Father de Britto set sail from Goa for the coast of Malabar, and landed at Ignapatam; then through Tanjore, where he was detained nearly a year by illness, he passed on to Ambalgata. In the college at this station Father de Britto, after a retreat of a month, took his monastic vows, and received his appointment to the Madura mission.
He set out immediately with one other missionary and a few neophytes for Colli. They suffered excessive hardships on the route: they had to climb steep and rugged mountains, to pass through forests dense with briers and brushwood, and swarming with reptiles, to cross swollen rivers and pathless deserts; but at length they reached Colli, on the festival of S. Ignatius.
There he found the plague raging, and he made it the means of converting very many to the faith by his intrepidity in relieving the sufferers. After the pestilence had ceased, the conversions increased so rapidly, that it became necessary to divide the northern and southern district of the mission, and the latter was committed to Father de Britto.
His plan was to send on before him two or more catechists to get the work ready; so that when he arrived himself, he might proceed without loss of time. On arriving, he assembled the Christians and catechumens, and preached a sermon; then he visited the sick and dying, and baptized the infants of Christian parents; after which he entered the tribunal of penance, in which he sat often for twelve consecutive hours, for the whole neighbourhood flocked, and made their confessions to him. He preached on all Sundays and holidays, catechized the children, and passed from house to house to warn bad Christians, or to resolve the doubts of inquiring idolators. In the evenings he assembled the whole congregation to recite the rosary of the Blessed Virgin, and in this way he made a vast number of converts; and when he had stayed long enough in one place for the requirements of the people, he passed on to some other station.
In his dress of a Pandarist, De Britto always obtained a ready hearing, and hence perhaps the great success of his preaching. But in all these labours he was obliged, by the universal prejudice against the pariahs, to direct his endeavours mainly towards the conversion of the upper classes. To his great sorrow, he found that even as a Pandarist he could not openly make proselytes among that caste without exposing his religion to universal contempt. He therefore was compelled to recognise their distinctions in society for the present, in order to establish Christianity on the broader basis ultimately. But, notwithstanding, he took care to advance the cause of the pariahs, or lowest and most despised caste, by showing to the converts the universality of the Gospel of Christ; and secretly he effected many conversions among the pariahs themselves. But the caste-prejudices of the natives were so strong, that he found it impossible to overcome them; and he did not consider them incompatible with the most sincere acceptance of Christianity. As the Apostles had for a time consented to circumcision, the more effectually to recommend the new faith,—so the Indian missionaries judged it right to waive for awhile, in the infant state of Christianity in India, their objection to the social distinctions between man and man.
In addition to the natural obstacle from caste, and the ability of the Brahmins, which the Indian missionary has to encounter, the saint had to labour at a time when the whole country was convulsed with civil war. Hordes of savage Indians from the interior traversed the country; fire and the sword destroyed whole villages; and the inhabitants, being unable to take vengeance on the real aggressors, the tide of popular fury set in against the Christians. Thus it was that in many cases prosperous missions had to be given up, and the trembling Christians fled to celebrate the rites of religion in secret places. Solitary chapels rose up in the depths of the forest, or by the lone riverside, and thither the faithful repaired with their beloved pastor. But here they were exposed to a danger from which they had been free in the cities. The fury of the inundations rendered their retreats exceedingly perilous. An instance of this occurred near the river Corolam, where the Christians, who had been driven from Ginghi, erected a chapel. De Britto was praying in the chapel with sixteen of his flock, when the cry was raised that the building was surrounded with water. They tried to dam the water out, but unsuccessfully; and were compelled to construct a raft out of the beams of the roof, and upon that they floated to a wood at a little distance, situated on an eminence. There they intended to remain till the flood subsided; but they had no food; and even their place of security threatened to fail them, for the waters ran with terrible rapidity, and almost covered the hill; so one of the Christians, at the risk of his life, swam back to the chapel, and succeeded in obtaining a little rice; this, along with some bitter herbs, which they procured with difficulty, was all their sustenance during the three days they were encompassed by the floods. But this was not all; they were attacked by a number of serpents, which, driven out of their holes by the water, sought the same place of safety. But throughout his missionary career, the blessed De Britto enjoyed that power over venomous beasts which our Saviour promised to His followers, and the band of Christians were unhurt. Power over serpents gives its possessor an unbounded influence with the Indians; and this terrible situation of the little band of Christians, being perfectly well understood by the idolaters, procured for De Britto a wonderful reputation. When the waters subsided, the Christians returned to their chapel, and found it almost swept away; but the foundations remained, and they set to work with such vigour, that in a short time the walls were raised again, and the chapel was ready for the Christmas solemnity. Father de Britto, with streaming eyes, thanked God for their escape, and besought him to look down with pity upon the struggling society, and prosper the cause of Christ in his hands.
In consequence of the wonderful success of De Britto, his superiors would have made him rector of Ambalucata. This preferment he evaded; but he accepted the post of superior of both districts of the mission. His journeys now became longer and more arduous. He travelled on foot, and was detained neither by the heat of the sun nor by the floods in the rainy seasons. Rocky mountains, sandy plains, dense forests, broad and rapid rivers were traversed. At Madura, as he was preparing 200 catechumens for baptism, a band of armed men rushed upon him and took him prisoner. They struck him with their fists and with sticks, and kicked him, and threw him into a dungeon with his hands tied behind his back. But God suffered them not to hurt him; and after trying to terrify him with threats of death, they at length let him go.
Journeying northward, he made a stay at Marava of three months, in the year 1686, during which he baptized more than 2000 idolaters; but not withstanding his success he was anxious to get on, in consequence of the accounts which reached him of the ripeness of the natives for Christianity still farther north. This anxiety was the cause of a long and painful imprisonment.
At Mangalam the idolaters laid wait for the missionary, and seized him as he was entering the gates of the city. They bound him hand and foot with iron chains, and conducted him immediately to the presence of General Conmara, the first minister of state of the King of Marava. This man had an implacable hatred of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The father was first accused of being a magician; but he meekly answered that he was under no guidance of the spirit of darkness, but that he preached the law of the true God, the Maker of heaven and earth. The judge then addressed the two catechists and other churchmen who were taken with him:
"And you," he said, "what do you say?"