Storia do Mogor 265.4.1

265.4.1

This prince of Tanjor was the first to give permission to Father Ruberto Nobre (Roberto de' Nobili), a Jesuit and Italian by race, to build churches and preach our holy Faith and argue with the Brahmans. He held this father in much respect. Nobili was the first to begin that mission which at present, by God's grace, finds itself with more than one hundred churches. Continually it increases in the number of its Christians, to the greater glory of its founder. But at this moment, for the Christian communities in these provinces there is a great lack of missionaries. In the year one thousand six hundred and eighty-two (1682) the Dutch commissary with a fleet of thirty vessels tried to destroy the temple of Ramanavarao (Rameshwaram), and remove the great treasures buried within it. While this work was in progress he received a letter from the principal Hindus, wherein they wrote that if he determined to do any damage, or if his people got as far as within the shadow of the temple, they were prepared to set on fire and destroy all the cities, fortresses, and factories upon this coast, and the name of the Dutch would be blotted out for ever. Upon reading the letter, he made sail at once in the direction of Turuchorim (Tuticorin), and thus abandoned his intention in order not to lose the great wealth they drew from that coast.