John Thomas was, quite quintessentially, a colonial missionary (as distinct from a pre-colonial, non-colonial or anti-colonial missionary). From humble origins, a hill-farm in Wales and the fourth of five children, he became lord of a considerable domain. Devout, energetic and Evangelical, he exactly suited a CMS need for British recruits for a field hitherto predominantly German. After brief training at the CMS college in Islington, he sailed for India in 1836, and remained there until his death in 1870. He was immediately dispatched to spearhead and consolidate an Indo-Anglican Christendom in Tirunelveli. There, the rapidly expanding movement, already fifty-years-old, had been greatly revitalised and strengthened since 1820 by Karl Rhenius. The achievements and nonconformity of this highly gifted and charismatic maverick from Prussia had so disturbed CMS leaders that they had summarily dismissed him. The resulting deep schism would never quite heal. From his grand residence in Menanapuram, Thomas eventually reigned over an ecclesiastical empire: many hundreds of ‘native’ congregations, schools, preachers, teachers and ancillary institutions. His rule, in the words of Robert Caldwell, became ‘so essentially autocratic that no room [was] left of individual development’ (Reminiscences, [102]). Even so, Tamil Christians in Tirunelveli District continued to multiply, until they made up a large proportion of the population. The lofty towers of churches that they built symbolised their prominence in the land. Of them, Thomas commented, ‘if they are real Christians, they are at the same time little more than Christian children – even the most advanced of them, the native clergy’ (p. 290). Missing from this work is recognition of the key role played by Tamil Christian leaders. Since 1799 thousands had been flocking to the new faith, with whole villages turning Christian, temples converted into chapels/schools, and ‘villages of refuge’ rescuing converts fleeing violence; this movement was inspired by ‘native’ agency. Without such gifted individuals as Rasa Clarinda, Sathiyanathan Pillai and Sundarandam David (from 1780 to 1810), and David Pillai Asirvatham, John Devasahayam and Savarirayan Pillai (from 1820 to 1870), to name but a few, Thomas would have had no domain to rule. Towering above all was Vedanayagam Sastri (1774–1864), poet-laureate of Maharaja Serfoji's durbar in Tanjore. His countless hymns, epic poems and prose transformed the culture. Then came A. H. Krishna Pillai (1827–1900), also from Tirunelveli. His classic Tamil rendition of ‘Pilgrim's Progress’ (Rakshany Yatrikum) stands as a monument to a rising Evangelical-Pietist bhakti culture. This work, by the great-great grandson of John Thomas, is also a work of filial piety. As such, it is heavy with page-long quotations from letters and reports that reflect the eurocentric and ‘colonial’ perspectives of Thomas, and the conditions of his life as a missionary in India.