c. 1785.—"... the Subahdars or commanding officers of the black troops."—Carraccioli, L. of Clive, iii. 174.
1787.—"A Troop of Native Cavalry on the present Establishment consists of 1 European Subaltern, 1 European Serjeant, 1 Subidar, 3 [Jemadars], 4 [Havildars], 4 Naiques ([naik]), 1 Trumpeter, 1 Farrier, and 68 Privates."—Regns. for the Hon. Comp.'s Black Troops on the Coast of Coromandel, &c., p. 6.
[SOUDAGUR, s. P.—H. saudāgar, Pers. saudā, 'goods for sale'; a merchant, trader; now very often applied to those who sell European goods in civil stations and cantonments.
[1608.—"... and kill the merchants (sodagares mercadores)."—Livras das Moncoẽs, i. 183.
[c. 1809.—"The term Soudagur, which implies merely a principal merchant, is here (Behar) usually given to those who keep what the English of India call [Europe] shops; that is, shops where all sorts of goods imported from Europe, and chiefly consumed by Europeans, are retailed."—Buchanan, Eastern India, i. 375.
[c. 1817.—"This sahib was a very rich man, a Soudagur...."—Mrs. Sherwood, Last Days of Boosy, 84.]
SOURSOP, s.
a. The fruit Anona muricata, L., a variety of the [Custard apple]. This kind is not well known on the Bengal side of India, but it is completely naturalised at Bombay. The terms soursop and sweetsop are, we believe, West Indian.
b. In a note to the passage quoted below, Grainger identifies the soursop with the suirsack of the Dutch. But in this, at least as regards use in the East Indies, there is some mistake. The latter term, in old Dutch writers on the East, seems always to apply to the Common [Jack] fruit, the 'sourjack,' in fact, as distinguished from the superior kinds, especially the champada of the Malay Archipelago.
a.—