The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.38

c7.s8.38

of the Inquisition. But the account given of the state of public morals at Goa when Xavier arrived in 1544¹ is sufficient to prove that so far from any missionary spirit existing there was then scarcely any practice of Christianity at all. Two years later the King, after regretting that the worship of idols was allowed even in Goa, mentioned among other objectionable practices that of the Portuguese buying slaves cheap and selling them to Musalmáns and other heathens.² Xavier, however, though he spent but a very small part of his time at Goa, or any place north of it, was able to change the whole aspect of affairs in respect of Christian observances: he established a Jesuit seminary at Bassein in 1548, and in 1552 sent missionaries there as well as to Thána and Chaul. But he refused to establish a college at Chaul because there were still so many forts and stations without a single missionary. The visits of so great a man are sufficient to distinguish any district, and it is recorded that he was at Bassein at least three times, first at the end of 1544, again in 1548 when the great Viceroy John de Castro was there, and lastly in 1552. He also visited Chaul on more than one occasion, and Khárepátan once.³ After his death he was made patron saint of both Bassein and Chaul.⁴