The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c13.150

v1.c13.150

On the 3rd of August, Xavier was sure that the army of Vitthala would overrun the Fishery Coast: "I sent one Father there", he writes from Manapadu to Mansilhas, "in order that the boats might be thrown into the sea in time and the people might embark when the occasion should offer itself; for I feel sure that they will attack and capture these your Christians"². The first news of the invasion of the army of Vitthala reached Xavier's ears on August 19th, while at Manapadu. At the end of a letter written on that date he says: "I am given a letter of Guarim just now, in which he informs me that the Christians have fled to the forest, since the Badagas have robbed them of their property, stabbed two men, one a Christian and the other a Hindu"³. But most of the Paravas, embarking on their miserable boats, sought refuge in the small islands that face the Comorin Cape, leaving their country to the fury of their enemies. Those islands were inaccessible to the Madura soldiers on account of the frequent sand-banks separated by canals known only by the fishers of the coast. But this was certainly not an ideal place for the unfortunate refugees, from the lack of good drinkable water and of trees and vegetables of all kinds⁴. St. Xavier, in another letter of September 5th, tells us that Punnei precisely to accomplish their instruction in the faith. In one of his letters, dated Tuticorin, October 28th, 1542, he says: "We are going through the villages of the Christians, who became Christians about eight years ago. There are no Portuguese in these places, because the soil is not fertile at all and very poor. When arriving at any of these villages, I baptized all the children who are not yet baptized; so I have baptized a great multitude of infants, *quid inter dextram et sinistram intersit ignorantes*." *M. H. S. J., Mon. Xav.*, I. p. 273. The last remarks of Xavier show that the adults were already baptized at the time of his arrival.