that part of India which is near _Coulam_[171], declared on oath that he
found what follows in their writings: That, when the twelve apostles
were dispersed through the world, Thomas, Bartholomew, and Judas
Thaddeus went together to Babylon where they separated. Thaddeus
preached in Arabia, since possessed by the Mahometans. Bartholomew went
into Persia, where he was buried in a convent of Armenian monks near
_Tebris_. Thomas embarked at Basrah on the Euphrates, crossed the
Persian Gulf, to Socotora, whence he went to Meliapour, and thence to
China where he built several churches. That after his return to
Meliapour and the conversion of the king, he suffered martyrdom through
the malice of the bramins, who counterfeited a quarrel while he was
preaching, and at length had him run through by a lance; upon which he
was buried by his disciples as formerly related in the church he had
built at Meliapour. It was likewise affirmed by a learned native of
Coulam, that there were two religious houses built in that part of the
country by the disciples of St Thomas, one in Coulam and the other at
Cranganor; in the former of which the _Indian Sybil_ was buried, who
advised King _Perimal_ of Ceylon to meet other two Indian kings at
Muscat, who were going to Bethlem to adore the newly born Saviour; and
that King Perimal, at her entreaty, brought her a picture of the Blessed
Virgin, which was kept in the same tomb. Thus was the _invention_ of the
holy relics of the apostle of India; which gave occasion to the
Portuguese to build the city of St Thomas, in the port of Palicat, seven
leagues from the ruins of the ancient Christian city of Meliapour.

[Footnote 171: Coulam is on the coast of Travancore; in which country a
remnant of the ancient Indian Christians has been recently visited by Dr
Buchannan, which will fall to be particularly noticed in a future
division of this collection--E.]