[T] he Paravas [are] a maritime people, seated on this Pearle Coast, whose greatest livelihood is Natures bounty, which she in that kind annually bestowes and which art qualifies them in like manner to receive… This nation about one hundred and thirty yeares agoe was a limb of heathenisme, out of which roughquarry it was hewen by papall industry and so became a Jewell of the Triple Crown. The Jesuites, who at first converted them, for a long time after govern'd them in a way both ecclestiasticall andcivill. This latter yoake weares of and delivers up civill concernments into the hands of the civill power, the corruption of one kindof government being the generation of the other. In this state matters rested when, about five yeares agoe (the Portugall greatnesse being then far declin'd from its zenith) the Dutch possesse[d] themselves of this coast, which ever since, they have govern'd by way of judicature and awed by their power. This gave occasion for the persons above mentioned [certaine persons of quality, natives of Tutticorrim and heads of their nation] to recede [into the interior]… This [loss of Cochin in early 1663] involves them in fresh cares, and those send them in great quest of other props to stay themselves upon… Their desires therefore are that themselves, together with their adherents, may be taken into the protection of the English; that they with their padre (who is the hinge whereon they turne) may have their dwellings at Cale Velha [Palaiyakkayal], the seate of our factorie, free from violence; and their boates, by virtue of our passeports, to navigate the seas void of all disturbances.