Mendoza Only Enjoyed The Government For Six Months, As, In The Beginning Of September 1564, Don Antonio De Noronha Arrived At Goa With The Title Of Viceroy.

It is the received opinion in India, that the apostle St. Thomas was slain at Antmodur, a mountain about a league and half from Meliapour, where were two caves into which he used to retire for prayer and meditation.

The nearest of these caves now belongs to the Jesuits, and the other has been converted into a church dedicated to our Lady of the Mount. According to the legend, the apostle being one day at prayers in the former of these caves, opposite to a cleft which let in the light, a bramin thrust in a spear at the hole and gave the saint a mortal wound, part of the spear breaking off and remaining in his body. The saint had just strength enough remaining to go into the other cave, where he died embracing a stone on which a representation of the cross was engraved. His disciples removed his body, and buried it in the church which he had built, where the body was afterwards found by Emanuel de Faria and the priest Antonio Penteado, who were sent thither on purpose by king Emanuel. When, in the year 1547, the Portuguese were clearing out the cave or oratory in which the apostle died, a stone was found which seems to have been that he clung to at his death. This stone is about a yard long and three quarters broad, of a grey colour with some red spots.

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