“But notwithstanding this severity of punishment there are numbers who eagerly seek these lucrative employments and even out-bid each other. The Brahmins are the worst in this traffic. When one of them has obtained a district he fleeces the inhabitants without remorse. At length when called upon by Hyder for his arrears he pleads poverty and having undergone a flagellation returns to renew his exactions. Can we be surprised if the people under such a Government lose all sense of shame? “Hyder’s army is under the management of four chief officers (called baschi). They may be considered as paymasters but their office is not confined to paying the troops, as they have to provide for the recruiting service and to regulate other military matters, being likewise judges for the decision of private quarrels. With these people I often conversed. Some of them speak Persian, others only Hindustani, and all are Mohammedans. They once asked me what was the most acceptable prayer and to whom it ought to be addressed? I explained to them that as sinful creatures and therefore deserving eternal death, we could only approach the Almighty in the name of the Mediator, Jesus Christ, and then expounded the Lord’s Prayer. They next inquired whether the Lord Jesus in His Gospel had fixed the period of His coming and of the day of judgment. In reply to this I explained to them the doctrines of the Gospel, to some in Tamil, to others in Hindustani. As the household of Hyder consisted chiefly of Brahmins, I had very frequent conversations with them. Some of them gave me very modest answers, whilst others avoided the discussion and gave me to understand that they did not consider their temples to have been built in vain. ‘The building,’ I replied, ‘may be useful, but the idols you worship are worthless.’ “Without the fort several hundred Europeans were encamped, some of them were French, others German. I also met with a few Malabar Christians, whom I had instructed at Trichinopoly. To find them in that country, far from all Christian ordinances, was painful, but to renew the instruction which they had formerly received was very comfortable. Captain Buden, the commander of the German troops, lent me his tent, in which I performed Divine Service every Sunday, without asking permission, acting in this as one bound in conscience to do his duty. We sang, preached and prayed, no one presuming to hinder us. The whole I considered as a kind providence of God.