port, and is a place of great traffic. But the soil is so sandy and so
dry, that it produces nothing, unless in some few places, which also are
cultivated with much care and labour. For Manar has no resemblance to
Ceylon, though placed so near it: Ceylon being the most delicious and
most fruitful part of all the East; where the trees are always green, and
bear fruits and flowers in every season; where there are discovered mines
of gold and silver, crystal, and precious stones; which is encompassed
with forests of ebony, cinnamon, and cocoa; and where the inhabitants
live to an extreme old age, without any of the incommodities which attend
it, The wonder is, that, being distant from the equinoctial but six
degrees, the air is temperate and pure, and the rains, which water it
from heaven regularly once a month, joined with the springs and rivers
which pass through it, refresh the ground in a greater measure than the
scorching heats can parch it.

Father Xavier was employed in establishing Christianity in Travancore,
when he received this embassy from Manar. As he could not forsake an
infant church without a reasonable apprehension of its ruin, he sent to
Manar one of the priests whom he had left on the coast of Fishery. And
God so blessed the labours of that missioner, that the Manarois not only
became Christians, but died generously for the faith; and this was the
occasion of their martyrdom.

The isle of Manar was at that time under the dominion of the king of
Jafanatapan; for by that name the northern part of Ceylon is called. This
prince had usurped the crown from his elder brother, and enslaved his
subjects. Above all things, he was an implacable enemy of the Christian
faith; though in appearance he was a friend to the Portuguese, whose
forces only could set bounds to his tyranny. When he understood that the
Manarois were converted to Christianity, he entered into that fury of