Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/190

178 fear from the pillaging troops of the Rajah of Mysore, nor from the French. Barracks were built and substantial houses erected in the style of those on the Choultry Plain. Trees were planted and gardens made. The change from the confined quarter in the town to the cooler and more airy cantonment must have been acceptable to the English soldiers. The heat inside the fort walls was intense, and was the cause of sickness and excessive drinking among the troops.

The first English garrison stationed at Trichinopoly consisted of a company of a hundred and twenty men who were sent to the assistance of the native prince whose cause we espoused (1749). They were quartered in houses belonging to the natives.

An Indian town does not alter its character with advancing times. In England each period the Tudor, the Jacobean, the Georgian is marked by a distinctive style of architecture. In India the native house of three hundred years ago is identical with the dwelling of to-day. The indication of antiquity is ruin and decay, and that may be deceptive. The style of house in which the English soldiers lived may still be seen. The rooms are small and have few windows. The yards are walled in and the verandahs screened to the exclusion of light and air. There was no room to build barracks in the town on the English plan, and the troops had to accommodate themselves as best they could in quarters that were only suited to the native sepoy.

In 1751 the garrison had largely increased, and it is about this date that the name of the veteran missionary and politician, Christian Frederick Schwartz, is associated with the town. He was a Prussian by birth, and was sent out to the Danish Mission, which had its headquarters at Tranquebar. He mastered Persian, Tamil, Hindustani, English, and Portuguese, the study of which