| Description | Bishop of Calcutta is about to leave Travancore for Colombo and a lady in his family has offered to take N.'s letter with her; left Colombo 23 Apr reaching Cochin Tue 7 May; called on Mr. Schuber with a letter of introduction from Mr. Ringeltaube; wrote to Col. Munro of arrival; preached at Cochin in the house of the magistrate Mr. Money, it being 20 years since they had had a Protestant minister; Cochin is in a very decayed state, public buildings demolished, few Europeans, an English magistrate, a commandant and a captain, both of the 19th native regiment, and a doctor, all these belonging to the Madras government, the remainder being Dutch; the native Portuguese are in a miserable state; large numbers of people become Roman Catholics because there are no Protestant clergy; arrived at Quilon 17 May and stayed a few days with Mr. Walcott, joint superintendent of the Forest; welcomed by Col. Munro, who wishes N. to concentrate his work on the Syrians, to superintend their college, visit all their churches and see what repairs are necessary, to receive all complaints and grievances they may have against Nairs or Malabars; has begun learning the language but is shortly to get help from two teachers; arrived at Allepie 24 Aug; while at Quilon N. had interview with the metropolitan of the Syrian churches; the metropolitan was anxious lest "we should innovate and endeavour to do away with some of their legitimate rites, and bring them under English ecclesiastical power"; discussed celibacy of Syrian priests and consequent evils; metropolitan claimed they were too poor to marry and to obviate this the Resident promised 500 rupees to the first priest that would marry, and to arrange matters that the clergy might marry and support their families; the metropolitan issued a circular to all the churches about this; N. has arranged, with Munro's approval, to go to Cochin every other Sunday; M. also wants to establish a school there and also intends there to be a parish school attached to each Syrian church; when N. has learnt enough Malayalim he intends itinerating and preaching in the Syrian churches; is expecting Bailey and possibly Dawson; proposes to start a school when Bailey comes; hopes also to have a church soon; Allepie is the principal place at which the East India Company ships call to take in pepper; a sandbank about ten miles in length and 3 or 4 miles in width provides, with the backwater, a natural harbour, where ships may lie in safety even in monsoon; the bank is silting up fast, the sea having retired several yards within the last four to five months; N. has distributed several English, Portuguese and Tamil bibles and testaments; the Roman Catholics have now banned the reading of the scriptures on pain of excommunication; none have been deterred except one man who intends writing to the bishop of Vinapoly for permission;
16 Oct: the bishop of Calcutta has left; he told N. that at present he had no power over him for his authority did not extend to missionaries, notwithstanding they might be of the establishment; wishes N. to be a corresponding member of the SPCK at Madras |