time they preserved their independence; until one of them, who according to the custom of the country had adopted the king of Diamper, died without issue, and the heathen king of Diamper succeeded peaceably to all his rights. After this, in consequence of a similar adoption, they passed under the sovereignty of the king of Cochin, to whom the greater part of them were subject on the arrival of the Portuguese in India.

Through the whole of this period, and to the present hour, they are firm in their allegiance to the see of Antioch, from which they profess to have received their ministry. Antioch, one of the four patriarchates into which the world was divided, embraced the whole of Asia, the East, and India, κατειχεν άπασαν την Ασίαν, και Ανατολήν, αυτήν τε την Ινδιαν The Catholicos + or Archbishop of Persia was one of his suffragans; and India together with China was reckoned the XIII. or last diocese subject to the jurisdiction of Persia. In the opening of the 6th century the churches of Persia were entirely in the hands of the Nestorians, who had emigrated beyond the limits of the Roman empire on the triumph of their enemies; and it was probably early in that century that the christians of St. Thomas received the doctrines of the council of Ephesus with regard to the two natures of Christ. This faith they retained unshaken on the arrival of the Portuguese; nor could all the arts and persecutions of Menezes induce them to relinquish it. They were occasionally visited by Jacobite prelates; but without any change of their national creed before the 17th century. At what exact time they received the Monophysite doctrine, preached by Jacobus in the middle of the VI. century, is unknown, but it has so entirely supplanted the opposite heresy that there is not now the slightest trace of Nestorianism in their ritual or books, though they are still usually called the Nestoriang of Malabar.

An opinion has sometimes prevailed that these interesting churches are the descendants of emigrants from Assyria (or rather from Persia) during the persecutions of Justinian. This opinion chiefly rests on a vague assertion of Gibbon, who appears to have mistaken the original authority which he quotes of Cosmos Indicopleustes to which I have already alluded. There is no tradition among themselves of any such numerous emigration, though they look to the cradle of their religion, the see of Antioch, or Babylon with unbounded veneration. Nor is there, as far as I Nilus Doxopatrias apud Allatina. L. 1. c. 9. 166.

+ A title which first arose in the reign of Justinian.

can discover any thing in their persons, colour, or appearance, which marks a foreign origin.

"

I should abuse the patience of the Society if I were to add more to this brief and uninteresting sketch of their early history. The dimness of the few and scattered lights which remain to us leaves much to regret, and yet enables us to see enough to admire and reverence. A church that traces its descent without question from the III century, and with great show of reason from the very age of the Apostles, is in itself venerable. That they have preserved themselves with very slender means of intercourse with other churches pure from surrounding heathenism, may well be considered as a moral phenomenon; and that they have continued, in the midst of mach error, to preserve unshaken their reverence for the Divine Oracles as the only source of truth and the only final appeal in controversy, while they give its due weight to tradition as an histori- . cal evidence, is one of the most singular features in a church so situated, and gives the brightest hope of their ultimate reformation. (To be continued.)

The drawings from which the annexed prints have been taken, as well as the following account were furnished to the Madrase Literary Society by Captain (now Lieut. Calonel) Bowler.

(No. 1.) 1

Drawing of a Cluster of very remarkable Palmyra Trees, growing in the Cutchery compound at Masulipatam.

They are called by the Hindoos రామా తాడు and also గొడ్డుతాడు In the former the name of the deity Ramah is prefixed merely to denote something curious, or remarkable; and not on account of their being supposed to possess any peculiar virtue. The second name implies a barren tree.

They produce a kind of nut, in shape and colour perfectly resembling the fruit of the proper Palmyra, but it is of no use from being almost entirely a hard, solid, substance.

The leaves are very small. and the trees very slender, in comparison with the proper Palmyra.

The height of the tallest is 50 feet...

(No. 2.)

W. S. BOWLER..

This tree which is in a low Jungle about 4 miles in a south... westerly direction from Chicacole, seems to be of precisely the same species as those in the Cutcherry compound at Masulipatam, a

drawing, and description of which I forwarded to the Secretary in the early part of the year 1824.

By the inhabitants of the neighbouring hamlet of Kongaram, it is called Ko-dady, a Teloogoo compound term for an useless Palmyrah. It is supposed to be 100 years old. It differs in every respect from the common Palmyrah. The stems are slender, and the fruit is a hard solid substance, which after being steeped in water for a few days, is well beaten, and used hy the natives as brushes to white wash their houses. The leaves are very small and narrow, and the stalk is denticulated with many sharp curved thorns, from which circumstance the natives say it resembles the back bone of a shark, and on this account the people of the adjacent villages carry it in their hand when travelling through the jungles as a weapon of defence, and also during some of their festivals. The Sunasies also, whenever they can procure them, carry such stalks in their hand, and impose upon the ignorant natives by attributing to them many surprising virtues, and pretending they cut them from a curious tree which grows in a large Forest at an incalculable dis

tance.

The Inhabitants of Kongaram, and the neighbouring hamlets, look upon this tree as the guardian of their jungle, and hold it in some degree of veneration conceiving it has, as I am told its Sanscrit name (1) Kulpavroochum, implies, the power of fulfiling the desires and wishes of mankind, at least such as from pureness of heart and morals, have faith in its supposed virtues.

The Inhabitants of the neighbouring villages, go annually, at the fall of the leaf, in procession to this tree, and the cerimony terminates in the sacrifice of chickens, pigs, &c.

This tree was much injured and lost many of its heads in the violent storm of 1812.

CHICACOLE:

1st February 1826.

W. S. BOWLER, Major

Supt. of Roads, N. D...

(No. 3.)

The Palmyra Tree, from which this drawing was taken, is on the bank of a tank at Neddoomole, amongst many others of the usual species. It is of the natural size, and each head produces the fruit in a perfect state. It is called

W. S. BOWLER.

(1) A Holy tree in the gardens of Indra. It is said in the Pooranas to have been found in the Ocean when Crishna churned it, and that it was giv en to Indra telling him that it would grant the wishes of all beings.