Storia do Mogor 281.17.3

281.17.3

Among this people this compound suffices to cleanse from the most terrible sins. The reverend Portuguese Jesuit fathers who first established missions in the kingdoms of Tanjor, Madura, and other adjacent countries, being aware of the aversion of these people to Farangls, exerted themselves, when starting their establishment, to persuade the inhabitants that they were not Farangls, but Roman Brahmans. The populace retain to this day a great idea of these priests, who call themselves by the elevated and honourable name of Roma-pouri, — that is, 'considerable country or territory of Rome.' By these same means they (the Portuguese Jesuits) had maintained themselves there until the persecution broke out. It is for this reason that to this day it is the practice, when they intend to provide new missionaries for their mission, to send them first to their stations on the coast, where they learn the Malabar tongue, and that of the learned, called grandaon. After that they are sent to the distant missions in the interior, where they live after the manner of Brahmans. They dress like them so exactly that they are taken to be Brahmans, and as such revered by all. Of the poor men and Hindus in the kingdom of Tanjor alone they have converted about twenty to thirty thousand [53] since they commenced.