highest position in, and gained the blue ribbon of, Government service. Others have held, or still hold, positions of distinction in the various learned professions, legal, medical, educational, and ecclesiastical.
The influence of the various European nations — Portuguese, Dutch, British, Danish, and French — which have at different times acquired territory in peninsular India, is clearly visible in the polyglot medley of Eurasian surnames, e.g., Gomes, Da Souza, Gonsalvez, Rozario, Cabral, Da Cruz, Da Costa, Da Silva, Da Souza, Fernandez, Fonseca, Lazaro, Henriquez, Xavier, Mendonza, Rodriguez, Saldana, Almeyda, Heldt, Van Spall,Jansen, Augustine, Brisson, Corneille, La Grange, Lavocat, Pascal, DeVine, Aubert, Ryan, McKertish,Macpherson, Harris, Johnson, Smith, etc. Little did the early adventurers, in the dawn of the seventeenth century, think that, as the result of their alliances with the native women, within three centuries banns of marriage would be declared weekly in Madras churches between, for example, Ben Jonson and Alice Almeyda, Emmanuel Henricus and Mary Smith, Augustus Rozario and Minnie Fonseca, John Harris and Clara Corneille. Yet this has come to pass, and the Eurasian holds a recognised place among the half-breed races of the world.
The pedigree of the early Eurasian community is veiled in obscurity. But the various modes of creation of a half-breed, which were adopted in those early days, when the sturdy European pioneers first came in contact with the native females, were probably as follows: —
- A. European man (pure) . , B. Native woman (pure),
- C. Male offspring of A + B (first cross) . . . . D. Native woman,
- E. Female offspring of A + B(first cross) F. European man, G. Native man.
