\m 
whose misconduct having caused them to lose their caste, are giad 
to embrace Christianity, as a religion which is open to all. But 
whenever the Hindoos or Mahomedans are baptized into the 
Christian faith, the women lay aside their becoming eastern dra- 
pery, and put on a jacket and petticoat; and the men wear as 
much of the European apparel as their circumstances will admit 
of: a coat and stockings seldom form part of their dress, except 
on a religious festival, or some particular occasion. 
Many respectable Armenian merchants, with their families, 
reside at Bombay and other British settlements in India; they 
carry on an extensive trade, and are valuable subjects, conforming 
to the laws, and enjoying the exercise of their religion, which is 
that of the Greek church: their complexion is as fair as that of 
the southern Europeans; and their conversation and manners are 
grave and polite. The dress of both sexes, in many respects, re- 
sembles that of the Turks; except that the men, instead of a 
turban, wear a high cap of black velvet, and the women conceal 
the mouth with a muslin handkerchief. 
A few Persians, Turks, Arabians, and Jews, occasionally reside 
at Bombay; but the Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Parsees, form 
the great mass of the inhabitants. Fearful of prolixity, I have, in 
the foregoing pages, omitted man} 7 things inserted in my original 
• / • 
letters; but I have endeavoured to give a, faithful portrait of these 
interesting people; every thing I have asserted was dictated by as 
impartial a judgment as I was enabled to form, during a long 
residence among them: I viewed them with an unprejudiced mind, 
and wherever I went, I sought for knowledge at the best sources of 
information among the natives themselves: but in that respect I 
