Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/469

Rh their red coats, white belts, and epaulettes, seated in the teacher's chair; but under their uniform Christian hearts were beating, and here in heathen India they found work to do as soldiers of the living God. In a land of idolatry and sin, to see these groups of English children with Bibles in their hands, learning the way to heaven from soldiers in their red coats, was a delightful privilege.

A church has been gathered from among the Tamil population, over which a native pastor has been set. The labours of the missionaries are mainly directed to the Canarese people, who form the great mass of the population of the Mysore territories, and gave their name (Canara) to the country. The word Carnatic has been improperly applied to the province below the mountains by Europeans, probably from its having been conquered by Hyder Ali, who had already made himself ruler of the true Carnata or Canara-desa, the land of the Canarese.

The Roman Catholics, here, as in most accessible portions of India, preceded Protestant missionaries, and gave to the natives of the land the impression that Christianity, though a different religion from their own, was only