he death of Dom Joao de Castro and of St. Francis
Xavier, the Holy Inquisition was established in Goa. It was granted
as its headquarters the magnificent palace of Yusaf Adil Shah, which
had been the residence of the viceroys until 1554. Its first action
was rather corrective than persecuting, and it was not until the
seventeenth {193} century that the periodical burnings of relapsed
converts and supposed witches, which are known as _Autos da Fe_,
commenced their sanguinary work. The most notable event in the
religious history of the Portuguese in India, the condemnation of the
doctrines and ritual of the Nestorian Christians of the Malabar
coast, did not occur till the Synod of Diamper (Udayampura) in 1599.

The educational work of the missionaries, their custom of dwelling
among the people and imitating their mode of life, as well as their
building of superb churches in the Portuguese cities, well deserve an
extended notice, which cannot be adequately given in this volume. It
is enough to say that Albuquerque, though zealous and desirous of
spreading the faith, did not initiate the policy of persecution. It
was his feeble successors who threw away the opportunity afforded for
the propagation of the Christian faith, by the existence of a native
Christian community in the very part of India where the Portuguese
first landed.

When the sealed order of succession was opened, after the lamented
death of Dom Joao de Castro, it was found that the two first
nominees, Dom Joao Mascarenhas and Dom Jorge Tello de Menezes, had
already left India for Portugal. The third packet opened contained
the name of Garcia de Sa, an aged gentleman, who had spent nearly all
his life in India. He hastened to make peace with Ibrahim Adil Shah
of Bijapur, and with Muhammad III of Gujarat. To {194} the former he
promised that the Portuguese would not allow Mir Ali Khan to leave
Goa, and on that condition the cession of Bardes and Salsette was
confirmed. In the treaty with the King of Gujarat it was agreed that
the Portuguese should continue to hold the fortress of Diu, which
they had twice so gallantly defended, while the city and the rest of
the island remained subject to Muhammad III. Garcia de Sa died at Goa
on July 13, 1549, and was succeeded as governor by Jorge Cabral, a
descendant of the second Portuguese captain who visited India.

Cabral, who was Captain of Bassein, assumed the office and engaged in
a war that was raging between the R