which I had before considered as a fiction, and impossible. I shall speak more at large of this art hereafter. At the end of a few days I departed from this place, and proceeded to _Maïlapuri_ and _Madraspatnam_. The former, by the Christians, is called the city of St. Thomas, and is situated close to the sea, which forms there a kind of bay or small haven. It stands on a beautiful plain, abounding with coco-nut trees, which retain their verdure throughout the whole year. The episcopal church, the church of St. Rita, and the _Madre de Deos_, the bishop’s palace, and that of the Portuguese governor, who at that time was Dom Caravalho, attracted my attention by the regularity of their architecture. This city, however, has lost a great deal of its former magnificence. The authority of the Portuguese seems to be transferred to the English and the nabob of _Arrucate_, who has his stables here. The inhabitants consist of Pagans, Mahometans, and Christians. The latter are a bastard race, descended from the Indians and the Portuguese. They are of a black complexion, but a little of the European whiteness still appears through it. They are distinguished by the name of _Mestize_, by which is understood people born of an European father and an Indian mother. They are called also _Topazi_, that is _Duibhashi_, or interpreters, because they speak two different languages, Indian and corrupted Portuguese. They form the smaller part of the inhabitants of _Maïlapuri_, where the Mahometans have the superiority. The last bishop of _Maïlapuri_ was Dom Bernardo da San Gaetano, of the Augustin order, who in 1787 was succeeded by Dom Emanuel di Gesu, an Augustin also, born at Goa. The former, being an European by birth, conducted himself as a prudent, liberal-minded man; but the latter has all the violent, restless, and litigious character of a hot blooded Indian. He even proceeds so far as to expel from his diocese all missionaries who are not Portuguese, or who do not acknowledge his jurisdiction. At St. Rita I lodged in the house of the vicar-general, Father Luiz, an Augustin, who treated me with much hospitality, and from whom I received a great deal of information, both respecting the history of the country, and the state of Christianity in it. The bishop, Dom Bernardo, had at that time undertaken a journey to Bengal, to visit the churches of his diocese. In the evening I always wrote in my journal such observations as occurred in the course of the day; and when the inhabitants told me there was nothing farther to be seen, I proceeded to _Madraspatnam_.