Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/192

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180
ON THE COROMANDEL COAST

right. Schwartz was succeeded by Christian Pohle, who continued the ministrations to the garrison on the same lines.

The entries in the mission books give many interesting items of information about the men who served. There is no doubt that when they entered the Company's ranks they adopted India as their country and did not expect to return to England. Under these circumstances a native wife seemed desirable in every way. She made a devoted mother and kept house economically, studying her husband's tastes and conducing greatly to his comfort.

The following is a specimen of the mixed language in which some of the entries were made:

'1782 15. Martii wurde der Quarter Master Serjeant in the new Battn, Andrew Brown, seines alters 24 Jahr copuliret mit Anna a native of Madras die sub hoc dato getauft wurde vid: mem Verz: Getauft. N.B. Sie hat schon vorher mit ihm gelebet.'

Pohle baptised a corporal's child and made the following entry in English. After having given the names of the parents he described the mother as:

'Mary Mootimah, a heathen, to whom he has been married from a certificate at Poonamalie, 10th February, 1785, by Lieut. Samuel Agmotey, Quarter Master of the 52nd Regiment' (afterwards Sir Samuel Auchmuty), 'who signed the certificate, but has not expressed the marrying lawful, which word is left out, probably because such a marriage with a heathen cannot be lawful. I examined the woman, called Mary Mootimah, in the presence of Mr. Klein, and she confessed that she was not baptised by anybody, nor knew she a single word of any Christian prayer, but was a heathen.'

The names of god-parents were scrupulously entered, as also the fact of the child's legitimacy or otherwise. The terms used in German were 'ehrlich' and 'unehrlich,'