Calicut fifty leagues. The king of this city is a pagan and is not very rich. The manner of living, the dress, and the customs, are after the manner of Calicut. Many merchants arrived here, because a great deal of pepper grows in this country, and in perfection. In this city we found some Christians of those of Saint Thomas, some of whom are merchants, and believe in Christ, as we do. These say that every three years a priest comes there to baptize them, and that he comes to them from Babylon. These Christians keep Lent longer than we do; but they keep Easter like ourselves, and they all observe the same solemnities that we do. But they say mass like the Greeks. The names of

whom are four, that is to say, John, James, Matthew, and Thomas. The country, the air, and the situation, resemble northward of Quilon, forming islands by the various inlets." (Directory, vol. i. p. 508.) These salt-water inlets, and the estuaries communicating with them, form what is technically called by seamen the Backwater of Cochin.

The foregoing extract from Horsburgh convinces me that Porca or Parrakad, which lies between Cochin and Quilon, is sometimes, if not always, insulated by the rivers and estuaries in its neighbourhood. Varthema is therefore justified in calling that place an island. See p. 154, and note 2.

1 I have looked in vain for this place in Thornton's Gazetteer. It is written Kayan Kulam in Keith Johnston's Atlas, but the same designation is incorrectly given to Quilon also. The two places are distinct, and appear always to have had distinct names. Barbosa, a few years after Varthema, says: "After passing the aforesaid place [Porca,] the kingdom of Coulan commences, and the first place is called Caincoulan, inhabited by many Gentiles, Moors, and Christians of the doctrine of Saint Thomas, many of whom, in the interior, live among the Gentiles. Much pepper grows in this place, with which many vessels are loaded." (RAMUSIO, vol. i. p. 312.) Baldæus, nearly a century and a half later, describes Kayan Kulam thus :-"The next adjoining kingdom [to Percatti or Porca] is Calecoulang, of no great extent. Here the Dutch had a factory." (CHURCHILL'S Collection of Voyages, vol. iii. p. 643.) Hamilton, who writes it Coilcoloan, says it is "a little principality contiguous to Porkah." (PINKERTON's Voyages, vol. viii. p. 383.) The two last mentioned authors mention Quilon also, the former calling it Coulang, and the latter Coiloan.

2 Varthema would have been more correct if he had merely adduced

those of Calicut. At the end of three days we departed the above names as examples of those borne by these Christians; but that may be his meaning.

It is difficult to decide, from the imperfect and prejudiced accounts of the early Portuguese, to what rite these Christians belonged at this period, or whether they belonged to more rites than one. Varthema's notice of them is very brief, and what he does say would apply equally either to the Syrian Jacobite or to the Nestorian community, with the exception of his remark about Babylon, which, if reliable, (and he was less likely to err in the name of a place than in the definition of a doctrine,) undoubtedly connects the Christians whom he met at Cacolon with the latter. Catholic or Patriarch of Babylon is the vague title which has been applied to the Primate of the Nestorians while located successively at the royal seats of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, and Baghdad, and at the time referred to, the Nestorian patriarchate was established at Baghdad, whereas the Jacobite Patriarch resided then, as he does still, at Mardîn in Mesopotamia. Be that as it may, at the present day the Christians of Malabar, as they are generally called, are divided into two distinct communities, one nominally subject to the spiritual primacy of the Chaldean Patriarch at Mosul, (Chaldeans is the name assumed by the Nestorians in Turkey and Persia who have submitted to the Church of Rome,) and the other recognizing the Syrian Jacobite Patriarch at Mardîn. On the demise of the Malabar bishop of the latter body, a successor, in the person of a native priest, was sent to Mardin, where he was consecrated to the episcopate under the name of Mar Athanasius; but on returning to India the validity of his priesthood was questioned by some of the community, who asserted that he had been ordained by the laying-on of the bishop's hands after the death of the latter. This and some other objections induced the Jacobite Patriarch to send one Bishop Kirillos (Cyril,) a native of Mesopotamia, to Malabar, which gave rise to new contentions among the Jacobites of that country, who, from all the accounts that have reached me, appear to be involved in an uninterrupted succession of ecclesiastical squabbles.

The Malabar Christians who composed the Nestorian section have as a body conformed to Rome, preserving, however, their own Syriac rituals, and such other ecclesiastical customs and observances, of eastern origin, as were not considered heterodox by the Latin Church. At what precise period they ceased their connexion with the Nestorian Patriarchate at Baghdad is uncertain. Efforts were certainly made by Roman missionaries as early as the fourteenth century to induce the Malabar Christians generally to abjure their alleged schism, and some valuable notices of their proceedings at that epoch will be found in Colonel Yule's Preface to his translation of the Mirabilia Descripta, written by Friar Jordanus, who was Bishop of Columbum (Quilon) circa A.D. 1330;

.

from this place, and went to another city called Colon,1 distant from that above mentioned twenty miles. The king of this city is a Pagan, and extremely powerful, and he has 20,000 horsemen, and many archers, and is constantly at war but it seems most probable that the separation was not consummated prior to the settlement of the Portuguese in India, through whose instrumentality the Nestorians were brought into communion with the See of Rome, when, of course, their relations with the Patriarch at Baghdad ceased, and their priests received ordination through the Latin bishops located in the country. Recently, however, they appear to have become dissatisfied with that arrangement, and decided to have a bishop of their own. Accordingly, about four years ago, they deputed twelve of their number, several of whom had been ordained to the minor orders, to Mar Yûsuf, the Chaldean Patriarch at Mosul, desiring that one of them should be raised to the Episcopate. Mar Yûsuf, acting on instructions from Rome, declined to comply with this very natural request, and persisted in his refusal notwithstanding the urgent solicitations of the Chaldeans in favour of the Malabarians. Resolved not to be frustrated, the latter proceeded from Mosul to Mar Shimôn, the Nestorian Patriarch residing at Julamerk in Kurdistan, who readily consecrated the episcopal candidate; whereupon the deputation returned to India. It remains to be seen what will be the result of this step as regards the native Christian community in Malabar.

1 The modern town of Quilon, "situated in the native state of Travancore, on the seacoast, in a bight where ships may anchor under shelter at about two and a half or three miles from the fort... The vegetable productions are timber, cocoa-nuts, pepper, cardamums, ginger, betel-nuts, and coffee. The population is stated to be about 20,000." (See THORNTON's Gazetteer, whose account of the place is very meagre.) Quilon, under different modifications of that name, is mentioned by the earliest Arabian and European travellers to India, and appears to have been a considerable mart in those days. It is unquestionably the Kaukammali of the Two Muhammedan travellers of the ninth century, who describe it as the first place which vessels touch at proceeding to India from Máskat, and a month's sail from that port with a fair wind. (PINKERTON, vol. vii. p. 185.) Any doubt which may arise on this point from the difference in the name is removed by Lee's note on Ibn Batûta's Kawlam, wherein he says: "In our MS., as well as in that of Mr. Apetz, it often appears thus: Kawkam.” (p. 169.) El-Edrîsi also mentions Kawlam Meli, in the viith. Chapter of the 2nd. Climate; but erroneously places it, I think, tog far north. (Vincent attempts to reconcile the difference between Káwkam and Káwlam by supposing the translator to have been misled by the want of diacritical points in the

with other kings. This country has a good port near to the No grain grows here, but fruits, as at Calicut,

sea-coast.

original, which was certainly not the case in this instance, for neither word in Arabic has any such points; but he very judiciously recognises in the suffix Mali a reference to Malè, or Malabar. (Com. and Nav. of the Ancients, vol. ii. p. 477.) I am very much disposed, however, after a careful analysis of the original, to regard El-Edrîsi's viiith. Chapter as, in part, a recapitulation of the viith., and to identify another place mentioned in the latter, or rather the same place under the name of Kalkiyan, which he locates six days from Fandaraina (see note on p. 113 ante,) and six or seven days from Serindîb (Ceylon,) and describes as growing much brazil-wood, with the town of Quilon.

says:

That Quilon is identical with Marco Polo's Coulam is obvious from his description of the people and productions of the latter place. He Here, among the idolaters, dwell Jews and Christians, who have a language of their own. The produce are pepper, brazil, indigo, black lions, and white parrots of divers sorts...They are very libidinous, and marry their sisters." (GREENE's Collection, vol. iv. p. 616.) His statement that Coulam is situated five hundred miles north-west from Malabar (in Pinkerton it is south-west !) may be an error; but whether it is so or not depends on the limits which he allows to that country. It is clear that he extended them as far as Cape Comorin on the south, and carried them a considerable distance up the coast trending to the northeast, for he writes :-"Sailing sixty miles west from Zeilan (Ceylon) is the great province of Maabar...In this kingdom is a pearl-fishery between the coast of Zeilan, in a bay where is not twelve fathom water," (Id. p. 614,) which was probably Tuticorin. Now, that district which Marco Polo thus includes within "the great province of Maabar," Barbosa in the sixteenth century comprehends within the kingdom of Coulam, the boundaries of which he prolongs still further in the same direction :-"Leaving this island of Zailan, and returning to the continent where it bends by Cape Cumeri, we come at once upon the country of the king of Coulam, and of other kings who are subject to him and reside therein, which is called Quilicare" [Killakarai.] And, again :— "After passing the province of Quilacare, onward by the coast, towards the north-east wind, there is another town called Cael, also belonging to the king of Coulam." (RAMUSIO, vol. i. p. 313.) From which it is evident that the Malabar of these writers comprehended, at least, the entire line of coast between Cape Comorin and the Palk Strait, and although that distance is scarcely more than half the five hundred miles which Marco Polo places between Quilon and Malabar, it is, nevertheless, quite as near a guess as his saying that Maabar is only "sixty miles west from Zeilan." Vincent comes to a similar conclusion, though I do not per

and pepper in great quantities. The colour of this people, their dress, manner of living, and customs, are the same as at Calicut. At that time, the king of this city was the friend of the king of Portugal, but being at war with others, it did not appear to us well to remain here. Wherefore, we took our way by sea, aforesaid, and went to a city which is called Chayl,' belonging to the same king, opposite from Colon fifty ceive on what ground he draws a distinction between Mahabar and Malabar. He says: "The Mahabar of Marco Polo is written Malabar by some of his translators; but his Mahabar is the Coast of Coromandel." (Periplus, vol. ii. p. 520 n.) And the same terminology appears to have obtained at a much later date, for Hamilton writes:-" Having thus run along the seacoast of Malabar from Decully to Negapatam,' etc., thereby giving to Malabar an extension of nearly six hundred miles. PINKERTON, Vol. viii. p. 389.

The following is Barbosa's account of Quilon :-"Proceeding onward [from Caincoulan] by the same coast towards the south, there is another principal seaport, with a town which is called Coulam, where many Moors, Pagans, and Christians reside, who are great merchants, and own many ships with which they traffic with the country of Coromandel, the island of Zeilan, Bengala, Malacha, Sumatra, and Pegu; but these do not trade with Cambaia. Here much pepper is grown. The king is a Pagan, and a great lord over an extensive territory, is very rich, and has many warriors who for the most part are expert archers." RAMUSIO, vol. i, p. 312.

The Portuguese were well received at Coulan on their first arrival in India, and Albuquerque settled a factory there in 1503. Its political and commercial importance seem to have greatly declined during the succeeding century and a half, for Baldæus, who styles it Coulang, describes it as the least among the Malabar kingdoms, (see CHURCHILL'S Collection of Voyages, vol. iii. p. 643 ;) and Hamilton, in whose time it was still in the hands of the Dutch, and who writes it Coiloan, calls it a small principality, and says that its trade was inconsiderable. See PINKERTON, Vol. viii. p. 383.

1 This name has also disappeared from the maps, but collating Barbosa with Varthema, I conclude that it is identical with Hamilton's "Coil," which he places to the north-east of Tutecareen on the "promontory that sends over a reef of rocks to the island of Zeilan, called commonly Adam's Bridge." (PINKERTON, Vol. viii. p. 384.) Tuticorin, formerly famous for its pearl-fishery, is ninety miles nearly due east of Quilon, and was probably the spot where our traveller witnessed the fishing for pearls while on the voyage to Chayl, and which he loosely