His plan was to send on before him two or more catechists to get the work ready; so that when he arrived himself, he might proceed without loss of time. On arriving, he assembled the Christians and catechumens, and preached a sermon; then he visited the sick and dying, and baptized the infants of Christian parents; after which he entered the tribunal of penance, in which he sat often for twelve consecutive hours, for the whole neighbourhood flocked, and made their confessions to him. He preached on all Sundays and holidays, catechized the children, and passed from house to house to warn bad Christians, or to resolve the doubts of inquiring idolators. In the evenings he assembled the whole congregation to recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, and in this way he made a vast number of converts; and when he had stayed long enough in one place for the requirements of the people, he passed on to some other station. In his dress of a Pandarist, De Britto always obtained a ready hearing, and hence perhaps the great success of his preaching. But in all these labours he was obliged, by the universal prejudice against the pariahs, to direct his endeavours mainly towards the conversion of the upper classes. To his great sorrow, he found that even as a Pandarist he could not openly make proselytes among that caste without exposing his religion to universal contempt. He therefore was compelled to recognise their distinctions in society for the present, in order to establish Christianity on the broader basis ultimately. But, notwithstanding, he took care to advance the cause of the pariahs, or lowest and most despised caste, by showing to the converts the universality of the Gospel of Christ; and secretly he effected many conversions among the pariahs themselves. But the caste-prejudices of the natives were so strong, that he found it impossible to overcome them; and he did not consider them incompatible with the most sincere acceptance of Christianity. As the Apostles had for a time consented to circumcision, the more effectually to recommend the new faith,--so the Indian missionaries judged it right to waive for awhile, in the infant state of Christianity in India, their objection to the social distinctions between man and man.