Malabars

"Most Christians in Europe are of such opinion as though the Malabarian heathens were a rather barbarian people who know nothing of either erudition or moral ethics; yet all this stems from not having known their language properly and having jumped to conclusions from outward appearances. I myself must confess that when I first came among heathens, it was impossible for me to imagine that their language might be a language of proper rules and their life a proper life, but formed very many faulty conceptions on all their activity, believing that among them there were neither civil nor moral laws. For this reason I find it very easy to forgive those who have never been among these heathens and harbour similar erroneous views, since I was myself still inclined to them when I had already been with these heathens for some time; however, as soon as I had learned to understand their tongue a little and was able to talk with these heathens about this and that, I was gradually freed from this misconception and I was able to harbour far better ideas about them. When I finally gained the complete knowledge of being able to read their books, and found that among them those very philosophical disciplines were taught which were being exchanged among the scholars of Europe and that they have proper written laws from which all theological matters must be derived and demonstrated on; I was greatly astonished by this and conceived a great desire to learn as much as possible about their heathendom from their own writings. Thereafter, I got myself one book after another, sparing neither time nor expense until now at last I have got so far through the diligent reading of their books and through the continued discussion with their Brahmins or priests, that I know something definite about them and am able to reason about it. Yet this is a very vast field, so if one would write something detailed about it, one would require a great deal of time and large volumes."