 
 the hands of French Priests, whose ignorance 
 of English was a deplorable disadvantage in 
 their intercourse with official persons, and whose 
 true position had been much misunderstood. 
 The presence of a clergyman of Father Clifford's 
 rank tended much to prove that those with 
 whom he was joined were really actuated by 
 religious duty, and not by any sinister motives, 
 in their struggles with the schismatics for the 
 possession of the churches and property at- 
 tached to the Mission. His zeal was of course 
 smiled at as enthusiasm by the Protestants, but 
 sincere enthusiasm commands respect even in 
 those who do not share it, and it was soon seen 
 that F. Clifford never hesitated to risk health 
 or life for the interests of religion. Those who 
 knew the difficulties he had to encounter were 
 astonished at the quantity of work he got 
 through, for some months performing the whole 
 
 i2 
 
146 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 of the duties at Trichinopoly, not only among 
 the soldiers, but also the native congregation, 
 though his knowledge of Tamul could not be 
 great in the short time he had been in the 
 country. Two of his letters, which give an 
 account of the deaths of two Missioners men- 
 tioned in the preceding chapter, will give a 
 better idea of his natural kindness of heart, and 
 of the state of the Mission, than can be con- 
 veyed in any other way. The first is addressed 
 to the Superior in France, and is dated from 
 
 " Trichinopoly, July Slst, 1843. 
 
 " P. C. 
 " Rev. Father, 
 
 "A few days ago I begged F. Perrin, 
 who was detained here on account of the pre- 
 valence of cholera in the district, which made 
 the labour too great for me alone, to inform 
 you of our terrible loss, by sending you a copy 
 of F. Tassis' letter describing the last moments 
 of our venerated Superior. Oh ! Rev. Father, 
 I cannot tell you how deeply I have felt the 
 blow which has been sent us, and the more on 
 account of the two other misfortunes which 
 we had undergone this year, 1843 ! This third 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 147 
 
 loss has pierced me to the heart. I did so love 
 good F. Garnier ! We suited each other so 
 well ! I know I have given way too much to 
 grief : but Rev. Father, what would you have ? 
 I was so much attached to him. May God 
 forgive me; may He cease to afflict us, and 
 turn aside from us His wrath ! 
 
 " "We had a solemn service here at Trichino- 
 poly, for the repose of F. Garnier's soul, on 
 the 10th July, and we were obliged to cele- 
 brate a second on the following day, because 
 our soldiers wished to be present, and they had 
 not been able to do so the first day. On both 
 occasions the crowd was great, and their tears 
 very touching. They entreat so earnestly to 
 have his body here that F. Bertrand cannot 
 refuse, and it must be brought hither as soon 
 as possible. It is only fitting that this good 
 Father should repose in the centre of the Mis- 
 sion, in the church he built, at the foot of the 
 altar he had just finished ornamenting. There 
 were more than 500 Communions on the occa- 
 sion of his death ; our good Christians have set 
 an example, which perhaps is seldom imitated 
 in Europe, of the right way of lamenting a 
 Pastor and shewing attachment to him, that is, 
 
148 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 to offer for the repose of his soul the spotless 
 Victim of our redemption. The funeral cere- 
 mony concluded, according to the custom of 
 the country, by the Catechist reading aloud the 
 names of all the Fathers who have died in this 
 Mission, and by prayers being again said for 
 them. 
 
 " Alas ! Rev. Father, I little thought then 
 that a fresh name must soon be added to this 
 melancholy list ! The wound made in our hearts 
 by F. Garnier's death was still bleeding when a 
 new and scarcely less painful loss re-opened it. 
 Our Lord has been pleased to call to Himself 
 our dear F. Peter Faurie, who died here, at 
 Trichinopoly, on the 30th July, the eve of 
 St. Ignatius, our holy Father. 
 
 " This good Father had reached the country 
 last October, as you know from our previous 
 letters. He was sent first to Madura, and 
 remained there, wholly occupied in studying 
 Tamul, till January. He then went with F. 
 Gury to Vadongarapathy, about thirty miles 
 from Trichinopoly, that he might enter on his 
 labours under the guidance of this excellent 
 Missioner. His health was a good deal tried 
 by the climate, and the precautions which the 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 149 
 
 charity of his Superiors obliged him to take ; 
 the remedies which the country physicians gave 
 him, did not produce the desired effect. Still 
 we were far from thinking the evil as serious as 
 it really was. He was re-called to Trichinopoly 
 that he might be better looked after, and was 
 attended by the English surgeon of the 94th 
 Regiment, Mr. Turnbull, an excellent man, 
 for whom I feel sincere esteem and gratitude. 
 F. Perrin, who was then at Trichinopoly, and 
 Brother Joseph Chevela, who lives there, gave 
 him every care that the charity of the Society 
 could suggest : I may add, that I myself spared 
 no trouble, but all was vain. F. Perrin was 
 seized with a dysentery which resisted all our 
 efforts. 
 
 " He had for some time felt a secret presenti- 
 ment of his death, and spoke openly of it : we 
 could not succeed in reviving his hopes. A 
 second physician, whom our surgeon had lat- 
 terly brought with him, did not think the 
 disease very serious ; but the patient was 
 obliged to take to his bed, and we saw that his 
 strength declined rapidly. I thought it right 
 to give him the last Sacraments on Friday 
 evening, July 28. He received them calmly 
 
150 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 and peacefully, and from that moment conversed 
 unceasingly with God, with the Blessed Virgin, 
 and his holy Patrons. He was a most innocent 
 being : a child of Mary. God was pleased to 
 take him out of this world before the flower of 
 virtue had been sullied by the dust of earth. 
 Raptus est ne malitia mutaret mtellectum ejus. 
 Nothing could be more edifying than his last 
 moments. Could you believe that he asked 
 pardon, in my presence, and in that of the 
 brethren, for all the faults he could tax himself 
 with either here or in Europe ? He charged 
 me to tell you that he often thought particu- 
 larly of your Reverence, and he also begged me 
 to greet his poor mother and his family, and 
 to beg you would comfort them for his death. 
 I think a picture of the Blessed Virgin, which 
 he constantly pressed to his heart, and kissed 
 affectionately, will be a precious remembrance 
 of him for [his family. I will send you by the 
 first opportunity this picture, his Crucifix and 
 his rosary : also his theological notes, which 
 he himself meant for his brother Francis. I 
 repeated the absolutions several times, for he 
 often thought the last moment was come. He 
 would say : ( I am going ; I am stifling : 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 151 
 
 pray for me.' A moment before he breathed 
 his last I gave him absolution once more, and 
 while I was saying the prayer, i Anima Christi/ 
 and repeating two or three times the words, 
 ' command me to come to Thee/ he peacefully 
 gave up his soul to Jesus, whose sacred Heart 
 he had unceasingly invoked, as well as that of 
 our loving Mother Mary. 
 
 " In the evening our brave soldiers carried the 
 body on their shoulders from the house to the 
 Church, amid a crowd of Christians, who, 
 grieved to their inmost souls at seeing us thus 
 fall one after another, sacrificing ourselves for 
 them, filled the air with their cries and lamen- 
 tations. It was left all night laid out in the 
 midst of the Christians, who watched and 
 prayed round the bier. In the morning I said 
 Mass, and performed the obsequies according 
 to our customs. Our soldiers and a crowd of 
 Christians, were present, showing their grief 
 for this fresh loss by their tears and fervent 
 prayers. It was a touching sight, E-ev. Father ; 
 my very heart was moved by this unanimous 
 cry of a whole people, sent up to the Father 
 of mercy, beseeching Him to have pity on one 
 who had wished to be the Minister of His 
 
152 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 goodness towards them, if His adorable designs 
 had allowed. This prayer of a people simple 
 in their faith, and perhaps deserving by this 
 very simplicity onr Lord's praise, / have not 
 found such faith in Israel, will snrely have 
 been heard and granted in Heaven ! May their 
 cries one day resound in this holy temple, and 
 thence mount to the throne of grace for my 
 soul ! I ask nothing better than to die in 
 India, like the good Father whose loss we 
 deplore, in osculo Domini : Amen ! Amen ! 
 He rests beside F. Charignon, near the altar on 
 the epistle side ; and I am confident that, with 
 them, FF. Gamier and St. Sardos have this 
 day kept, in the house of our Heavenly Father, 
 a far more brilliant and joyous festival of our 
 holy Patriarch St. Ignatius, than we have had 
 here in this land of exile. 
 
 But whatever anguish we may feel, do not 
 fear, Rev. Father, that the death of our beloved 
 brothers and comrades will make us lose 
 courage, or look backwards. Could we view 
 thus wrongly an end so precious before the 
 Lord ? God preserve us from so far forgetting 
 our honour as to feel the least hesitation. Let 
 us be ready to die fighting for God. Let us 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 153 
 
 not turn our glory into shame by sin-inking 
 from the Cross, in which is our safety, our life, 
 and our resurrection. I perhaps felt too natu- 
 ral and sensible a grief for the death of F. Gar- 
 nier : that of F. Faurie, which I have just 
 witnessed, far from having the same effect on 
 me, fills me with the sweetest consolation. I 
 shall never forget the filial piety with which he 
 kissed the picture of the Blessed Virgin, his 
 good Mother, and the reliquary of oiu* Father 
 St. Ignatius, nor the expression of faith, sweet- 
 ness and resignation with which his dying eyes 
 were fixed on me, while I was recommending 
 his soul to the sacred Heart of Jesus, which he 
 so tenderly loved and invoked. May this 
 death then encourage us all to go forward in 
 the path which leads to our eternal country. 
 Festinemus ingredi in Mam requiem. 
 
 (i As a last circumstance I must add that our 
 dear F. Faurie preserved his senses to his last 
 breath, and at that moment he was as calm and 
 collected as if he had been about to receive the 
 Holy Communion. How sweet it is at that 
 last instant to have been, during life, the faith- 
 ful servant of the Mother of God ! How com- 
 forting to die a child of the Society, in whatever 
 
154 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 place we may be, in Europe, Asia, Africa, or 
 America, wheresoever obedience and the will 
 of God may have placed us. 
 
 " Rev. Father, pray for me that I may obtain 
 final perseverance, from the sacred Heart of 
 Jesus, through the intercession of Mary, and of 
 my holy Patrons SS. Peter, Ignatius, Xavier 
 and Stanislaus ; that I may, sinner as I am, 
 die like this good Father whom we lament, 
 repeating from my heart : ( Command me to 
 come to Thee, that with Thy saints I may praise 
 Thee, for ever and ever. Amen.' I recommend 
 myself, therefore, to the Masses and prayers of 
 your Reverence, and of all our Fathers and 
 Brothers, and I beg you to accept the assurance 
 of my profound respect, &c. 
 
 (Signed) "Walter Clifford, S. J." 
 
 The next letter is dated also from Trichino- 
 poly, November 18, 1843, and is addressed 
 to the Father Provincial. 
 
 " P. C. 
 
 ' ' Rev. Father, 
 
 " The Indian mails have several times 
 brought you sad news, informing you of the 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 155 
 
 sickness or death of some of our Missioners. 
 This one will renew your grief, by announcing 
 the double loss we have just sustained, of two 
 of our dear fellow-labourers. It has pleased 
 the Lord to deprive us of FF. Louis du Ban- 
 quet and Francis Perrin, both carried off by 
 cholera, the former at Strivegondom, near 
 Palamcotty, on the 8th of November ; the latter 
 at Trichinopoly, on the 12th of this same 
 month. I will say nothing of F. du Banquet, 
 because F. Wilmet, in whose arms he breathed 
 his last, has undertaken this account : but I will 
 tell you about F. Francis Perrin, to whom I 
 gave the last consolations of religion. From 
 the time of his arrival in India he was busy 
 studying Tamul, and as we mentioned in our 
 last letters was in good health. He had inter- 
 rupted this employment for some days to make 
 his annual retreat, and prepare for the Feast of 
 St. Stanislas Kostka, which we were to cele- 
 brate on the 13th of November. On Saturday 
 the 11th he felt unwell, but thought it of no 
 consequence, and said nothing. The following 
 night he was seized with a sudden coldness, 
 a symptom of cholera. As soon as ever I heard 
 of his illness, I sent for an English Physician, 
 
156 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLTFFOED. 
 
 who attended him with the greatest care, but 
 all was useless ; the attack was too violent, and 
 the disease became worse. The Father Supe- 
 rior himself was ill in bed, and I, therefore, 
 gave F. Perrin the last Sacraments. I need 
 not tell you, who knew his piety, that he re- 
 received them with the most perfect disposi- 
 tions. During his retreat he had a feeling 
 that God required him to make a complete 
 sacrifice of himself, and he did so with his whole 
 heart, and with all his will. l "What a happy 
 day for me ! ' he exclaimed, while we were 
 praying, bathed in tears, round his bed of suf- 
 fering ; ' What a happy day for me ! Do not 
 weep, I am going to Heaven ! ' I shall never 
 forget what I felt when I saw him lift his 
 hands and eyes to Heaven with the most moving 
 affection and the most perfect resignation to the 
 will of God, when I suggested to him to unite 
 his intentions in his last moments with those 
 of our Saints, and to enter into the senti- 
 ments they had at the hour of death: i in parti- 
 cular,' I added, l those of F. Claude Deschamps, 
 your companion in your journey, who has al- 
 ready gone before you to glory.' How this 
 thought touched him, and filled him with a 
 
THE HON AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 157 
 
 sweet confidence that he would soon see his 
 friend again in a better world ! In these dis- 
 positions he calmly gave np his soul to God on 
 the 12th November j about half-past eight o'clock 
 in the evening. 
 
 " I think we might inscribe on the tomb of 
 these two dear and fervent fellow-novices the 
 beautiful words of the Church : As in life they 
 loved one another, so in death they are not 
 divided. Their souls will be re-united in Hea- 
 ven, as their bodies have been on earth. Let 
 us hope that it may be so. Meanwhile, faithful 
 to what fraternal charity requires of us, let us 
 pray that this inestimable grace may soon be 
 granted to them, and that they may enter with- 
 out delay that happy dwelling in which suffer- 
 ing and death are feared no more. 
 
 " I must now recommend the whole Mission, 
 and each of its members, to the Masses and 
 prayers of the whole Province. It is easy to 
 understand how much we need this help, when 
 we have death so continually before our eyes, 
 amid the ravages of cholera, among persons 
 who are in good health to-day, and whom we 
 see lying on their biers a few hours after. 
 " I have the honour to be, &c, 
 (Signed) " Walter Clifford, S.J." 
 
158 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 These numerous deaths gave great weight to 
 the remonstrance which, from the moment he 
 became acquainted with the Mission, F. Clifford 
 had made against the excessively severe lives 
 led by the Priests. Such privations were no 
 longer necessary to win for them the respect 
 and confidence of the natives, which had been 
 the principal motive of F. Robert de Nobili, 
 and others of the early Missioners, in laying 
 down such rigid rules. The number of Euro- 
 peans of all classes settled there, and the power 
 acquired by European nations, has now com- 
 pletely accustomed the people to modes of life 
 entirely different from their own ; in many res- 
 pects the strong line of demarcation between 
 the castes is lessened, and a Pariah need no 
 longer crawl in the dust before a Brahmin. 
 Provided a European Priest avoids shocking 
 their peculiar prejudices by eating beef, &c, 
 they do not respect him less for continuing, in 
 some degree, the diet they know he was accus- 
 tomed to. But till F. Clifford's arrival, the 
 Jesuits in Madura never tasted meat, or wine, 
 but lived entirely on rice and fish, and often so 
 little of these that some now living can remem- 
 ber repeatedly fainting from exhaustion as they 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 159 
 
 said Mass in the morning. Even bread was a 
 luxury almost unknown, for in every respect 
 they lived as the poorer class of natives. This, 
 joined to the excessive toil they often underwent, 
 spending hours in the Confessional, and in 
 giving instructions, riding long journeys from 
 one Christian village to another, and having no 
 better resting place on their arrival than the 
 wretched hut which has been described, was 
 too much for the strength of men accustomed to 
 better food, and in sufficient quantity, and 
 made them an easy prey to cholera, or any 
 other disease by which they might be attacked. 
 Again and again F. Clifford remonstrated with 
 the Superiors in France ; the poverty of the 
 Mission was such as to make it difficult to im- 
 prove the diet without taking from other pur- 
 poses no less necessary. Large sums were 
 required in defending the Catholic interests in 
 the lawsuits constantly carried on against them 
 by the ecclesiastics for the possession of the 
 churches and chapels built by their European 
 predecessors in the Mission; and the Priests 
 themselves were most unwilling to spend on 
 their own maintenance anything beyond what 
 was absolutely necessary. At length, however, 
 
 • M 
 
160 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 F. Clifford succeeded in obtaining an order to 
 allow themselves a small quantity of wine daily, 
 and meat every day except Fridays, Saturdays, 
 and the fast-days of the Church, and bread in 
 moderate quantity, but sufficient to prevent 
 actual suffering from hunger — a great change 
 from the days when five farthings' worth of fish, 
 with rice and a few mouthfuls of bread, was 
 considered enough for the dinner of six Priests. 
 F. Clifford represented, among other arguments, 
 the great expense of sending out fresh Mission- 
 ers to replace those who died, and that it would 
 cost far less to allow them a proper mainte- 
 nance. The consequence has been what he 
 expected : as soon as this improved diet began 
 to tell on the constitutions of the Priests, the 
 deaths became far less numerous, and for the 
 last few years the mortality has not more than 
 doubled that in easier Missions. 
 
 F. Clifford never spared himself when he 
 could hope to win souls to God. Being the 
 first English Priest who had been in the dis- 
 trict, he soon acquired much influence with the 
 Catholic soldiers of the European Regiments 
 stationed at Trichinopoly, and revived religious 
 feelings in their hearts. For some time he had 
 charge both of them and of the native congre- 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 161 
 
 gation, with whom he succeeded wonderfully, 
 considering that he never became very familiar 
 with the Tamul language. But he was not 
 long spared. In the fatal year 1843 he had a 
 slight threatening of cholera, caught in attend- 
 ing the sick, but it passed off, and his health 
 continued pretty good till May 1844, when to 
 the grief of the whole Mission he was drowned 
 in bathing. The account of his death sent 
 by F. Canoz, now Vicar Apostolic in Madura, 
 to the Provincial in France, is worth inser- 
 ting here. F. Canoz was on his way from 
 Marava to Trichinopoly when he heard of the 
 accident. He says — 
 
 " I learned on my road the sad news of 
 the death of Father Clifford. This zealous 
 Father cherished a hope of dying of cholera 
 caught in attending the sick, which death 
 was in his eyes the most desirable next to 
 martyrdom. He never spared himself, and 
 we often admired his generosity in flying to 
 cholera patients. But God, whose judgments 
 are impenetrable, had otherwise disposed: death 
 awaited him in the water, which it is said he 
 feared. On the 21st of May he set out from 
 Trichinopoly to visit F. Bedin, and rested du- 
 al 2 
 
162 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 ring the noon-day heat in a grove near the 
 river Coliron, in which he thought he should 
 like to bathe. He sent away his Hindoo atten- 
 dants, and went into the water. As he did 
 not know how to swim, he should have had 
 the depth of the spot tried; but this precau- 
 tion probably seemed needless to him. The 
 poor Father stayed so long in the water that 
 his attendants got uneasy, and went to the 
 place where they had left him. They found 
 nothing but his clothes on the river-bank ; sur- 
 prised and grieved, they searched the water 
 long, but to no purpose. At length, when 
 night came on, they hastened to tell F. Bedin, 
 who was not above three miles off. He came 
 instantly, bringing with him fishermen, who 
 sought all night long, but with no better suc- 
 cess. It was not till sun-rise that one of them, 
 who had cast his net in the deepest spot, found 
 the body. They took it at once to Trichino- 
 poly, where it was buried; all the soldiers 
 whose Chaplain F. Clifford had been, were 
 present, as were all the authorities of the place, 
 thunderstruck at this tragical death : the sol- 
 diers begged leave to erect him a funeral 
 monument at their own expense. F. Clifford 
 had always been v r ery zealous for the salvation 
 
THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 163 
 
 of the soldiers, and this year had succeeded in 
 bringing to Confession several who had long 
 neglected the Sacraments. On Sundays he usu- 
 ally preached with an earnestness which moved 
 
 the most hardened 
 
 " What more shall I tell you, Rev. Father, 
 of this fresh blow that has been sent us ? As 
 for its victim, we may lessen your grief by 
 assuring you that we have no uneasiness. 
 F. Clifford had a most tender conscience, and 
 he had been to Confession at Trichinopoly the 
 very day before this lamentable accident. More- 
 over the Lord, who in His mercy was perhaps 
 pleased to spare him the trial of a lingering 
 death, which he much feared, seems to have 
 given him a kind of presentiment of his ap- 
 proaching end. Three days before this mis- 
 fortune a Christian had come to see him, and, 
 contrary to his habit of never allowing long 
 conversations, he spoke with him for nearly an 
 hour and a half on spiritual subjects, and espe- 
 cially on the necessity of being always ready 
 to die. Thus prepared by Providence, and 
 animated with, a most lively faith, there can be 
 no doubt that he made at that moment generous 
 acts, which might supply for the usual helps of 
 religion. It is true that viewing it with the 
 
164 THE HON. AND REV. W. CLIFFORD. 
 
 eyes of Faith we should have preferred seeing 
 him die of cholera caught among the sick, 
 according to his own wish, but Providence has 
 arranged otherwise for the common good of all. 
 If we may use the expression, he deserved 
 such a death for the generosity with which he 
 braved it, but it might perhaps have alarmed 
 us more, as being a fresh proof of what the rest 
 had to fear. 
 
 " It cannot be concealed that this death is in 
 itself a great loss to the Mission. The name of 
 F. Clifford was respected by the English : it 
 was a support for us in case of need with the 
 government and the magistrates on whom we 
 depend. We counted on him for the college 
 we intend to establish : he would have drawn 
 pupils to it, and directed the studies. God's 
 holy will be done. If you can replace him by 
 another English Father, you will do us a great 
 service : an Englishman will always succeed 
 better than we can with his own nation, whose 
 manners, customs, and character he knows tho- 
 roughly." 
 
 F. Clifford himself had written to one of his 
 sisters only three days before his death, con- 
 soling her for the loss of one of her sons, and 
 he used these words, rendered remarkable by 
 
THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 165 
 
 the event. " In the midst of life we are in 
 death : who knows ? perhaps the next post may 
 bring you news that I too am no more." And 
 it was so. 
 
 THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 
 
 Father Clifford's anxiety for the foundation 
 of a College, and the degree in which he was 
 himself likely to have been useful to its work- 
 ing, have been alluded to in the foregoing letter. 
 His death, and the other losses the Mission 
 sustained, deferred its commencement till 1845, 
 when a Seminary College, chiefly in the hope 
 of training the future Clergy of the district, 
 was opened at Negapatam. This city stands 
 on a branch of the river Cavery, in the king- 
 dom of Tanjore, in the Southern part of India. 
 There had been a Seminary there formerly, 
 which was one reason for its selection as 
 a site. Poor as the Mission was, and with very 
 few Priests, it was absolutely necessary to open 
 this School without delay, as the children of 
 Catholic parents, having no means of education, 
 were daily enticed into exceptionable schools, 
 where not only their Faith but, in some instances 
 
166 THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 
 
 their morals also were the sacrifice. The im- 
 mense sums expended by the various Protes- 
 tant sects have been alluded to in a previous 
 chapter. We find the following estimate in a 
 well-known Journal : 
 
 " Revenues of Missionary Societies. — 
 The London Missionary Society commenced 
 its operations in 1800, and up to 1849 it 
 had expended £ 1,922,346 : 18 : 2. The 
 Baptist Missionary Society commenced also 
 in 1800, and up to 1842 it had expended 
 £620,431 : 11 : 9. The Wesleyan Missionary 
 Society commenced in 1803, and had expended 
 up to 1819 £ 2,269,855 : 9 : 0. The Church 
 Missionary Society commenced in 1805, and 
 had expended up to 1849 £2,153,750 : 18 : 11. 
 The Society for Promoting Christianity among 
 the Jews commenced in 1809, and up to 1849 
 it had expended £524,720 : 11 : 4. The 
 British Society for Promoting Christianity 
 among the Jews commenced in 1845, and up to 
 1849 had expended £ 12,028 : 10 : 0. The 
 British Missions commenced in 1819, and up to 
 1849 had expended £ 169,965 : 15 : 9. The 
 Moravian Missions obtain an average income 
 from England of £ 3,000 a-year, which, for 
 
THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 167 
 
 fifty years, is £ 150,000. The City of London 
 Missions (home missions) commenced in 1836, 
 and to 1849 it had expended £ 114,811 : 14 : 10 ; 
 total, £ 8,007,921 : 11 : 6. To which must be 
 added the income from all sources of the Society 
 for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
 Parts during the same period, £ 3,000,000. 
 Grand total, £ 11,007,921 : 11 : 6.— Herald: 9 
 
 Now with these incredible appliances and 
 munitions for the spiritual war, it appears that 
 they themselves estimated in 1849 the total 
 number of their converts at only 32,000 souls, 
 acknowledging that a great proportion of these 
 are still half-pagans. Catholics would consider 
 most of them wholly such, as they are not 
 baptized, or likely to be so, and often have 
 no other claim to Christianity than the inser- 
 tion of their names in the Missionary's list, 
 and sometimes the receipt of a pension for 
 having it so placed. It is grievous to see so 
 much money wasted with scarcely any, even 
 nominal, benefit, while Catholic Schools cannot 
 be founded for want of funds ! In the Madura 
 district alone there are forty European minis- 
 ters of the various Protestant sects ; four Native 
 ones ; above four hundred catechists ; as many 
 
168 THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 
 
 school -masters and school -mistresses; almost 
 numberless day-schools ; and ten seminaries, in 
 which they collect as many pupils as they 
 can, and give them education, books, lodging, 
 clothes, and food gratuitously ; yet with all this 
 a Heathen is hardly ever permanently con- 
 verted, and the children of Catholic parents 
 frequently return to their true faith when they 
 leave the schools. 
 
 Can Catholics remain idle while Protestants 
 make such enormous efforts ? There are at 
 least 150,000 Catholics in the district of Ma- 
 dura, but almost all of them too poor to con- 
 tribute anything like sufficient for the support 
 of the Missioners, however inexpensively 
 they may live. One-twentieth part of the 
 sums spent annually by the Protestant Missions 
 would suffice to maintain the Catholic one in 
 affluence, to found schools and colleges, to 
 educate young natives for the Priesthood, or to 
 train them as Catechists, and thus would rapidly 
 bring the Heathens into the fold of Christ. 
 There would be no difficulty in getting pupils, 
 no need of bribes to persuade them to attend : 
 the Catholic parents will of course prefer 
 Catholic schools when they are accessible, and 
 
THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 169 
 
 the high caste Hindoos are more ready to send 
 their sons to Catholic than to Protestant schools 
 — first, because the mode of life of the Catholic 
 Missioner is such as wins their respect far more 
 than that of the Protestant, with his wife, his 
 comfortable establishment, and Pariah servants ; 
 and secondly, because in the Catholic schools 
 more care is taken to avoid outraging those 
 customs of caste which have no necessary 
 connection with Heathenism. Europeans will 
 hardly believe how small a sum is sufficient for 
 the support of a Native pupil : £ 4 a-year will 
 usually be enough — and is it possible that 
 Catholics will refuse this ? Anyone giving as 
 much as will produce £4 annually will thus 
 have one scholar permanently in the College — 
 one who may become a Native Priest, and 
 contribute to the salvation of thousands ; or if 
 not called to so high a vocation, or not fitted 
 for it by his talents, he may become a Catechist 
 or a School-master — thus preparing the way 
 for the Priest to follow and complete the good 
 Work of which he has sown the seeds ; or 
 thirdly, he may qualify himself for an employ- 
 ment under Government, and by his position 
 and influence may contribute powerfully to 
 
170 THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 
 
 defend the Catholics, still so often unjustly 
 oppressed and misrepresented by the Heathens, 
 the Schismatics, and the Protestant preachers ; 
 or at the very least he may become a good 
 father of a family, and by his education acquire 
 influence in his village, by his example contri- 
 bute to make others live as Christians should, 
 and thus consolidate religion in India. 
 
 The principal, or rather at present the only 
 College in which this good work has been 
 really begun is the one spoken of at the be- 
 ginning of this chapter, opened at Negapatam 
 in 1845. Only two Fathers could then be 
 spared from the more active duties of the 
 Mission, and though their pupils were not very 
 numerous, the toil was beyond their strength. 
 F. Audibert, whose death has been mentioned 
 in a previous chapter, sunk under it, for he 
 never regained his strength after the illness 
 which seized him during the first year of his 
 College labours, and died the year following of 
 cholera. 
 
 The year 1846 opened with the happiest 
 prospects to the College. More pupils were 
 offered than could find room, but sixty-five were 
 received, whose good conduct and diligence 
 
THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 171 
 
 gave great hopes for their future career. This 
 was interrupted by the breaking out of cholera, 
 when three of the Fathers were carried off, and 
 six of the scholars were attacked, two of whom, 
 a Native boy and an Armenian, died. The 
 latter was the hope of his family. The utmost 
 terror now pervaded the school. The boys 
 were immediately sent to their parents and re- 
 lations ; those who had none near were removed 
 under the care of F. Tassis to Karical, and the 
 alarm subsided ; but the College was closed for 
 three months. On its re-opening, few pupils 
 appeared; but this was fully expected after 
 such a fearful interruption. 
 
 On the 14th of September, 1849, the Feast 
 of the Exaltation of the Cross, the first stone of 
 the large building now used as the College was 
 laid. Each of the Fathers, and each of the 
 pupils, European and Native, came in succes- 
 sion, and placed a stone in the foundation ; the 
 funds for its erection were very small, but 
 Providence blessed them, so that it gradually 
 progressed, though the Mission was poorer 
 than ever, because the political disturbances in 
 France almost dried up the principal sources of 
 its support. In the night of the 11th of Sep- 
 
172 THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 
 
 tember, 1849, the temporary dwelling in which 
 the College was carried on was set on fire by 
 the Schismatics, who had long been jealous of 
 the strength it gained for the Catholic cause, 
 and the attention it drew. All the inmates 
 were asleep, but happily no lives were lost, 
 though a few minutes were enough to wrap in 
 flames the whole slight building, roofed only 
 with cocoa-nut leaves. Of course the first 
 object was to save the pupils, and so rapid was 
 the progress of the conflagration that scarcely 
 anything else was rescued. All the furniture, the 
 library which was well-chosen and pretty nu- 
 merous, in short, all they possessed, even to the 
 greater part of their clothes, was destroyed. 
 This crime was certainly committed by the 
 Schismatics ; there were proofs quite sufficient 
 to have brought it home to them legally, but it 
 was not followed up actively, and no punish- 
 ment was inflicted. 
 
 F. de St. Cyr, the Superior, with character- 
 istic energy, saw plainly that they must con- 
 trive to carry on the establishment with as little 
 interruption as possible ; he used for this pur- 
 pose all the money he could in any way com- 
 mand, and trusted to Providence to enable him 
 
THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 173 
 
 to pay such debts as were unavoidably in- 
 curred. There was a general feeling in its 
 favour among the Protestants and Hindoos, as 
 well as among the Catholics, and the works 
 were pushed forward so energetically that thir- 
 teen days after the fire Mass was celebrated in 
 the new chapel, and five days later all the 
 Fathers, and their pupils, were established in 
 the new temporary building. The great ex- 
 pense of buying afresh so many articles indis- 
 pensable for daily use entailed severe privations 
 on the Fathers, who endeavoured, by denying 
 themselves in every possible way, to spare the 
 very limited funds of the Mission, and contrive 
 to go on with the College. They did not leave 
 off the erection of the permanent one, and were 
 helped by subscriptions from Europe, small in 
 amount, but so unexpected as to give them 
 great encouragement ; subscriptions were also 
 raised in the country, and about Easter 1850 a 
 portion of the house was habitable. Early in 
 1851 the Fathers, and the pupils of European 
 origin were established in it, while the Indian 
 boys and their teachers remained in the tempo- 
 rary dwelling. The college is however quite un- 
 finished, and would still require at least £ 1000 
 
174 THE COLLEGE OF NEGAPATAM. 
 
 to complete it, without including the church. 
 If these were erected in a suitable manner, 
 religion would be benefitted even by the exis- 
 tence and outward appearance of buildings 
 worthy of their destination. 
 
 The event proved that F. St. Cyr judged 
 wisely in insisting on retaining the pupils, and 
 urging on the erection of a temporary building, 
 instead of breaking up the establishment, as 
 some of the Fathers wished, till the new col- 
 lege could be used. The schismatics, seeing 
 that the Missioners were not to be driven from 
 their post, lost courage, and became far less 
 violent, and many of them were converted; the 
 Catholics gained confidence, and several of the 
 English residents shewed by acts of kindness 
 their appreciation of such resolute conduct : 
 some of them, not quite liking, as Protestants, 
 to give openly to Catholic Priests, offered loans 
 of money, the payment of which they after- 
 wards refused, and in short this great misfor- 
 tune has been absolutely a benefit in its results 
 to the cause it was intended to destroy. The 
 pecuniary loss still weighs most heavily on the 
 Mission, it is true, but in other respects the 
 advantages were very considerable. 
 
175 
 
 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION, 
 
 In order to form a correct idea of the actual 
 state of the Mission, it will be well to examine 
 briefly what good has been done of late years. 
 For greater clearness the district may be divi- 
 ded into three parts, Northern, Central, and 
 Southern. 
 
 The Northern part contains three principal 
 towns, Trichinopoly, Tanjore, and Negapatam. 
 
 Trichinopoly is within four miles of the river 
 Cauvery, which is the Northern boundary of the 
 Mission. It is a large military station, with a 
 garrison of one company of European Artil- 
 lery men in the Hon. Company's service ; one 
 regiment of European Infantry ; two Sepoy 
 regiments ; and often a regiment of Native 
 Cavalry. It contains about a hundred thou- 
 sand inhabitants, Christians, Hindoos, and Mus- 
 sulmans. The number of Christians is about 
 eight thousand, consisting of Indo-Britons, or 
 half-castes, Tamoulars, and Pariahs. The very 
 great majority of the two first are Catholics, 
 but there are many Pariahs who still follow the 
 schismatic Priest. The Catholic church is large, 
 well-built, and rather handsome. It was con- 
 
 N 
 
176 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 structed by Rev. F. Gamier, one of the first 
 Superiors of the modern Mission, at an expense 
 of several thousand rupees, unaided by Govern- 
 ment. The ceremonies of religion are per- 
 formed in their church with all possible care, 
 and as much splendour as can be afforded. Care 
 and attention to this point has contributed very 
 much to awaken feelings of piety in the native 
 Christians, and to attract others to our holy 
 religion: the impression produced by them is. 
 often very strong, as must naturally be the 
 case with a people of such impressible charac- 
 ter, and so fond of exterior show, as are the 
 natives of India. On one occasion an old pen- 
 sioned Sepoy, who had just been converted, 
 came to assist for the first time at High Mass. 
 He was so struck and delighted, that he de- 
 clared it to be an image of Heaven, and began 
 to use all his influence for the conversion of his 
 friends. A retreat and mission given at Trichi- 
 nopoly in 1845, and several private retreats* 
 
 * A retreat is a means of sanctification used in the 
 Church in all ages, but brought into more frequent use, and 
 fully systematized by St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his book 
 called the " Spiritual Exercises." It consists of from three 
 to eight days, or even a month, according to the wants and 
 ■wishes of the individual, spent in private prayer and medi- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 177 
 
 subsequently given to the catechists assembled 
 from all parts of the Mission, and to the Chris- 
 tians of the city who wished to assist, have 
 been productive of very great and ahnost un- 
 expected advantages. The constant residence 
 of one or more Priests at Trichinopoly, with 
 the frequent presence of the Bishop, has like- 
 wise been productive of much good. The con- 
 
 tation, wherein the soul is spiritually exercised, and brought 
 to a knowledge of the true end of her creation, and the 
 means of attaining it. A mission is a retreat given to a 
 large number of persons, often to a whole town, in which 
 the private meditations are exchanged for public sermons 
 on the great truths of religion. In the first part the soul is 
 made sensible of what really is the end of her creation 
 and existence in this life ; the heinousness of sin is then 
 explained by the consequences of the fall of man, that is, the 
 sufferings of this life, and the necessity of the death of Jesus 
 Christ to redeem and save him ; death, judgment, and hell 
 are meditated on. The necessity of struggling against the 
 passions is then laid before the soul, and Christ, in His life 
 on earth, is meditated upon deeply, as the model for the life 
 of a Christian soldier. By reflecting on the Passion of our 
 Divine Eedeemer, the soul is encouraged to embrace gene- 
 rously the struggle for salvation, and to follow Christ as a 
 leader, refusing no labour, no effort, to observe the holy law 
 which He has died to establish. Heaven, and the joys of 
 Christ's glorious Resurrection and Ascension, are then deeply 
 meditated, in order to give courage and hope to the soul to 
 go on cheerfully in the path of the Divine law, and thereby 
 merit a participation of the glories reserved for those who 
 are faithful unto death. 
 
 N % 
 
178 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 gregation is, on the whole, nearly as well 
 organized, and gives as much consolation to 
 their Pastors as most parishes in Europe. If 
 we may judge by the immense increase, within 
 the last few years, of annual and monthly com- 
 municants, and the daily attendance at Mass, 
 there is indeed much to make the Missioner 
 deeply thankful to heaven, and much to com- 
 fort him in his labours. Every Sunday and 
 holiday there is an English sermon in the mor- 
 ning for the troops, and a Tamul sermon for 
 the natives ; and in the afternoon again, Cate- 
 chism in Tamul for the natives, and either an 
 English instruction, with Benediction, for the 
 Europeans, or Vespers and Benediction. 
 
 As the Chaplaincy of the troops, and the 
 good to be effected thereby, will form a chapter 
 of itself, the native Mission only will here be 
 * spoken of. 
 
 Several of the French Missioners have shewn 
 much tact in the judicious use of those exterior 
 means of awakening piety in the soul so much 
 in use on the continent. The ceremony of 
 first Communions, which takes place every year, 
 is prepared by the French Fathers with all that 
 holy attention to devotional forms and cere- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 179 
 
 mony which they so well understand, and which 
 is even more useful, and productive of more 
 good on the easily impressed minds of the 
 Indians than it has produced at home. More 
 than any other people perhaps the Indian ap- 
 preciates a thing according as he sees it valued 
 by others, and this will at once explain how 
 useful well-ordered ceremony and show must 
 be to form his mind to a due respect for holy 
 thinsrs. The Christians in the immediate envi- 
 rons of Trichinopoly are far from offering the 
 same consolation to the Missioner; they are too 
 much dispersed to make it possible to assemble 
 them frequently together, either for instruction 
 or the Sacraments. There is however, at some 
 distance to the West of Trichinopoly, a small 
 district containing about six thousand Chris- 
 tians, which has made much progress in the 
 last few years, during which a Priest has been 
 permanently located amongst them. The peo- 
 ple have begun to assist regularly at Mass on 
 Sundays ; to attend to and take an interest in 
 religious instruction; and to frequent the Sacra- 
 ments : their moral conduct has very much im- 
 proved. The Priest having obtained a small 
 fund of a few rupees for the purpose, assem- 
 bled together all the children who were to 
 
180 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 make their first Communion, and fed and lodged 
 them previously for three days, giving them at 
 the same time ample instructions, and making 
 them thoroughly learn their prayers, and the 
 elements of religion : the usual examination 
 followed this little retreat, and the intelligence, 
 fervour and devotion of the children most fully 
 repaid the Missioner for the trouble he had 
 taken and the additional privations he had sub- 
 jected himself to in order to meet the expense. 
 It would be most desirable to organize this 
 good work regularly in every part of the Mis- 
 sion ; but the total want of funds has hitherto 
 rendered it quite impossible to do so. 
 
 The district of Aour, to the South of Trichi- 
 nopoly, is far from presenting the same con- 
 soling spectacle. It contains about twelve thou- 
 sand Christians in a district of about forty miles 
 long by thirty broad ; nearly one-third of these 
 are schismatics. In this district is situated the 
 famous church of Aour, built by Father Bouchet, 
 as described before. It is still unfortunately 
 in the hands of the schismatics, and thus the 
 Catholics, though far more numerous, are de- 
 prived entirely of a church supported for many 
 years at their expense, and originally built by 
 a European Jesuit Father, with his own funds. 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 181 
 
 To the East is the fertile district of Tanjore, 
 the garden of Southern India. It contains 
 about 25,000 Christians, in the midst of a very- 
 large and rich Heathen population. At some 
 distance from the town are three small churches, 
 built of brick : two were recovered from the 
 Schismatics some time ago, and the third has 
 just been constructed by subscription in a district 
 of about 2,000 Christians, who have, for many- 
 years, been entirely neglected. In many parts 
 of the country, when a new Church is raised, a 
 congregation starts up around it, in a way that 
 much astonishes the Missioner. The presence 
 of some half-dozen Christian families induces 
 the Missioner to erect a small temporary Church, 
 which is no sooner established than several 
 other families present themselves, and demand 
 Baptism for their children, stating that their 
 ancestors were Christians, and that they them- 
 selves were so in their infancy. The falling off 
 of these families proceeds entirely from the in- 
 terruption of the Mission for so many years. 
 These people, though they have ceased to be 
 Christians from want of religious instruction, 
 have ever preserved a love and esteem for 
 Christianity, and a very strong traditionary re- 
 
188 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 spect and affection for the European Priests 
 who converted their ancestors to the faith. 
 The moment an opportunity offers they return, 
 as it were instinctively, to Christianity. Great 
 indeed must have been the zeal and piety, the 
 talents and efforts, of those who first planted 
 Christianity amongst them, when nearly half a 
 century after their complete disappearance, the 
 very memory of their name is such an assistance 
 to their successors. 
 
 The city of Tanjore is one of the great bul- 
 warks of Hindooism in Southern India. The 
 fort, with a small circuit round it, nominally 
 does not belong to the East India Company, 
 but remains in the possession of the hereditary 
 Native Prince, who receives an immense pen- 
 sion from the Government. Nearly all his 
 wealth is squandered on the Brahmins, and in 
 Hindoo religious ceremonies on the most splen- 
 did scale. The old Catholic Church, at a short 
 distance from the town, is still in the hands of 
 the Schismatics. It was erected on a piece of 
 ground given by the Rajah, many years ago, to 
 a Jesuit Missioner in reward for some services. 
 Within a couple of hundred yards is the tem- 
 porary building at present used as a Catholic 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 183 
 
 Church : it is vast, but quite insufficient for the 
 congregation, and entirely composed of clay 
 and palm-leaves. The residence of a zealous 
 Missioner, with active and well-disposed cate- 
 chists, has produced during the last year an 
 immense good for religion in this district. 
 Repeated efforts had previously been made 
 to reform these Christians, many of whom were 
 of low caste, and nearly all in the service of 
 Heathens, but in vain. At last a Confraternity 
 was established similar to that of Notre Dame 
 des Victoires at Paris, in which prayers were 
 regularly offered up for the conversion of sin- 
 ners : the effect was quite wonderful, the whole 
 face of the district was changed, and instruc- 
 tions were regularly attended to on Sundays ; 
 the Sacraments were frequented ; those at 
 variance were reconciled ; and scandals were 
 suppressed. A great number of Schismatics, 
 and several Heathens, were also converted to 
 the holy Catholic faith. 
 
 Another most efficacious means for conversion 
 amongst the Natives is the representation of 
 the Passion of our Divine Redeemer, either by 
 means of transparent pictures shewn at night 
 with a light behind, or by a sort of commemo- 
 
184 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 rative exhibition, accompanied by a sermon. 
 The intelligent reader will see how forcibly the 
 Native is likely to be affected by such means. 
 Everything is done with the greatest decorum 
 and piety : and surely He who in mercy 
 deigned to die in reality for our sins cannot 
 object to have His death and sufferings pour- 
 trayed in a manner found to he efficacious, in 
 order to move the heart of the sinner to conver- 
 sion and holiness of life. Many who have been 
 proof against every exhortation and threat, 
 have yielded, and cast themselves in tears of 
 penitence at the feet of the Preacher, when 
 witnessing one of these representations of the 
 Passion of our Divine Redeemer. The genius 
 and disposition of the Indian are entirely diffe- 
 rent from those of the European, and as far as 
 human efforts are concerned in the spread of 
 Christianity, the great secret is to take people 
 according to their genius and disposition. The 
 object of the Catholic Missioner in India is to 
 make Christians of the Indians, that is, to make 
 Indian Christians, who must, therefore, in all 
 their manners, customs and feelings, save and 
 except where the essential truths of religion 
 are concerned, differ entirely from their Euro- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 185 
 
 pean brethren. For instance, processions at 
 night, accompanied by immense torches, noise, 
 fireworks, and barbarous music, are neither 
 Catholic nor Protestant, nor necessarily Hea- 
 thenish, but they are essentially Indian, and 
 therefore perfectly lawful for the Indian 
 Catholic, as long as the object for which they 
 are made is Christian and Catholic. The 
 reader is therefore entreated not to judge the 
 working of an Indian Mission by European 
 ideas, but wisely and humbly to consider that 
 those who, for no human motives, have devoted 
 their talents and lives to the prosecution of the 
 work of the conversion of the Indian, and who 
 have the tradition of their confreres'* experience 
 during three hundred years to guide them, are 
 better able to judge, on the spot and in the 
 country, what is expedient and right, than those 
 at home can possibly be. 
 
 The good erTect of joining in an association 
 of prayers under the protection of the Blessed 
 Virgin was, as has been stated, most evident in 
 Tanjore. A procession was made by the Chris- 
 tians to return thanks to God; and even the 
 Heathens of the neighbourhood, edified and 
 struck by a change so apparent in the conduct 
 
186 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 of their neighbours, freely contributed to the 
 expenses of the festival, and joined in it as far 
 as they were allowed. Unfortunately in this 
 district there is a large body of nominal Catho- 
 lics who gain their living as musicians, many 
 of their wives and children are really well dis- 
 posed, but the husbands are obliged, by custom 
 all-powerful in India, to be present as musicians 
 at all the festivals of the neighbourhood, whether 
 Heathen or other. This concurrence can in no 
 way be sanctioned by religion, being expressly 
 forbidden by the Bull of Benedict XIV, order- 
 ing the excommunication of any such person. 
 However, as they declare that they have no 
 other means of subsistence, they persevere in 
 resisting the advice of their Pastor, and no 
 other punishment can be inflicted upon them 
 than refusing them the Sacraments. Otherwise 
 they would abandon even the semblance of 
 religion, and force their wives and children 
 to do the same ; for the sake of these latter 
 some forbearance has hitherto been shewn to 
 these unfortunate men. 
 
 One of the greatest wants of this district at 
 present is a large and respectable Church, such 
 as may inspire by its appearance some esteem 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 187 
 
 for the religion to which it belongs. How often, 
 even in Europe, has a new impetus been given 
 to religion in a district by the erection of a 
 handsome church ; the opportunity for this re- 
 sult, of awakening inward respect by outward 
 means, exists in a far greater degree in India 
 than in any other country. 
 
 The city of Tanjore is full of the most magni- 
 ficent temples, and immense sums are daily 
 expended there, in performing the ceremonies 
 of Hindoo worship; whilst the holy Catholic 
 faith is confined to a poor shed, little better 
 than the stable of Bethlehem. This draws dis- 
 credit and disrespect on our holy faith. In the 
 whole of this portion of the Mission there is not 
 a single decent church, nor a Missioner's resi- 
 dence to be compared in comfort to the can- 
 tonment hut of a married private soldier. 
 
 Another source of much discomfort to our 
 Christians, and of trouble to the Missioner, is 
 the forced contribution of money and labour 
 for the support of Hindoo festivals, laid upon 
 the Catholics by their Hindoo masters, and 
 fellow-villagers. 
 
 A vari or tax is usually imposed on each 
 house for this purpose, by a long established 
 
188 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 custom. The Christians are obliged, as a 
 matter of course, not to pay this tax, which is 
 in itself voluntary, and cannot be legally en- 
 forced; yet many would willingly pay it, in 
 order to avoid the serious persecution to which 
 a refusal on their parts would subject them from 
 their fellow- villagers ; its payment is now al- 
 most universally resisted by the Christians, as 
 compliance necessarily entails a refusal of the 
 Sacraments by their Missioners. The same 
 may be said of the poor Catholic cultivators, 
 who are frequently ordered, by their masters, 
 to assemble to drag the large car of the idols, 
 used in the Native processions, all over the 
 country. Much persecution has been suffered 
 on this score, but not entirely in vain, for even 
 the Heathen masters begin to find it to their 
 advantage not to persecute their labourers too 
 severely for following the dictates of their 
 religious duty. Very much suffering has, how- 
 ever, been and still is endured for both of the 
 above causes, and as custom is law in India, it 
 is difficult for a man to obtain legal protection 
 for infringing an old established custom on 
 merely conscientious grounds. It will be easily 
 understood by those who have read history, 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 189 
 
 and reflected, that an entire change can never 
 be effected in the way of thinking and feeling 
 of a portion of the inhabitants of a country, 
 without necessarily producing a certain degree 
 of clashing of interests and prejudices. Under 
 the self-interested and careless administration of 
 the Goa Clergy, the Christians had lost every 
 vestige of practical belief, whatever was re- 
 quired of them by the Heathens, amongst whom 
 they lived, was readily assented to ; now that 
 they have been awakened to a sense of their 
 duty, their resistance to what was forbidden 
 them by their religion has necessarily produced 
 a certain degree of contention, and hostility, 
 on the part of their neighbours, excited more 
 by the change of social position, than by any 
 dislike for the religion which was the cause of 
 it. Though the confusion of this period of 
 transition is of short duration in most cases, 
 where one party is actuated by charity, and 
 the other unsupported by power, yet the fre- 
 quent recurrence of such scenes in the various 
 parts of the whole Mission, has produced no 
 small amount of suffering and petty persecution. 
 Yet it is a most convincing and consoling proof 
 that real good has been done, and that religion 
 
190 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 has made an impression upon the hearts of those 
 who have embraced it. 
 
 An admirable plan has been formed by some 
 of our Missioners to procure waste land, which 
 may be had for a very trifling sum, and to 
 establish upon it those who, by their isolated 
 or dependant position, amongst the Heathens, 
 find themselves too much exposed to persecu- 
 tion. An institution of this sort might be set 
 on foot with very small means, and connected 
 with it might be a large establishment for the 
 infirm and aged : devout reader, if you could 
 only know what a number of immortal souls 
 would be saved by these means, surely your 
 heart would warm towards the suffering Mis- 
 sion, whose wants are here laid before you; 
 you would cheerfully give of your abundance x 
 or even deprive yourself of some ordinary com- 
 fort, to contribute to so holy a work, and thus 
 find in eternity the reward of a temporal 
 sacrifice. 
 
 Negapatam is the most commercial town on 
 the whole Coast, south of Madras : it is a part 
 of the kingdom of Tanjore. Close to the town, 
 on a piece of ground obtained from the Govern- 
 ment, is situated our Catholic College, which is 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 191 
 
 the future hope of the Mission, as the nursery 
 of good Native Priests and Catechists, and as a 
 resting place for the young Missioners, who 
 come out from Europe, in order to acclimatize 
 them, and give them time to learn the language 
 before penetrating into the interior of the Mis- 
 sion. In another chapter will be found an 
 account of the first establishment, and early 
 trials of this College, which have been so severe 
 as to convince us that a work which has been 
 so signally supported by Providence, under the 
 severest difficulties, must eventually be produc- 
 tive of much solid good. 
 
 One of the Fathers, who lives in the College, 
 is in charge of the Native congregation at 
 Negapatam, and another Father takes care of a 
 second congregation about five miles off — the 
 number of Christians is about 6,000. Nearly 
 all the old churches here, as at Tanjore, are in 
 the possession of the Schismatics. The Parish 
 Church is a temporary building, of mud and 
 palm-leaves, all except the chancel and choir, 
 which are solidly built and roofed, and tolerably 
 ornamented. 
 
 A few miles to the South, along the coast, is 
 the church of Velangany, one of the oldest and 
 
 o 
 
19£ ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 and finest churches in Southern India. It is 
 dedicated in honour of the B. V. Mary, and has 
 been remarkable as a Catholic pilgrimage ever 
 since its erection ; it is still in the hands of the 
 schismatic Priests, though there remains but a 
 very small congregation now frequenting it. 
 There are about 8000 Christians belonging to 
 this Catholic congregation. They have a small 
 and neat church, about half a mile from the old 
 one, but far too small for their numbers. 
 
 The Christians of India have been, for some 
 years, in a gainfully anomalous position. A 
 small and factious portion of the ancient con- 
 gregations, still adhering to the Goa priests, 
 who have been deprived of all their functions 
 for canonical reasons, and by lawful authority, 
 remain in possession of the large and handsome 
 churches, which exist here and there through- 
 out the country, many of them well endowed. 
 These churches have always been considered as 
 Catholic : they were raised by Catholic money, 
 chiefly by the ancient Jesuit fathers, and sup- 
 ported by Catholic funds. In what country 
 would a clergyman openly apostatising from 
 the faith of which he had been considered the 
 Pastor, be allowed to retain peaceable posses- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 193 
 
 sioii of his church or chapel, with a few dozen 
 of his parishioners, to the exclusion of all those 
 who adhered to the worship for which the 
 church or chapel had been erected a few years 
 previously? Yet such is the actual state of 
 things in India, and were it not for the con- 
 stant efforts of the Catholic Priests in many 
 places, the irritation occasioned by it would 
 often have resulted in violence and bloodshed. 
 
 Several points of the Madura district are 
 remarkable as places of pilgrimage for Catho- 
 lics ; the principal ones are dedicated in honour 
 of the Blessed Vjrgin Mary, to whom the In- 
 dians have a very great devotion, as their prin- 
 cipal Patroness and Advocate with her Divine 
 Son. Though the exterior marks of devotion 
 towards the Saints are far greater than Euro- 
 peans are accustomed to, yet nothing can be 
 more certain than that there is no sort of undue 
 or extravagant worship connected with it, the 
 plainest proof of which is that the same marks 
 of respect and esteem are shewed by the na- 
 tives to their Catholic Priests and to all supe- 
 riors whom they very much respect. If time 
 and space allowed of it, many instances might 
 be given of most signal favours received by 
 
 o % 
 
194 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 prayers addressed to heaven through, the inter- 
 cession of the Blessed Virgin ; one alone shall 
 be introduced, which may be implicitly relied 
 on, as a positive fact: every one is of course 
 perfectly free to give credit to it, or not, as best 
 suits his own ideas — the circumstance shall be 
 related as it happened. From the village of 
 Manapadon Rev. Father Antony Sales writes 
 to his Superior, on the 20th February, 1841, 
 stating that a short time previously the inhabi- 
 tants of the village were in great consternation on 
 account of the absence of rain, as the time of the 
 rainy season was far advanced, and the sky still 
 remained pure and blue as at the finest season of 
 the year. The failure of the periodical rains is 
 a dreadful calamity in India, as it occasions the 
 total loss of all crops upon the lands that are 
 not irrigated. Having waited in vain for seve- 
 ral days, the people determined to draw lots, in 
 order to find which of their gods was to be 
 propitiated in order to avert the threatened 
 scourge ; for the village contained but few 
 Christians. For this purpose they wrote upon 
 pieces of palm leaf the names of the eleven 
 principal Pagodas in the country around, and 
 on the twelfth the name of a small church 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 195 
 
 dedicated in honour of the Blessed Virgin, in 
 the immediate neighbourhood. The people 
 agreed to throw these twelve tickets into the 
 fire, declaring that if any of them remained 
 unburnt they would address themselves to that 
 church, to obtain deliverance from the impend- 
 ing misfortune. This was accordingly done, 
 and, strange to say, the palm leaf ticket on 
 which was inscribed the name of the little 
 church dedicated in honour of the Most Blessed 
 Virgin remained intact, whilst the others were 
 immediately consumed. The assembled people 
 rushed in a body towards the church, exclaim- 
 ing " Great is the God of the Christians, Holy 
 is his Mother," and before they had reached 
 the church the pure sky began to be overcast, 
 and soon the rain came down in torrents. The 
 billet which had been so wonderfully preserved 
 from the fire was safely deposited in the church. 
 In their gratitude these heathens immediately 
 subscribed a considerable sum for the adorn- 
 ment of the little church, and it is hoped that 
 the recollection of the miracle will dispose their 
 hearts to listen to a Missioner, when one can be 
 sent thither. 
 
 The next part of the Mission that merits 
 consideration is Madura Proper and the sur- 
 
196 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 rounding country, consisting of the Marava 
 country, to the S. East, and Dindigul at the 
 foot of the hills, to the N. West. 
 
 Madura, or as the natives more usually pro- 
 nounce it Mattura (with a very short penulti- 
 mate), is situated about eighty miles to the 
 south of Trichinopoly. As early as the year 
 1842 a handsome church, and a tolerably con- 
 venient house, were erected in this city, as the 
 most central point of the Mission, and conse- 
 quently within reach of several of the Fathers 
 as a place of repose and rendez-vous, to consult 
 about their mutual affairs, and re-establish their 
 health, often much affected by living in the 
 small huts which are their only resting places 
 in the out stations. The garden surrounding 
 the house is one of the most profitable proper- 
 ties of the Mission, at present producing about 
 £ 7 sterling per year. Though Madura is the 
 central point of the Mission, and gives its name 
 to the whole Vicariate, it is probably the por- 
 tion which has given the least consolation to 
 those who have laboured there. The number 
 of Catholics is very small, and consists chiefly 
 of a colony of weavers, who, as soon as the 
 church was built, came and settled round it. 
 The schismatics count about 2,000 souls, and 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 197 
 
 are nearly all Pariahs. In no part of India 
 converted by the Catholic Missioners has reli- 
 gion suffered more loss than in Madura. It 
 was the theatre of the labours of Father de 
 Nobili, and was the first place where a native 
 of high caste so far humbled his pride as to 
 acknowledge Jesus Christ crucified as his God 
 and Redeemer. The Catholics were numerous, 
 and belonging to the highest castes, but all this 
 has now passed away, and as if in punishment 
 for graces refused, it is now the most sterile and 
 barren part of the whole Mission. In no place 
 did the French Missioners on their return find 
 the morals of the nominal Christians so terribly 
 corrupt, and this is still the great obstacle to 
 their conversion. 
 
 The Missioner in charge at Madura has like- 
 wise the care of about five thousand other 
 Christians, scattered over an extent of about 
 thirty miles. Within this district is situated 
 Rasakambiram, where is the tomb of Rev. 
 Father Martin, one of the four first fathers 
 who landed in 1838 to recommence the Mis- 
 sion. A short account of his life and death 
 is given in the obituary of the Mission, con- 
 tained in the third chapter of this work. At 
 some distance is a decent church, in a village 
 
198 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 which, has always been remarkable for its really 
 Christian spirit of piety. In every other part 
 of the district, the chapels and dwellings of the 
 Missioners are mere huts, of the most miserable 
 description, more calculated to excite pity than 
 devotion or respect. The Protestants have a 
 handsome church, with large schools, at Seva- 
 gunda, a city which is the residence of a petty 
 Indian Prince. This city contains some hand- 
 some Hindoo temples, and large sums are ex- 
 pended on them. The Catholics are in very 
 small numbers there, and their church is of the 
 most miserable description. 
 
 Closely adjoining is the district of Marava, 
 containing about 25,000 Christians, in a terri- 
 tory of about 70 miles long by 40 in breadth. 
 It is administered by three Fathers. Many of 
 the Christian villages are very close to one ano- 
 ther, but most of the churches are but huts of 
 a very poor sort. There are however five small 
 churches tolerably built, either by the Mission 
 or by the Christians themselves, with assistance 
 from the Mission. The congregations are com- 
 posed of nearly all castes, but the greater part 
 are of the Odean, or Cultivator caste, very re- 
 markable for their religious spirit, their sim- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 199 
 
 plicity, and patriarchal manners. The Schis- 
 matics in this district are particularly turbulent 
 and active, and have three priests at their ser- 
 vice. This expression is advisedly used, for 
 the schismatic priests are literally at the ser- 
 vice of their congregations, and for money will 
 do anything required of them. They possess 
 all the old churches formerly erected by the 
 Jesuit Missioners ; the principal of these is the 
 magnificent old church of Sarougani, the largest 
 and best appointed in the whole of S. India. 
 
 The litigious spirit and constant aggressions 
 of the schismatics have done more to prevent 
 conversions amongst the heathens in this dis- 
 trict than in any other part of the Mission. 
 The Marava caste were formerly masters of all 
 this country, but their influence and numbers 
 are now very much diminished ; there are a 
 few Christian families amongst them, and con- 
 versions are not unfrequent, which console the 
 Missioners, in some degree, for the numbers of 
 families around them now heathen, though 
 bearing Christian names and descended from 
 Christian parents. They still preserve a great 
 respect for the Catholic Missioner, and many of 
 them bear the name of " John " in honour of 
 
200 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 Father de Brito, who was martyred in their 
 country and is held in the greatest veneration. 
 The Christians have erected a church and a 
 tomb at the place of his martyrdon, which still 
 exist, though not the slightest trace remains of 
 the palace of the Prince who put him to death, 
 
 jRamnad is the next point of the Mission 
 deserving of attention. It is an old Fort on 
 the sea coast; within the ramparts was a Catho- 
 lic church well built and endowed, which has 
 however fallen to decay. It is in the hands of 
 the schismatics, who a few years ago carried off 
 the church plate and every available thing in 
 it, and then let it fall to ruin. A small hut has 
 been constructed near it by the Catholic Mis- 
 sioner, for the instruction of the native Chris- 
 tians, who are unfortunately very indocile and 
 ignorant. The presence of the Missioner has 
 however produced some good. 
 
 Across the narrow strait of Pamben is the 
 Island of the same name, which contains also 
 its portion of Christians, but unfortunately they 
 are so ignorant, and so wanting in intelligence, 
 that it is scarcely possible to make them under- 
 stand even the essentials of religion. They live 
 almost entirely in the woods, but time and per- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 201 
 
 severance has produced a good effect even on 
 them. The channel of Pamben, between the 
 island and the main land, is narrow, and has 
 lately been dredged out by the Government, to 
 a sufficient depth to allow ships of 120 or 200 
 tons, engaged in the country trade, to pass 
 from Negopatam to Colombo. 
 
 At one end of the island which forms this 
 channel is the famous Hindoo shrine of E-ama- 
 saram, to which annually thousands of pilgrims 
 resort, from the farthest parts of India. 
 
 In the centre of the island is the church of 
 St. James, formerly large and rich; it is now 
 little frequented, and consequently poor. It is 
 in the hands of the schismatic clergy, and is 
 visited once a year by the priest of Monton- 
 pethy, on the coast, where there is another 
 large and rich schismatic church, with a garden 
 giving an annual revenue of about £ 100 ster- 
 ling. 
 
 A few miles to the N. West of Madura lies 
 the district of Dindigul, which extends to the 
 foot of the mountains. It contains about 12,000 
 Christians, of whom about three-fourths are 
 Catholics. The rest still follow the schismatic 
 Priest, who is now in possession of three of the 
 
202 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 largest and best churches, which were formerly 
 built by the Jesuit Missioners, and which were 
 made over to the present Fathers by the Chris- 
 tians on their return to the country in 1838. 
 They continued in their possession for some 
 years, when, strange though it may appear, 
 they were, by the arbitrary order of an English 
 police magistrate, forcibly expelled from them, 
 and being Frenchmen, their ignorance of the 
 necessary steps prevented their obtaining re- 
 dress. 
 
 Dindigul enjoys a much more temperate cli- 
 mate than any other part of this district, and is 
 within an easy journey of the Siroumaley Hills, 
 on which, during several months in the year, 
 till the rains set in, a delightful European tem- 
 perature is to be found. The top of the hills 
 is very fertile, and produces excellent coffee. 
 The Protestants made great efforts to establish 
 themselves at Dindigul, and make converts to 
 their theories : for a time — as long as novelty 
 lasted — they succeeded, but now their congre- 
 gation has dwindled down to almost nothing, 
 their church is nearly empty and their schools 
 are deserted. 
 
 The novitiate of the Catholic Mission has 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 203 
 
 been at this place for the last few years, having 
 been removed from Trichinopoly, where three 
 of the novices had died from cholera produced 
 by the heat of the climate, privation and too 
 sudden change. In 1850 the novitiate con- 
 sisted of nine young men, English, Goanese, 
 Bengalees, and Natives of the country. One 
 of the English was a convert, a young officer 
 of great talent and promise, who " left all to 
 follow Christ " and embrace the " folly of the 
 cross," through love of Him who first embraced 
 it for love of mankind. 
 
 Palamcottah, in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood of Tinnevelly is the next station worthy of 
 attention. How many pages have been written, 
 how many reports have been made, to detail 
 and publish to the world the triumphs of Pro- 
 testant missionaries, at Tinnevelly. It would be 
 difficult and impossible even for themselves 
 correctly to state the numbers of their fol- 
 lowers, for very many villages are Protestant 
 only in name ; suffice it to say that their 
 numbers are very much overstated, that their 
 progress in the last few years has been very 
 small if they have not even retrograded, for 
 whole villages have abandoned them, and we 
 
204 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 hear of none that have supplied their place. 
 It is even painful to add, though most strictly 
 true, that if the underworking of these missions 
 in many cases were laid bare, and the means used 
 to force whole villages to sign themselves Pro- 
 testant were made public, many a zealous and 
 right-minded Protestant subscriber, who has 
 deprived himself of his hard-earned gains to 
 contribute generously to the conversion of the 
 Pagan, would grieve at his money being so 
 misapplied by those whom, in the sincerity of 
 his heart, he respected as the apostles of a holy 
 and self-denying law. As a proof of the want 
 of accuracy in Protestant reports, the following 
 instance may be cited. It was stated in a mis- 
 sionary report that the whole of the Catholic 
 congregation of Moolicherry, in the district of 
 Erichoer, in the Malialam, had become Protes- 
 tants; the Protestant missionary was compli- 
 mented by the committee to whom his report 
 was forwarded, a subscription was raised, and 
 money was sent him in abundance to build 
 a church for the new converts. The fact was, 
 that of the whole congregation only thirty-four 
 persons, men, women, and children had abjured 
 the Catholic faith, and for the following reason. 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 205 
 
 Aii influential member of the congregation was 
 living in open scandal, and was exhorted to 
 reform and do penance. Highly indignant at 
 the holy zeal of his pastor, he left the church, 
 and immediately repaired to the Protestant 
 missionary, who received him with open arms. 
 Thirty-four (not 346, as stated) individuals, 
 the immediate relatives and dependants of this 
 man, were forced by him to follow him to the 
 Protestant church. The charitable money of 
 the poor and well-intentioned Protestant is often 
 thus applied to welcome and shelter the guilt 
 of those whom the Catholic church forces out 
 as unworthy of her Communion. A close ex- 
 amination of the real results of Protestant 
 efforts would produce a curious disproportion 
 between results and means. As this subject is 
 treated more fully in another chapter, it is not 
 necessary to dwell upon it here. 
 
 The Catholic Mission at Palamcottah and 
 its immediate neighbourhood numbers about 
 12,000 Catholic Christians, all baptised,, and 
 most of them well instructed in their religion, 
 The Catholics of this district have rendered 
 themselves remarkable by their steady efforts 
 to procure themselves respectable churches and 
 
206 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 to contribute in some degree to the comforts of 
 their Missioners, who, on their part, have 
 always been obliged, when any chance placed 
 a little money at their disposal, to assist their 
 congregations to the utmost of their power in 
 enlarging the church sufficiently to hold the 
 encreasing numbers of their flock. The Chris- 
 tians are nearly all very poor, and it is chiefly 
 by contributing their own labour that they are 
 enabled to effect the little good that has been 
 done. Here, as in the other parts of the Mission, 
 there is a great want of schools, for the people 
 are unable to pay schoolmasters, and can with 
 difficulty dispense with the aid of their chil- 
 dren in gaining their living. The Christians 
 in the neighbourhood are chiefly Sanars or 
 cultivators of the palm tree, from which they 
 extract sugar and spirits. 
 
 It may be interesting to the reader to know 
 what is the usual method pursued by the Mis- 
 sioner in administering a Christian Village. 
 
 The time of the Father's visit being an- 
 nounced, several of the principal Christians of 
 the village assemble at their little church to 
 welcome him on his arrival, and immediately 
 after all those who wish to approach the Sacra- 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 207 
 
 ments assemble. After praying for a short 
 time, the Catechist begins trie regular instruc- 
 tions on the principal truths of religion ; this is 
 followed by an examination of conscience, read 
 aloud by the Catechist, and responded to by 
 each one in his own heart, in the presence of 
 God ; then follows another instruction on the 
 truths of Christianity, laying special weight on 
 the goodness and sufferings of Christ, the eter- 
 nity of a future state of happiness or woe, and 
 all such motives as are most likely to awake 
 contrition in the believing mind ; the Priest 
 then addresses a few words of earnest exhorta- 
 tion to the assembled Faithful, and afterwards 
 individually examines each whom he may not 
 remember to have been previously satisfied 
 with, in order to assure himself that they are 
 sufficiently instructed to know how to approach 
 the Sacraments worthily. Enquiry is then made 
 of the catechist and the elders of the village if 
 there are any public scandals, which, if they 
 exist, are immediately enquired into before 
 those whom it may concern ; every effort is 
 made to reconcile those at variance, and many 
 lawsuits (a pastime to which the natives are 
 particularly partial) are thus prevented. Then 
 
£08 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 follow the confessions and preparation for Holy 
 Communion, which are continued often far into 
 the night. Next morning, Mass is celebrated 
 at a convenient hour for the congregation ; all 
 those who may wish to speak to the Father are 
 afterwards admitted, and, thus employed, the 
 day wears on in doing good. One, two, or 
 more days are thus spent, according to the 
 number of the congregation, and when the mo- 
 ment of the Father's departure arrives, the 
 Christians prostrate themselves to receive his 
 blessing, and accompany him to a considerable 
 distance from the village. 
 
 The coast of the fishery, so often mentioned 
 in the life of St. F. Xavier, remains now to be 
 described. The line of country so called is the 
 S. E. shore of India, from Cape Comorin for 
 about ninety miles up the coast. It contains a 
 large number of Christians who are descended 
 from the early converts of St. F. Xavier, scat- 
 tered in about eighteen villages along the coast 
 line. The character given of these people now 
 300 years ago by the "Apostle of the Indies' 
 is as perfectly applicable to their present charac- 
 ter as if it were written to-day. Their turbu- 
 lent and captious disposition, ever prone to 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 209 
 
 take offence, their fondness for intoxicating 
 drinks, makes them exceedingly hard to govern, 
 and the insults which they heap on their Priests 
 one day, though the very day before they may 
 have been strong in their expressions of regard 
 and esteem, make the Mission amongst them 
 most trying to human nature. Besides this, 
 their churches are of old standing, established 
 formerly by the Portuguese, and they have a 
 sort of traditionary mixture of Indo-Portuguese 
 customs to which they are very much attached, 
 and anxious to require the Missioner to ad- 
 here. This sort of susceptibility occasioned a 
 quarrel between the chief of the Caste and the 
 European Priests, which did immense harm to 
 religion in this district. The chief wished to 
 require the same obedience to his will from the 
 European Priests which, by dint of money, he 
 had easily obtained from the Goa clergy. When 
 he found this could not be, he entirely altered 
 his policy, and exerted every means per fas et 
 nefas, to dislodge the Catholic Priests from the 
 churches of which they had been for some 
 years in peaceable possession, and re-introduce 
 the Goa Priests. The constant vexations which 
 the great influence of the chief was able to 
 
 2p 
 
210 ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 raise, for many years exposed the Fathers to 
 the greatest suffering of body and mind ; their 
 patience and forbearance have at length nearly 
 obtained the victory, for five out of six parts 
 of the Christians of this Caste have followed 
 their Pastors, and the chief himself seems in- 
 clined to submit at last. If an event so for- 
 tunate does take place, it will prove most 
 advantageous to religion, and the erring chief, 
 who by following his ambition has brought 
 sorrow on others and poverty on himself, may 
 feel sure of a kind reception if he returns home 
 to the holy Catholic Church. Triticoven is the 
 principal town along this part of the coast; 
 there is a handsome old church on the sea 
 shore, formerly built by the Portuguese Jesuits, 
 but now in the hands of the revolted chief. 
 To replace it, a large and well-built church has 
 been raised by the Catholic Missioners. It is 
 still unfinished, and will yet need a conside- 
 rable sum for its completion; but it is much 
 admired by the natives, who have themselves 
 contributed in labour and money to its erec- 
 tion. The entire and uncontrolled possession 
 of this church in so principal a station has pro- 
 duced a most beneficial effect, by bettering 
 very considerably the position of our Fathers 
 
ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 211 
 
 in a district where every effort had been made 
 by the schismatic party to throw odium and 
 contempt upon them. 
 
 Along the coast to the South, and in the 
 interior down to the Cape, are several other 
 small congregations of Christians which are 
 visited from time to time by the Missioners. 
 
 Much more might be told of the present 
 state of the Mission, but it would be impossible 
 to mention all in the limits of this little work. 
 Enough has been said to give a general idea 
 of the Christians, of their present state, and of 
 the way in which is carried on the holy work 
 of leading them to the knowledge of our Divine 
 Redeemer, and labouring for their sanctifica- 
 tion by the fulfilment of the law for which 
 Christ died. Much has, thank Heaven, been 
 done, considering the means at the disposal 
 of the Missioners, and the severe poverty to 
 which nearly all of them condemned them- 
 selves, has received an abundant recompense in 
 some cases by the devotion and piety of those 
 for whom they were labouring. None but those 
 who have experienced it can imagine what a 
 thrill of consolation, and what a sweet hope for 
 the future, sometimes fills to overflowing the 
 heart of the Missioner as he leans over the 
 
21£ ACTUAL STATE OF THE MISSION. 
 
 dying form of the poor Indian, to whom he 
 feels himself more strongly attached by the tie 
 of eternal love and charity than by any earthly 
 affection to the friends of the distant home of 
 his youth. Experience has shewn that even 
 the most educated and polished European mind 
 can feel a deeper gratification in one look of 
 contrition and hope in the dying eyes of the 
 most illiterate neophyte than ever could be felt 
 in the most brilliant academical success, or the 
 most assiduous court paid to talent in Europe. 
 On the other hand no one who has not himself 
 felt it can imagine the pain of mind which 
 afflicts the Missioner when he sees so much 
 good to be done, and seeming easily within his 
 reach, and which he finds it is impossible to 
 carry out, from want of funds ; any one who 
 can apj>reciate this feeling will not be asto- 
 nished that, it was necessary for superiors to 
 issue positive orders and injunctions to the 
 Missioner s rather to spend their little means on 
 their own poor persons, in taking indispensa- 
 ble care to preserve their health, than in futile 
 efforts to do charity beyond their power. In 
 the short concluding chapter a few words will 
 shew how great are the wants of the Mission, 
 and how small are the means of meeting them. 
 
213 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The Mission at present consists of one Bishop, 
 who is a Vicar Apostolic, forty-two Priests, six- 
 teen young Church, students, four lay-brothers, 
 and twenty-five catechists. The Vicar -Apostolic 
 is the Right Rev. Dr. Canoz, S.J., bearing the 
 episcopal title of Tamas, in the Isle of Cyprus. 
 His Lordship is a Frenchman by birth, and 
 has spent twelve full years on the Mission, the 
 last four as Bishop, and Superior. For about 
 two years previous to his consecration, Rev. 
 Father Canoz had charge of the whole Mission 
 as Superior, under the Vicar Apostolic of Pondi- 
 cherry. In 1844 Rev. Father Bertrand, who 
 had been for some time Superior, finding his 
 health completely broken, and being utterly 
 unable to continue his apostolic labours, judged 
 it best to return to Europe, in order to make 
 known the actual state and wants of the Mis- 
 sion. The real necessity of sending some one 
 to Europe made him overcome the scruple he 
 otherwise would have felt in incurring such 
 heavy expense merely for health's sake. On 
 his arrival in Rome, by his able efforts, and the 
 reasons which his personal experience was able 
 
214 CONCLUSION. 
 
 to furnish, lie established the point that Jesuit 
 Missions could in no way he so successfully 
 governed as by Superiors of the Order, bearing 
 Episcopal rank, and the titles of Vicars Apos- 
 tolic. Having found means to avoid the heavy 
 charge himself, it fell upon Father Canoz, who 
 was then Superior of the Mission. His Lordship 
 was consecrated at Trichinopoly, in the church 
 of the Blessed Virgin, on the feast of St. Peter 
 and Paul, 1847, by the Archbishop and Vicar 
 Apostolic of Verapoly, an Italian, assisted by 
 several of the other Bishops of India, and a 
 large number of Priests. This was perhaps 
 the largest meeting of Catholic Clergymen 
 which had ever taken place there, and for a 
 few days they forgot, in the pleasure of one 
 another's society, the solitude of their isolated 
 Missions and their long exile from home. 
 During the four years which have elapsed 
 since the consecration of Bishop Canoz, much 
 has been done to organize the Mission and 
 systematize its manner of working. The steady 
 perseverance of the Missioners in striving to 
 maintain peace and order, though under the 
 severest provocation from the schismatics, has 
 earned for them, in many instances, the good 
 
CONCLUSION. 215 
 
 will and esteem of the English, magistrates. 
 Even those who, by feeling and inclination, 
 were most hostile to the doctrines which they 
 believed to be tanght by the Catholic Mission- 
 ers, were nnable to withhold from them that 
 degree of respect which a right minded man 
 must ever feel towards those who are consis- 
 tent and self- devoted in an undertaking of 
 difficulty and hardship. The mortality amongst 
 the Missioners for the last two or three vears 
 has been comparatively slight, and as several 
 have arrived from Europe, the number is 
 larger than it had yet been. The greater part 
 are Frenchmen ; there are five or six Italians, 
 and but one English Priest. Amongst the 
 ecclesiastical students there are three of Eng- 
 lish parentage, besides some from Calcutta and 
 some from Goa.* Amongst the lay brothers, 
 one, who is an Irishman, has rendered himself 
 
 * One of the English students is the son of a gentleman 
 distinguished for his literary attainments at home, Sir Francis 
 Palgrave. This young man, after a most successful Oxford 
 University course, joined the Indian army, where he distin- 
 guished himself for his talents, and after two years became 
 a Catholic, and then left all to follow Christ, abandoning a 
 career of high promise for the apparently humbler lot of a 
 Missioner. 
 
216 CONCLUSION. 
 
 most useful in the College, in teaching English 
 and mathematics, with a degree of system and 
 perseverance which has produced the most 
 happy results. The others are employed in 
 taking care of the temporal concerns of the 
 Mission. The college does not suffice for its 
 own support, and therefore draws upon the 
 very limited funds of the Mission. It has been 
 already mentioned that each Missioner scarcely 
 exceeds one shilling per diem to meet all ex- 
 penses. The following will shew whence these 
 funds arise. The Mission has from money and 
 landed property about £ 100 a year ; add to 
 this about £200 a year for jura stolse or clerical 
 fees, and the voluntary subscriptions of the 
 native congregations. The Propagation of the 
 Faith gives about 30,000 francs per annum to 
 the Mission, equivalent to £ 1200, making in 
 all about £ 1500 for the support of the whole 
 Mission. Sixty -two persons to support and 
 clothe at one shilling per day amounts in the 
 year to £1131 : 10, thus leaving about £370 
 for buildings, reparations, care of churches, 
 and all the contingent expenses necessary to 
 carry on the Mission in the most economical 
 way. The frequent illnesses of the Missioners 
 
CONCLUSION. 217 
 
 would alone have consumed this small sum, 
 were it not for the constant acts of kindness 
 and generosity received universally from the 
 medical officers in India, not one of whom has 
 ever accepted a fee for advice, but on the con- 
 trary have many and many a time, from their 
 own houses and funds, furnished the poor 
 Missioner with those comforts necessary for his 
 convalescence, and which his poverty prevented 
 his procuring. The names of many of these 
 gentlemen will ever be remembered with the 
 warmest gratitude. On several occasions the 
 kind-hearted English doctor has taken the al- 
 most dying Missioner from his hovel, and 
 carried him to his own house, where, by assi- 
 duous care and proper attendance, his valuable 
 life has been preserved, and his health entirely 
 restored. Many of these illnesses, and much 
 of the suffering of the Missioners, proceed from 
 want of proper food, consequent upon their 
 poverty, and also want of proper lodging. 
 
 It is not then, Christian reader, for funds to 
 be expended in what may be called the acces- 
 sories, and much less the luxuries of religion, 
 that the Missioner of Madura appeals to your 
 charity and sympathies. He asks you, in the 
 
218 CONCLUSION. 
 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give him of 
 your affluence, if you possess it, to procure for 
 him the bare necessaries of life which he stands 
 in need of: he has abandoned home, friends 
 and country, at the call of Him who aban- 
 doned much more for us ; he daily exposes 
 himself to severe privations, rendered doubly 
 trying and fatal to his health and life by real 
 poverty. He begs you to turn your eyes upon 
 the millions of inhabitants in British India still 
 buried in darkness, and waiting for the light of 
 faith to be shewn to them — to turn your eyes 
 upon the thousands of Christians already exist- 
 ing in India, and struggling with the nume- 
 rous temptations which surround them, of which 
 not the least is to see their Priests in a distress 
 which they cannot relieve, being, with few ex- 
 ceptions, still poorer themselves. In India a 
 man's worth is in general measured by his pos- 
 sessions, and he is respected accordingly; the 
 show of poverty in the Priest is therefore most 
 detrimental to his influence in the eyes of the 
 Heathen, though it is edifying to the Chris- 
 tian, who knows it to be a voluntary underta- 
 king ; but even these latter would very much 
 prefer to see their Priests living in a manner 
 
CONCLUSION. £19 
 
 more suitable to their position. The Goa Priest, 
 who for some years was the only one known to 
 the native Christian, too often rendered himself 
 notorious for his rapacity and severe exactions. 
 To counteract this it was necessary to act with 
 the greatest liberality towards the Christians, 
 and to require as little help as possible at their 
 hands. This of course has materially dimi- 
 nished even the small sum which might be 
 contributed by them to the wants of their Mis- 
 sioners. 
 
 It will be easily understood by a reflecting 
 mind that as a Mission advances, its expenses 
 must necessarily increase, just as the human 
 frame in youth and manhood requires more sus- 
 tenance and food than in infancy. Twelve years 
 of steady perseverance in an endeavour to sanc- 
 tify and instruct the native Christian, and to 
 convert his Heathen countrymen, has produced 
 a great change for the better upon the native 
 congregations ; a desire of instruction has arisen 
 which must be satisfied by proper schools, 
 which can be set on foot for a very trifling ex- 
 pense. With this a strong desire for religious 
 instruction is steadily increasing amongst the 
 adult part of the congregations, a want which 
 
220 CONCLUSION. 
 
 can only be met by well instructed Catechists, 
 whose education and training must necessarily 
 be more or less expensive. The Catechist is a 
 most important and necessary part of a Mission, 
 especially in those villages which, being with- 
 out a resident Clergyman, are only visited from 
 time to time. On his intelligence, probity and 
 trustworthiness depend, in a great measure, 
 the good order of a congregation, and even 
 perhaps the salvation of many of its members. 
 The smallness of the pay which hitherto, in 
 consequence of the poverty of the Mission, he 
 has received, has been a great bar to his use- 
 fulness, rendering it necessary for him to spend 
 much of his time in traffic, or some other means 
 for his own support. Often has the Missioner 
 been obliged to deprive himself of even the 
 most necessary things for a European, in order 
 to support his Catechist, whose services were 
 indispensable for the care of his flock. The 
 poor Missioner of Madura, from his cabin in 
 some plain of India, where a mat and a straw 
 pillow are his only bed, whose whole furniture 
 consists of a chair and a table (if he have one), 
 after a long day spent in toil and privation, 
 raises his voice to the Catholic of Europe, and 
 
CONCLUSION. 221 
 
 begs him, by the compassion of Christ, to send 
 him the means of supporting his Catechists and 
 servants, whose self-devotion is often tasked far 
 beyond the bounds of ordinary virtue. Though 
 the Missioner's own strength of mind is often 
 brought low by the lassitude of his body, pro- 
 duced by too much privation, he feels his own 
 wants less than the wants of those about him ; 
 for in India, as in every other country, it is 
 next to impossible to command the zealous 
 co-operation and help of ill-paid attendants. 
 Devout reader, believe that there is no exagge- 
 ration when you are told, by the Missioner, 
 that your alms would materially contribute 
 to the prolongation of his life of usefulness 
 There is perhaps no part of the world where 
 the Catholic Church does not more or less 
 stand in need of the charitable alms of her 
 children for her support ; but still the startling 
 mortality amongst the Missioners of Madura, 
 which can scarcely be attributed to any other 
 cause than the privations endured, sufficiently 
 proves that, at present, no other foreign Mission 
 is in the same want and need of assistance, for 
 in no other part of the Church has the mortality 
 of the Clergy been so great as one in about two 
 
222 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and a half, within ten years. The wants in 
 England are incontestably immense, but at least 
 the personal wants of the Catholic Clergy are 
 in general tolerably supplied : this is not the 
 case in Madura, where there is no sort of fund 
 to fall back upon, and where if by wars in 
 Europe, or other causes, the Association for 
 the Propagation of the Faith should come to 
 fail, both the Bishop and every one of his 
 Missioners would be exposed to literal starva- 
 tion. It may be said by some that it is a Jesuit 
 Mission, — that every one knows that the order 
 is immensely rich, and consequently that the 
 tale here represented is an idle one. The tale 
 must rest on its own foundation, which is truth; 
 it would be worse than idle to relate falsehoods 
 which could be so easily contradicted, and the 
 tale being true is itself the strongest possible 
 proof how false is the popular idea of the im- 
 mense riches of the Jesuit body. It would 
 indeed be extraordinary if a body which, to- 
 wards the end of last century, was legally anni- 
 hilated, and remained as it were dead till 1814, 
 could suddenly rise to immense wealth, espe- 
 cially when it is remembered that within the 
 last few years they were, in almost every coun- 
 
CONCLUSION. %23 
 
 try in Europe, the first victims of the Red 
 Republican party, and obliged to fly for their 
 lives, and beg their way, in many cases, to 
 more hospitable countries. Again, can it be 
 imagined that these very men who have so 
 lately, for a short time, felt themselves the 
 greatest need and distress, would now, were 
 they possessed of the necessary means, leave 
 their confreres in the van of so holy a cause, 
 daily dropping into premature graves from 
 insufficient support? The Missioner in India 
 has then nothing but the Providence of God to 
 fall Jback upon, and therefore has a holy right 
 to draw upon the bank of that Providence 
 whose advances ever remain overpaid, yet un- 
 discharged in Heaven, for they eternally draw 
 down upon the charitable giver the unceasing 
 flow of God's boundless recompense. The 
 charity of the faithful, given for the advance of 
 religion and the support of clergymen, is the 
 best and strongest claim that erring man, in his 
 weakness, can put forth to Heaven ; for Charity 
 covereth a multitude of sins, and to none is 
 Heaven more frequently and positively pro- 
 mised than to the givers of alms. In Christ's 
 name, then, a Bishop and forty-two Priests 
 
 o 
 
224: CONCLUSION. 
 
 stretch out their hands to those who would 
 regret to see the Missions of Francis Xavier 
 unsustained. 
 
 The Sacred Scriptures in the most positive 
 terms assure us of the eternal reward given 
 to those who administer even to the temporal 
 wants of the poorest member of Christ's Church, 
 surely a high reward will be given by the 
 Redeemer and Giver of all good, when for His 
 love a charitable hand is held out to support 
 the very life and health of those who desire 
 these blessings only to expend them in disj:>en- 
 sing the treasures of eternal bliss to the millions 
 who sit around them buried in darkness. 
 
 The Missioner now struggling to live on a 
 few pence a day will, when supplied with more 
 abundant means, be no longer obliged to turn 
 away with an aching heart and a deaf ear from 
 those who beg at his hands, not corporeal food 
 or earthly advantages, but who raise an earnest 
 supplication for the bread of life and the means 
 of salvation. 
 
 Many a time the young widow and the ten- 
 der virgin have sought from the Church the 
 means of retirement and protection, and have, 
 from the very impossibility of extending to 
 
CONCLUSION. 225 
 
 them the shelter they demanded, been exposed 
 to the most imminent danger. How earnest 
 will be their prayers for the eternal welfare of 
 those who have assisted them in the path of 
 virtue. Often has the aged Hindoo, long per- 
 suaded of the truths of Christianity at heart, 
 offered to leave a home of comparative comfort, 
 provided only that food were assured him, — 
 and still the same painful answer : " It is im- 
 possible ; we can instruct you, we cannot sup- 
 port you. But cannot you support yourself?" 
 " I want for nothing now," he might answer.* 
 " but at the first moment that I declare myself 
 in favour of the Christian law, I shall be turned 
 out houseless and naked on the world." 
 
 And the Catholic parent and child have 
 often asked in the sincerest anxiety, " Father, 
 when shall we have a Catholic school, that we 
 may not see our religion exposed to calumny 
 and ourselves to insult," for growing up in 
 ignorance. The same sad answer is given to 
 each, " No one can give that which he does 
 not possess." And yet in this very land, and 
 all around, thousands of English money, sub- 
 scribed with the most charitable motives, are 
 annually expended on the various Protestant 
 
 q 2 
 
226 CONCLUSION. 
 
 establishments to furnish their missionaries with 
 even the luxuries of life. To whom has the 
 Catholic Missioner in a British territory more 
 right to address his petition for help than to 
 the British Catholics, who, though almost over- 
 whelmed by calls at home, have yet the will and 
 the heart to help the needy ? An humble ex- 
 ample of generosity is often a striking one : did 
 all classes of the British Catholics come forward 
 with the same self-devoted generosity and sys- 
 tematized charity as the poor Catholic soldier 
 in India does for the support and spread of his 
 faith, much might be done, and abundant means 
 be raised. The hard-earned pay of the poor 
 Catholic soldier has raised many a handsome 
 monument of charity in India, and supported 
 many a priest to whom the Government he 
 served had refused the smallest help. In many 
 places large churches have been built, ground 
 purchased, and a Missioner established by the 
 united efforts of Catholic soldiers. The unseen 
 and all-guiding Providence of God has sent 
 forth the Catholic soldier, apparently on a mis- 
 sion of death, but really on a mission of eternal 
 life to thousands. The grace of God has sup- 
 ported and strengthened faith in his heart, and 
 
CONCLUSION. 227 
 
 inspired him to raise the cross in benedic- 
 tion over himself and as a sign of salvation to 
 the Heathen around him. Whilst loyalty has 
 strengthened his arm, and guided his courage 
 in the day of battle to stand by his colours till 
 death, so faith has strengthened his hope and 
 guided his soul in its combat for Heaven, and 
 his death-bed has been blest and hallowed by 
 the numerous charities of his life ; he has fore- 
 felt the assurance of the value of alms deeds, 
 and how good it is to have laid up " treasures 
 in Heaven where the moth consumeth not, and 
 thieves do not break through and steal." 
 
 Could we now behold them in the possession 
 of those crowns which they have gained by 
 their generous self-denial on earth, and their 
 sacrifice of many comforts for the love of God, 
 could we hear their song of triumphant-joy, 
 we should be struck at the greatness of their 
 reward. Could we hear with our corporeal 
 ears the advice their happy souls would give 
 us, how loudly and exultingly would they sing 
 to us, Go thou and do the like. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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