EARLY YEARS
ladies were chiefly the wives and daughters of the senior merchants who had accompanied their relatives from England. Other factors who had been long in the country had contracted alliances with native women, many of whom became converts to Christianity, mostly to the Romish Church. These ladies appear to have been accepted in society, and their number was added to by the wives and daughters of the Armenian merchants, who formed an important section of the community. So prosperous were these Armenians that, in 1724, they built a church, which was dedicated to St. Nazareth, in compliment to the chief promoter of the building fund, Aga Nazar, and which stands to this day, the oldest church in Calcutta.
The gossipy Captain Hamilton gives a lively description of the manners and customs of this mixed society. He says:—
"Most gentlemen and ladies in Bengal live both splendidly and pleasantly, the forenoons being dedicated to business, and after dinner to rest, and in the evening to recreate themselves in chaises or palankins, in the fields or to gardens, or by water in their budgeroes, which is a convenient boat that goes swiftly with the force of oars. On the river sometimes there is the diversion of fishing or fowling, or both: and
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