Sotomayor, with only thirty horse and a small number of foot, defeated
5000 foot and 400 horse. But in the end numbers prevailed, and the
country was reduced to the obedience of Adel Khan, and afterwards
confirmed to him by treaty.

About this time the governor Duarte made particular inquiry respecting
St Thomas the apostle, in consequence of orders to that effect from the
king of Portugal; and the following is the substance of the information
he transmitted. In the year 1517, some Portuguese sailed in company with
an Armenian, and landed at Palicat on the coast of Coromandel, a
province of the kingdom of Bisnagar, where they were invited by the
Armenian to visit certain ruins of many buildings still retaining the
vestiges of much grandeur. In the middle of these was a chapel of
indifferent structure still entire, the walls of which both outside and
in were adorned with many crosses cut in stone, resembling those of the
ancient military order of Alcantara, which are _fleuree_ and
_fitched_[169]. A Moor resided there who pretended to have miraculously
recovered his sight by a visit to this holy place, and that his
ancestors had been accustomed to entertain a light in the chapel. There
was a tradition that the church, of which this small chapel was all that
remained entire, was built by St Thomas, when he preached Christianity
to the Indians, and that he and two of his disciples were here interred,
together with a king who had been converted by his miracles. In
consequence of this information, Don Duarte sent Ernanuel de Faria, with
a priest and a mason to repair this chapel. On digging about the
foundation on one side which threatened to fall, they found about a yard
below ground a tomb-stone with an inscription implying "That when St
Thomas built this church the king of Meliapour gave him the duties of
all merchandize imported, which was the tenths[170]." Going still
deeper, they came to a hollow place between two stones, in which lay the
bones of a human body with the butt and head of a spear, which were
supposed to be the remains of the saint, as those of the king and
disciple were also found, _but not so white_. They placed the bones of
the saint in a _China chest_, and the other bones in another chest,
and hid both under the altar. On farther inquiry, it appeared by the
ancient records of the kingdom, that Saint Thomas had come to Meliapour
about 1500 years before, then in so flourishing a condition that it is
sai