1803
To be sure of it, Savarimuthu went for the catechist Yagappar Pillai. The catechist came into the church and saw the Mother of God wrapped in smoke and darkness, her face desolate, her arms open, her eyes raised to heaven and running with tears. Then they sent in haste for Mr Bilderbeck's daughter, Henriette, and the girl ran to the church and saw it in her turn. Looking into Our Lady's face, she saw her eyes “like stars”, and the tears breaking from them so abundantly that “they ran to the ground and wetted it”; and the statues of the saints, all of them together, bowing their heads in sorrow.
What this source establishes
Besse’s typescript (Moumas, p.842) names the witnesses summoned — the catechist Yagapillai and “Miss” Henrietta Bilderbeck (an unmarried daughter), who saw the same thing. In copyright: quoted, not reproduced.
This is as much of the book as this site prints. It is named in full in the bibliography below.