And five leagues up the rivulets, there is a Romish church called _Varapoli_ [Virapell], served by French and Italian priests, and at which the bishop takes up his residence when he visits this part of the country. The _padre_, or superior priest at Virapell can raise four thousand men on occasion, all Christians of the church of Rome; but there are many more Christians of the church of St Thomas, who do not communicate with the Romanists.[1] About two leagues farther up than Virapell, towards the mountains, there is a place called _Firdalgo_,[2] on the side of a small but deep river, where the inhabitants of Cochin annually resort in the hot months of April and May to refresh themselves. The banks and bottom of the river here are clean sand, and the water is so clear that a small pebble stone may be seen at the bottom, in three fathoms water. [Footnote 1: A very interesting account of the remnant of an ancient Christian church in the Travancore country, a little to the southward of Cochin, has been lately published by Dr Buchanan, in a work named Christian Researches in India, which will be noticed more particularly in an after division of our Collection.--E.] [Footnote 2: Perhaps Bardello, about the distance mentioned in the text.--E.] All the water along this low flat coast, to the south of Cranganore, has the very bad quality of occasioning swelled legs to those who drink it. This disease sometimes only affects one leg, but sometimes both, and the swelling is often so great as to measure a yard round at the ancles. It occasions no pain, but great itching, neither does the swelled leg feel any heavier than that which occasionally remains unaffected. To avoid this disease, the Dutch who reside at Cochin, send boats daily to Virapell, from which they bring water in small casks of about ten or twelve gallons, to serve the city. This water is given free to the servants of the Company, but private persons have to pay six-pence for each cask-full, which is brought to their houses at that price. Still, however, both Dutch men and women are sometimes afflicted with this disease, and no means have hitherto been found out for prevention or cure. The old legend imputes this disease to the curse laid by St Thomas upon his murderers and their posterity, as an odious mark to distinguish them: But St Thomas was slain by the _Tilnigue_[3] priests at Miliapoor in Coromandel, above four hundred miles from this coast; and the natives there have no touch of this malady. [Footnote 3: This word ought assuredly to have been Telinga.--E.]