plicity, and that the fronts of such as adopted afterwards the Latin rite, and acknowledged the supremacy of the Roman see, are decorated with Saints in niches or basso-relievos, and that some of the most conspicuous had an arched choir. -The largest Christian temple was at Alangadce or Mangatte, five miles from Paroor, and to judge from the present ruins, it must have been a very handsome and noble structure. At Angamalee, the seat of the Syrian Metropolitan, there were not less than three spacious temples, not inferior to the specimen exhibited in the ruins of Coorty. But they have all been converted into heaps of ruins, by the destroying hand of the Mysorean invader, as was also the neat church and college built by the Jesuits at Amblagatte.

THE great number of such sumptuous buildings as the St. Thomé Christians possessed in the inland parts of the Travancore and Cochin dominions is really surprising; since some of them, upon a moderate calculation, must have cost upwards of one lack of rupees, and few less than half that sum. How different must have been the situation of this people in former times, in comparison with the wretched condition in which we behold them at present! scarcely able to erect a cadjan shed for their religious meetings over those splendid ruins, that attest at the same time their former wealth and present poverty. In the same proportion that their opulence decreased, their population appears also to have diminished. Alangada contained, before the year 1750, more than a thousand Christian families, who lived in substantial houses, of which the ruins are still extant, and bear evidence to the fact. Of those families not full one hundred are now remaining, and them I found in the most abject state of misery. The same melancholy contrast is observable at Angamalee, and many other formerly opulent christian towns and villages.

THEIR

THEIR pristine flourishing condition, and even opulence, however, can easily be accounted for. The bulk of the St. Thomé Christians consisted mostly of converts from the Bramin and Shoudren cast; and not, as the new Christians, or proselytes made by the Portuguese missionaries, of the lowest tribes: and as the introduction and propagation of the Christian religion, by the Syrian adventurers, probably so early as the fifth century, gave no umbrage to the PERUMALS, Who, at that period, governed Malabar, these converts were allowed to retain their patrimonial estates, with equal security, and exemption from taxes, as the indigenous Bramins and Nairs. For, under the ancient mild Hindoo government, and even in modern times, till HYDER ALLY made his first irruption, imposts on landed property were unknown in Malabar. The St. Thomé Christians possessed, in addition, another source of wealth, which was trade. They were, in fact, the only, at least the principal merchants in the country, till the Arabs settled on the coast; and they continued in a flourishing situation, till towards the middle of the present æra, when the Rajas of Travancore and Cochin overturned the whole system and laws established by the celebrated CHERUMA PERUMAL, and after dispossessing the independent Rajas of Paroor, Alangada, Tekencoor, Waddakencoor, Porka, Coilan, Callicoilan, and many other petty Nair chiefs, under the name of CAYMALS, who formed the states of the country, and were long a strong barrier against the attempts at absolute power by the Rajas; they divided into unequal shares the whole of the conquered countries, of which the Raja of Travancore appropriated to himself by far the greatest part, and introduced the present oppressive system of government; if that can be called such, which is in fact an injudicious imitation of the late Mysorean system of finances; without the order, regularity, and in some manner impartial administration of justice, which is necessary to support it, and without which it must unavoidably degenerate into endless and generally destructive schemes of extortion and rapine, that soon or late must bring such unhappy countries, let their natural resources be over so great, to the lowest state of wretchedness; as is already the case both in the Travancore and Cochin dominions.

Note on KEROL OODPUTTEE, page 367,

Several copies of this valuable historical monument are in the possession of the writer of this, of which he purposes to publish a free translation au some future period. The name given to these annals of Ma labar is differently spelled and explained; some call it Keralulpaddy, which means the common-wealth of Malabar or Kerala, (the Sanscrit name for Malabar ;) others write Keralawilpatty, and translate it Historical account or description of Kerala, which is the original name to the low country, and still used in Sanscrit: for the hill country had existed long before, and was known under the name of Mala or Malleam the hill country, but in the lapse of time the name of Malleam prevailed, and was applied to both the hilly and the low country, and the name of Kerala became obsolete.

1

From this, compared with other passages of less authority, and with the received notions of the Hindus themselves, it appears, that the Rich, Yajush, and Sáman, are the three principal portions of the Véda; that the 'Atharvana is commonly admitted as a fourth; and that divers mythological poems, entitled Itihasa and Puráwas, are reckoned a supplement to the scripture, and, as such, constitute a fifth Véda*.

The true reason, why the three first Védas are often mentioned without any notice of the fourth, must be sought, not in their different origin and antiquity; but in the difference of their use and purport. Prayers, employed at solemn rites, called Yajnyas, have been placed in the three principal Védas: those, which are in prose, are named Yajush; such, as are in metre, are denominated Rich; and some, which are intended to be chanted, are called Saman: and these names, as distinguishing different portions of the Védas, are anterior to as far as the seventh generation, to his seed, who were to become successively hereditary guardians of this sacred substance, which proved to be a stone, in which the God was to be understood as mystically typified. This type is duly reverenced, is carefully preserved, and hath ever been the constant companion of the sanctified person inheriting with it the divine patrimony.

THIS annunciation happened about the year A. D. 1640. and six generations have since passed away.

IT doth not now appear what was the precise extent of the divine energy originally conceded; but it is inferred to have been a limited power of working miracles. Such as healing sickly uncleanlinesses, granting to a certain degree the desires of pious suppliants, and the faculty of foretelling, under some restrictions, the events of futurity.

THESE gifts appear, indeed avowedly, to have been enjoyed in a more extensive degree by the first possessors, than by the latter. --The Bramins admit that the farther the remove from the favoured man in whom the God became incarnate, the greater is the chance of degeneracy; although such degeneracy might not have been inevitable. It is therefore presumable that the early inheritors worked more conspicuous miracles than have of late been manifested. -Some remains of supernatural power have, however, been remarked, as will be noticed, in the existing incumbent, GABAJEE DEO.

THE holy inheritance has thus descended. MOORABA GOSSEYN had but one son, CHINTO MUN DEO (the 1st) at the time of the visitation; and as he immediately became Sunna-assee, he had of course no other; to him about the year 1650, fell the godly estate. His eldest son NARRAIN DEO succeeded, and after dispensing his miraculous energies twenty-five years, died, leaving them to CHINTO

MUN