ABSTRACT
While the fleet was being loaded with spices at Cochin two Christian priests from the neighbouring settlement of Cranganore sent word to Cabral asking permission to be taken to Portugal so that they might go from there to Rome and Jerusalem. 1 This request was readily granted. Vasco da Gama, having mistaken some of the ceremonies of the people of Calicut for those of the Catholic Church, had reported that the people were Christians. Cabral had found none there, and both he and the religious men who accompanied the fleet were gready gratified to find a Christian settlement at Cranganore. These Syro-Malabar Christians were the first whom the Portuguese found in India. Cabral was, therefore, very willing to let these priests return with him to Portugal; he was able to learn from them the differences between their belief and his own, and also to ascertain that the Syriac Church of Malabar claimed a common origin with that of Rome.
