which were translated later as 'lawful' and 'unlawful.' Some supervision was also exercised over the choice of god-parents. 'Serjeant Bloome, instead of the drunk William Lemoze.'
Two more entries in the book of baptisms are of interest.
(1790) 'John, lawful child of John Ross, bandmaster of the 36th Regiment, and of Mary. The child is about two years old, and has been badly and insufficiently baptised by a drunk officer at Wallajabad.'
(1789) 'Sarah, to which was afterwards added Arnold, supposed to be the daughter of a soldier of His Majesty's regiments, aged about seven years. Has been five years with Captain C——, whose woman wanted to bring her up as a dancing-girl without baptism, of whom Captain L got her lately after two years application, and got her now baptised in order to send her to the Asylum.'
This institution was founded in Madras through the exertions of Schwartz to provide for the orphans of soldiers. If it had not been for the good offices of Captain L—— this little waif, Sarah, with English blood in her veins, would have met with a terrible fate. The status of a dancing-girl is too well known to require an explanation. She occupies the lowest and most degraded position to which a woman can sink.
Mortality was great in the ranks of the English troops. There is no one more careless of health in the Tropics than the British soldier, even in the present day, when the dangers of exposure, bad water, and infection are better known. In the old days he neglected to take the commonest precautions, and the result was too often fatal. The entries in the burial register give details of how some of the men met with their deaths, and mention the county or town in England from which they came. In the time of Schwartz and Pohle, Hanoverian regiments
