According to Indo-Portuguese historian Teotonio R. de Souza, grave abuse was practised in Goa in the form of 'mass baptism' and what went before it. The practice was begun by the Jesuits and was later initiated by the Franciscans also. The Jesuits staged an annual mass baptism on the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (25 January), and to secure as many neophytes as possible, a few days before the ceremony the Jesuits would go through the streets of the Hindu quarter in pairs, accompanied by their slaves, whom they would urge to seize the Hindus. When the slaves caught up to a fugitive, they would smear his lips with a piece of beef, making him an 'untouchable' outcaste in accordance with the oppressive caste purity and pollution rules. Conversion to Christianity was then his only option.