Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/37

 killed by the Brahmins. On this occasion, they found a stone, with a cross sculptured in relief upon it, two feet long and a foot and a half broad, with the four extremities ornamented with open fleur de lys, and surmounted by a dove, which appeared to peck the top. Round this token of salvation was a triple arcade, and beyond that some strange characters that no one could read.

In order to discover the signification of these letters, the captain and vicar of the town of Meliapour, applied to a Brahmin of the kingdom of Narsinga, who was much famed for his learning. He replied that they were hieroglyphical signs, and gave the translation of them thus:—

"Since the law of the Christians appeared in the world, and thirty years afterwards, on the 25th of the month of December, the Apostle St. Thomas died at Meliapour, where there was the knowledge of God; a change of law, and the destruction of the demons. God was born of the Virgin Mary, was under obedience to her for thirty years, and was an eternal God. This God taught his law to twelve apostles, and one of them came to Meliapour, with a pilgrim's staff in his hand, and there built a church; and the king of Malabar, and the king of Coromandel, and the king of Pandi, and other various nations and sects, determined of their own will to submit to the law of St. Thomas, a holy and penitent man. The time came when St. Thomas died by the hands of a Brahmin, and his blood formed a cross." Another learned person from a distant part of the country was then sent for, and without having any communication with the first, or knowing his interpretation, gave one to the same effect. In 1562, the bishop of Cochin sent to the Cardinal Henry, at that time infantregent [sic],