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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MAY, 1917
therefore provoked persecution and excited fanaticism. It is not surprising that when subsequently he was taken to a Siva temple north of Kalayar Koil and asked to invoke the name of Siva, he refused, and was kicked and struck by the Hindu general. It was further resolved by his persecutors to deprive him of one of his hands and feet and then to impale. But the resolution was not carried out, though the followers of the missionary were mutilated by the loss of one foot, one hand, the ears, nose and tongue, and sent back to the homes which they had deserted. De Britto was then flogged and cast on an uneven rock and trampled by a number of men so that his body, pierced through and through, was in a welter of blood. These oppressions over, the missionary was taken to the Setupati's capital and confined first in a stable and thon in a cell for twenty days. At the end of this period he was brought to the presence of the Setupati, and the latter after hearing the accusations against him and perhaps also his tale of woe, set him at liberty forbidding him, however, on pain of death, to continue his tirade against idolworship and polygamy.
The divine patience of De Britto gained the admiration of the Father Provincial. Embracing the noble martyr with heart-felt affection, he pronounced his resolve to send him to the mother-country to select, in person, a number of men who could accompany him and share his trials. Early in 1688 De Britto, in consequence, left India and reached Lisbon at the end of the year. Honoured by prince and peasant, in the Court and in the country, the pious man of God, clad in Indian costume, was deservedly the picturesque cynosure of the pious section of his countrymen. People high and low, rich and poor, flocked to see the man, who had been born among princes of the proudest nation and who had chosen to suffer for the dark millions of a distant land; who might have graced the richest chambers of a palace, but who had prefered the cell of an Indian hut; who might have enjoyed every luxury, but who had chosen a life of abstinence entirely innocent of wine; who might have abone as a statesman or diplomatist figuring in the Courts of Europe, but who had chosen to be a wandering mendicant, to be flogged by Indian fanatics and persecuted by Indian princes.
De Britto soon returned to the scene of his labours and redoubled them among the people; and his industry was rewarded with a great conquest. One Tadia Tevan, a near relation of the Setupati and a man whose chance of ascending the gadi itself was not too remote, sacrificed all his chances for the sake of conviction and embraced the Christian religion. He met, however, a great obstacle in his fifth wife, a relative of the Setupati, who, unlike her three elder co-wives, refused to sacrifice her wifehood for the money he offered,- for the acceptance of Christianity made it necessary for Tanda Têvan to become a monogamist. The highborn lady engaged the most orthodox to dissuade her husband and tried, but in vain, every means. She then carried her grievance to the Setupati. The Marava world had been shocked by the invasion of the palace itself by the alien creed ; and Kilavan telt himself bound to move with public opinion and pacify publio agitation, by taking steps against the missionary. Orders were given to burn the church and arrest the preachers. De Britto was arrested and taken in fetters to the Setupati's capital. Compelled to run behind the horses, while the escorts held the chains, whipped
