enevolence, and you will have an
idea of what Mr. Swartz appeared to be at first sight." Mr. Chambers
adds that Swartz's whole allowance at Trichinopoly was ten pagodas a
year, that is, about 48_l._ (as Mr. Chambers estimates it). The
commanding officer of the English garrison was ordered to supply him with
quarters, and gave him a room in an old native building, where "there was
just room for his bed and himself, and in which few men could stand
upright." With this lodging he was content. His food was rice and
vegetables dressed native fashion, and his clothes were made of black
dimity. The little brass lamp which he had used for his studies at the
University went with him to India, and served him all his life, often
late at night, for he never preached even to the natives without much
study.

He found the English without church or chaplain, and had very little
knowledge of their language, having lived almost entirely among Germans,
Danes, and natives; but he quickly picked it up among the soldiers, to
whom his kindly simple manners commended him; and, as soon as he could
speak it to any degree, he began to read the Church Service every Sunday
to the garrison, with a printed sermon from an English divine, until he
had obtained sufficient fluency to preach extempore. At first, the place
of meeting was a large room in an old building, but he afterwards
persuaded them to build themselves a church capable of holding from 1,500
to 2,000. His facility in learning languages must have been great, for
the English of his letters is excellent, unless his biographer, Dean
Pearson, has altered it. It is not at all like that of a German. His
influence with the soldiers was considered as something wonderful, in
those times of neglect and immorality, and the commandant and his
wife--Colonel and Mrs. Wood--were his warmest friends; and when the
Government at Madras heard of his voluntary services as chaplain, they
granted him, unsolicited, a salary of 100_l._ a year, of which he devoted
half to the service of his congregation. He was thus able to build a
mission-house, and an English and a Tamul school, labour and materials
being alike cheap. But, in spite of all his care of the English
soldiery, the natives were his chief thought; and he was continually
among them, reading and arguing home with the most thorough knowledge and
experience of their difficulties. He made expeditions from Trichinopoly
to Tanjore, then under the