phorus,
and proceeds to another country of India ruled by King _Meodeus_, where he
is put to death by lances. M. Reinaud first, I believe, pointed out the
remarkable fact that the name of the King Gondaphorus of the legend is the
same with that of a King who has become known from the Indo-Scythian
coins, _Gondophares_, Yndoferres, or _Gondaferres_. This gives great
interest to a votive inscription found near Peshawar, and now in the
Lahore Museum, which appears to bear the name of the same King. This
Professor Dowson has partially read: "In the 26th year of the great King
Guna ... pharasa, on the seventh day of the month Vaisakha." ...
General Cunningham has read the date with more claim to precision: "In
the 26th year of King Guduphara, in the Samvat year 103, in the month of
Vaisakh, the 4th day." ... But Professor Dowson now comes much closer to
General Cunningham, and reads: "26th year of the King, the year 100 of
Samvat, 3rd day of Vaisakha." (See _Rep. of R. As. Soc._, 18th January,
1875.) In ordinary application of _Samvat_ (to era of Vikramaditya) A.D.
100--A.D. 43; but the era meant here is as yet doubtful. Lassen put
Yndoferres about 90 B.C., as Cunningham did formerly about 26 B.C. The
chronology is very doubtful, but the evidence does not appear to be strong
against the synchronism of the King and the legend. (See _Prinsep's
Essays_, II. 176, 177, and Mr. Thomas's remarks at p. 214; _Truebner's
Record_, 30th June, 187; Cunningham's _Desc. List of Buddhist Sculptures
in Lahore Central Museum; Reinaud, Inde_, p. 95.)

Here then may be a faint trace of a true apostolic history. But in the 16th
and 17th centuries Roman Catholic ecclesiastical story-tellers seem to have
striven in rivalry who should most recklessly expand the travels of St.
Thomas. According to an abstract given by P. Vincenzo Maria, his preaching
began in Mesopotamia, and extended through Bactria, etc., to China, "the
States of the Great Mogul" (!) and Siam; he then revisited his first
converts, and passed into Germany, thence to Brazil, "as relates P. Emanuel
Nobriga," and from that to Ethiopia. After thus carrying light to the four
quarters of the World, the indefatigable Traveller and Missionary retook
his way to India, converting Socotra as he passed, and then preached in
Malabar, and on the Coromandel Coast, where he died, as already stated.

Some parts of this strange rhapsody, besides the Indian mission, were no
doubt of old date; for the