nt out from Paris as a missionary to Pegu; and he had travelled
across India from Surat to Masulipatam, where, according to his
instructions, he was to have secured a passage to Pegu in one of the
Company's ships. His information was out of date; for the Agency had
lately been transferred from Masulipatam to Madras, and the Company's
ships for Pegu were sailing now from Madras instead of from
Masulipatam; so Father Ephraim journeyed southward from Masulipatam to
look for a vessel at the new settlement. At Madras no vessel was
starting immediately, and Father Ephraim had to bide his time.
Meanwhile he made himself useful by ministering to the Roman Catholics
of the place. Official and other documents show that Father Ephraim
was a very devout and a very able man. He was 'an earnest Christian,'
'a polished linguist,' able to converse in English, Portuguese and
Dutch, besides his own French, and he was conversant with Persian and
Arabic. He had the charm of attractive friendliness, which is so
common with Frenchmen, and he captivated all with whom he conversed.
The Portuguese and other Roman Catholic inhabitants of Madras, to whom
the Company's disapproval of the ministrations of Portuguese priests
had been a frequent source of trouble, formally petitioned Father
Ephraim to settle down in the city; and the Governor in Council,
greatly preferring a French priest to a Portuguese and thoroughly
approving of Father Ephraim personally, supported the petition with a
formal order that, if the priest would stay, a site would be provided
on which he might build a church for his flock. Father Ephraim himself
was not unwilling to stay, but he was under orders for Pegu, and,
furthermore, Madras was within the diocese of San Thome, and the
Bishop was not likely to approve of a scheme in which the
ministrations of his own priests would be set at naught in favour of a
stranger. The Company, however, was influential. A reference was made
to Father Ephraim's Capuchin superiors in Paris, and they approved of
his remaining in Madras; another reference was made to Rome, asking
that the British territory of Madras should be ecclesiastically
separated from the Portuguese diocese of Mylapore, and the Pope issued
a decree to that effect.

A site for a church, as also for a priest's house, was provided in
White Town, within the Fort St. George of to-day, and a small church,
dedicated to St. Andrew, was built; and for a good many years it was
the