The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c10.82

v1.c10.82

Although the reasons given by Fr. Sousa for the founding of the city are two, *vis.*, the devotion to the Apostle, and the convenience of that locality for trading with the natives of the east coast of the Vijayanagara Empire ³, nevertheless the main purpose of the settlement was commerce, just as was that of the other Portuguese settlements in India; and, even in this, they were not allowed to build any fort, as William Finch, a also the famous church of St. Thomas: this Apostle, *as the Portugueses pretend, leing buried here*". (Italics are mine). Nieuhoff, *Voyages and Travels*, p. 198. Finally Mandelslo, who was at St. Thome during the same century, heard from the Portuguese another legendary account of the preaching of St. Thomas and his martyrdom at St. Thome, which may be read in his *Voyages and Travels*, p. 94.