in Calcutta when I was resident there, was a native of Bagdad, and a most agreeable person. He frequently came to my house to read Hebrew with me, and he gave me a copy of the first printed edition of the Syriac New Testament.

On the western coast of India, at Cochin, there is an ancient colony of Jews, consisting of two classes, the white and the black. They settled on the coast of India, according to their own account, shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem. Dr. Buchanan obtained from them a very valuable copy of the Pentateuch in the Samaritan character. The white Jews have received an infusion of new blood, from time to time, from Persia and Arabia, and therefore they retain their national characteristics. Probably the colony emigrated at a very remote period from the countries just named, for commercial objects, and settled as did the members of the so-called Syrian Church.

The black Jews of Cochin, who have sometimes been regarded as descendants of the ten tribes, are no doubt converts to Judaism from the natives of the western coast of India. This is the account given of them by the white Jews themselves, who have so far imbibed the caste-feeling of the country that they regard their darker brethren as a separate and inferior caste, refusing to intermarry or even to associate with them, and compel them to have a separate low-caste synagogue of their own. The black Jews are, however, strongly attached to their religious rites.

THE MOHAMMEDANS.

The Mohammedan population of India amounts to about ten or twelve millions of souls, and is scattered abroad throughout the land in varied proportion to the Hindus. They are generally inaccessible, hard-hearted, contemptuous, ignorant, and proud: they are peculiarly intolerant and bigoted, and therefore they have been called by some the Roman Catholics of the East.

CHAPTER XVII.

CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA.-ST. THOMAS.-PANTENUS.-COSMAS.-ALFRED THE GREAT'S EMBASSY TO INDIA. THE PORTUGUESE, THEIR VIOLENT PROCEEDINGS. XAVIER. ROMISH PERSECUTION OF THE SYRIAN CHURCH.-THE MISSION OF THE JESUITS AT MADURA.-PROCEEDINGS OF THE DUTCH.

AMONG the strangers at Jerusalem, especially among the "Parthians," who felt the impulses of the day of Pentecost, we may, without any great licence, imagine, that there were some, who, destined to open the way for the introduction of the Gospel into "the regions beyond," were at that time fitted to extend the objects of that event even to the borders of India. That Christianity was planted in the south of India at a very early period, admits of no doubt; but there is no historical evidence to show by whom it was conveyed. The legend which states that St. Thomas and St. Barnabas preached the Gospel in South India and Ceylon rests on no valid grounds, although it has been received with a good degree of confidence by some eminent men even in the Reformed Church.

Eusebius states that in the division of the Gentile world among the Apostles of our Lord, Parthia, that part of Central Asia bounded by the river Indus, was assigned to St. Thomas. Origen, who wrote in the third century, says expressly that St. Thomas published the Gospel in Parthia, Media, Caramania and Bactriana. The last-named kingdom bordered on the territory of Indo-Scythia, and that of the Massagetæ, through which the Indus flowed. Though St. Thomas himself may not have crossed into India Proper, it is probable that

he received his title of Apostle of India, from the proximity of his field of labour to that country. In the absence of historic data we are left to conjecture the means first employed by Providence for conveying the message of mercy to the interesting country of which this volume treats. То set the subject in as clear a light as possible, I will here introduce all the information relating to it that I have been able to gather.

Beginning then with credible history, we find that St. Mark, who in the early part of his mission travelled with Paul and Barnabas, settled in Egypt and founded the Church of Alexandria. At that time there resided in that emporium of Eastern commerce numerous strangers from Arabia, Persia, Media, and Parthia, some of whom, like the Apostle himself, had probably witnessed the events of Pentecost and felt its power. It is not improbable that some of these, in the pursuit of commercial objects, were in the habit of travelling to India, and in some cases remaining there at least for a time, as is the case with the Arabians and Abyssinians at the present day; and of necessity, if earnest men, they would not only observe the usages of their religion, but speak of the wonderful events so recently witnessed at Jerusalem. Socotra, an island midway between Egypt and India, also received the Gospel at a very early period, and no doubt from those who were in the habit of trafficking with that insulated spot. There is enough in the Acts of the Apostles to show that in the early ages of the Church, as now, Providence used various methods for the diffusion of the truth. The pilgrim from the queen of Ethiopia, the man of Macedonia, are examples in point. The strangers scattered abroad by the early persecution of the Church, conveyed the glad tidings of salvation, and because the hand of the Lord was with them, they so spake that many believed. It were inconsistent with the history of the Church not to believe that those days of the right hand of the Most High furnished many bright examples of men, who, animated with divine love, went forth, possibly

as far as to India, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. We know that many did obey the command of our Lord, and that through them the word sounded forth to the ends of the earth: the testimony of Eusebius on this point is explicit. Thus far, however, as regards India we are left solely to inference.

We have more satisfactory evidence as regards the early church in India about the year 200. Then we are informed that Demetrius, the Bishop of Alexandria, received a message from certain persons in India, earnestly requesting him to send some one to instruct them in the doctrines of Christ. Whether those who had gone thither for commercial or other purposes made the request, or whether the natives themselves, who might have heard something of Christianity, and were desirous to know more of its teaching, sent to the Bishop, is not apparent. The constant communication kept up between the two countries rendered the transmission of the message easy. Pantanus, a Stoic philosopher, who had embraced Christianity, and at that time presided over a school at Alexandria, on hearing of the requisition from India, offered to undertake the mission. He went, remained some time, how long does not appear, and returning to Egypt, afterwards resumed his former occupation. Though some doubts have been thrown on the mission of Pantænus as to the country to which he went, it being alleged by some that he went no further than Arabia or Abyssinia, there is circumstantial evidence that India was the scene of his labours: for his pupil, Clemens Alexandrinus, alluding to the inhabitants of that country, describes the ascetics, the Brahmans, and speaks also of Budha: it is probable that he had his information from his teacher, Pantænus.

After the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Byzantine empire under Constantine, at the Council of Nice, held by order of the Emperor in the year 325, one of the assembled prelates, named Johannes, subscribed as Metropolitan of Persia and of the Great India. At that time an active

trade was carried on between western countries and India, through Persia. This would lead to the residence of Persians in the emporia of commerce in India and Ceylon: over these no doubt the bishop in question presided.

We now pass on to the next notice of the Indian Church which is found in history. In the sixth century Cosmas, in the reign of Justinian, wrote a work, entitled, Christian Topography, for the purpose of vindicating the Cosmography of the Old Testament, from what he believed to be the heresies of the Ptolemaic System. This writer, surnamed Indicopleustes, the Indian Voyager, was a merchant of Alexandria, then the emporium of eastern trade both for Rome and Constantinople. The accuracy of his geographical description of the western coast of India, and of the commerce carried on with that country both by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, is unquestionable. His testimony is as follows: "There is," says he, "in the island of Taprobane (Ceylon), in the furthermost India, in the Indian Sea, a Christian Church, with an episcopal form of discipline, priests, and deacons, and a liturgy. In Malabar (the western coast of India), where pepper grows, there are Christians, with a bishop, who comes from Persia." At the time Cosmas visited them these Christians are said to have been Nestorians in belief. This further serves to show that they were subject to the Primate of Persia, who held the Nestorian creed. It may be remarked that the Syrian Christians, as they are generally called, on the western coast of India, are not now Nestorians, but Jacobites. They changed their tenets when the Patriarch of Seleucia adopted the Jacobite notions. The testimony of Cosmas regarding the existence of the Church in India and Ceylon is most explicit, and harmonizes with the statements coming from other sources, as already given.

It will be in place to notice that Alfred the Great, apparently under the impression that St. Thomas planted the Church in India, in accordance with the custom of his times, sent an embassy to visit his shrine: Swithelm, or Sighelm,