The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.294

c7.s8.294

majority of these Christians would not have been steady enough to stand against adversity. The facts however are equally creditable to the Maráthás and to the Christians. The Governor of Bassein indeed in the articles of capitulation got no better terms for the converts than the privilege of three churches within the city, one in the district and one in the island of Sálsette,¹ and the Maráthás are said to have destroyed some of the churches as soon as they invaded Sálsette. The Portuguese monks and other white priests abandoned the district with the fazendárs, as if knowing that they had little to expect from the affection of their flocks wheu the secular power would no longer help them. But their place was taken by ‘Canarins’ or black priests from Malabár under a Vicar General, who was also a Canarin, and twenty years after the conquest when Anquetil du Perron travelled through the district the Christian congregations were all flourishing and in no way molested in the exercise of their religion. A good many of their churches and convents were more or less in ruins, and of course Hindu temples had sprung up where none were allowed before, but at Thána the church fêtes and ceremonies were celebrated with the same pomp as at Goa, fifteen native priests being assembled at a function in which Du Perron assisted in the choir: and at Agáshi he found the roads full of people “going to church with as much liberty as in a Christian state.”² It is clear from this that if the Maráthás were ever inclined to avenge the cruelties of the Jesuits and the Inquisition, they desisted as soon as the European leaders had been got rid of, and allowed their subjects full liberty of conscience.