For the compilation of a history of this people we have scant materials. Unknown to the world they seem to have been most happily preserved from its troubles and dissensions. Their obscurity was the preservative of their peace and the badge of their purity. Yet we are informed by William of Malmsbury, that these Christians were visited, towards the conclusion of the ninth century, by ambassadors from Alfred of England, who paid their homage at the shrine of St. Thomas, in the vicinity of Madras, and whose return, loaded with a cargo of pearls and the richest gums and spices, amply rewarded the enterprising sovereign, who entertained the noblest projects of discovery and commerce.[4] They asserted that the pepper coast of Malabar, and even the islands of Ceylon and Socotara, were peopled with Christians, who were in happy ignorance of the quarrels of princes and ecclesiastics. And that the bishops who presided over this multitude of churches were unambitious of worldly honours, and received ordination from the patriarch of the East. This account, however, was received as an imposition upon the credulity of mankind, and was treated as such until the progress of modern discovery established the fact. The Portuguese, who circumnavigated Africa, and dared the dangers of unknown seas, in order to gather the Indian spoils of gold and gems, found, not indeed the boundless wealth they sought, but these companies of Christians who still preserved their faith in its pristine purity. Superior in arts, and arms, and virtues, to the idolaters of Hindostan, they appeared to the astonished adventurers like another race. They occupied extremely neat and convenient dwellings, shaded by the palm-tree, and contiguous to fields of tropical productions. The husbandman lived in peace and plenty, the merchant grew rich by the pepper trade, the young men were admitted to the service and society of the nobility of Malabar; and their simple virtues demanded and insured the respect of the king of Cochin, and the Zamorin himself. They were in allegiance to a Gentoo sovereign, but the real administration of their laws, even in temporal concerns, was lodged in the hands of the bishop of Angumala, who could trace an uninterrupted succession of prelates to the apostle himself. He still asserted his ancient dignity as metropolitan of India, and his jurisdiction extended over fourteen hundred churches, and embraced the spiritual care of 250,000 souls. He was assisted by a sufficient number of priests and spiritual teachers, who administered consolation to the dying, and reproof or correction to the living. Their meeting-houses were not different from ordinary dwellings. They had neither pictures nor images. The doctrine of purgatory, the invocation of saints, the merit of relics, and the observation of the first day, was unknown among them. On the contrary, they rested and attended to divine worship upon the seventh day of the week, administered baptism to adults, and by