Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/484

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NOTES OF TRAVEL.

Palhully to Ootacamund.

Palhully, a little village three miles distant from Seringapatam, is noted as the residence of the Abbé Dubois, the French Catholic missionary to whom reference has already been made. After labouring thirty years for the conversion of the Hindus to Roman Catholicism, and seeking to win them to his faith by conformity to their customs, by concealing offensive Scripture truths, (as, for instance, the statement that the fatted calf was killed[1] for the prodigal son,) and by dressing and living as a Brahmin, he retired from India to Europe, confessing that the effort had been a vain one.

In a work published by him, he dissuades Protestants from missions to India, arguing that the Hindus are given over of God to a reprobate spirit, and cannot be converted. He reasons that, if he and his fellow-labourers, who have conformed in so many points to the prejudices of the Hindus, have failed, much


  1. The killing of a cow or calf is a heinous offence in the eyes of a Hindu.