ame locality; but in
bygone days the two names represented quite different places. Mylapore
was a very ancient Indian town, which seems to have been in existence
long before the birth of Christ. San Thome was a seventeenth century
Portuguese settlement close by. It is an old tradition that St. Thomas
the Apostle was martyred just outside Mylapore; and when the
Portuguese first came to India some of them visited Mylapore to look
for relics of the saint. They found some ruined Christian churches,
and also a tomb which they believed to be the tomb of St. Thomas; and
soon afterwards a Portuguese monastery was established on the spot. A
Portuguese town grew up around the monastery; and in course of time
the town became a commercial centre, and was surrounded with a
fortified wall, and was the Portuguese settlement of San Thome, over
against the Indian town of Mylapore. An Italian dealer in precious
stones who visited India in the sixteenth century wrote of San Thome
that it was 'as fair a city' as any that he had seen in the land; and
he described Mylapore as being an Indian city surrounded by its own
mud wall. Mylapore was thus in effect the Black Town of San Thome; but
in later days the two towns were combined. When the English came to
Fort St. George, the power of the Portuguese was already waning; and
the development of the influence of the English at Madras meant a
further lessening of the influence of the Portuguese at San Thome;
and it was a natural consequence that San Thome, including Mylapore,
became a prey to successive assailants. Its first captor was the lord
of the soil, the Mohammedan King of Golconda. Next, the French took it
from Golconda; and two years later Golconda, with the help of the
Dutch, recaptured it from the French. The Dutch were content with a
share of the plunder for their reward, and left Golconda in
possession. On the self-interested advice of the English at Fort St.
George, Golconda destroyed the fortifications. He then put the town up
for sale. The Company were prepared to buy it, and so were the
Portuguese; but a rich Mohammedan named Cassa Verona found favour with
Golconda's Moslem officials, and secured the town on a short lease.
Next it was leased to the Hindu Governor of Poonamallee; and then for
a big price it went back again to the Portuguese. Towards the end of
the seventeenth century the great Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb dethroned
the lord of the soil, the King of Golconda; and, althou