The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c12.129

v1.c12.129

John Nieuhoff while relating in his *Travels* the events of possession over the Fishery Coast proceeded from the fact that they protected from the oppression of the Muhammadans the poor folk, who were abandoned to their tyrants' hands by their rightful lord, the Nayak of Madura. Even if we suppose that the Nayak could not have defended the Paravas because he was at war with the Travancore king or with any other rebel, the right of lordship over the Paravas would still remain with the Portuguese. The Paravas had been abandoned by the Nayak of Madura and had willingly selected the Portuguese as their protectors and owners of their country. How the latter accomplished their task may be deduced from the following extract of a letter of a French Missionary of the South, Fr. P. Martin, who on the 1st of July, 1700, wrote from Caima Naiken Patty: "The freedom of trading with their neighbours, that the Paravas enjoyed under the Portuguese, was the cause of their being rich and powerful; but since they had been deprived of their protection, they have been again oppressed and reduced to an extreme poverty". Bertrand, *La Mission de Madure*, IV, p. 34. In the same letter Fr. Martin relates that the Portuguese protection was given on condition that they should become Christians.