Travels in India (Tavernier) 34.1.1

34.1.1

The Sheikh who had married the eldest of the Princesses of Golconda not having been able, as I have said, to induce the Rev. Father Ephraim to stay at Bhagnagar, where he offered to build him a house and church, gave him an ox and two servants to convey him to Masulipatam, where he expected to embark for Pegu, according to the order which he had received from his Superiors. But not finding any vessel by which he could go, the English managed so well that they attracted him to Madras, where they have a fort named Fort St. George, and a general office for all dependencies on the kingdom of Golconda and the countries of Bengal and Pegu. They represented to him that he would have a greater harvest to reap there than in any other part of India to which he could proceed, and they built him a good house and a church. But in reality the English were not so much seeking the good of Father Ephraim as their own; and you must know why they wished to keep him among them. Madras is only half a league from St. Thomé, a small maritime town on the Coromandel coast, fairly well built, and belonging at that time to the Portuguese. Its trade was considerable, especially in cottons, and it possessed many artisans and merchants, the majority of whom would have been very glad to dwell with the English at Madras, but for the fact that they had no opportunities at that time for the exercise of their religion in that place.