In the May 27th, 1784 edition of the Calcutta Gazette, one of the earliest and most widely read of all British India's newspapers, the following notice appeared: A subscription is opened at the Bengal Bank, for the relief of the Non-Commissioned and private Europeans, of the King's and Company's Troops in the Carnatic, who were unfortunately captured during the war with the Nabob Tippoo Sultan, and have lately been released from their confinement, and the same is to extend to all other Europeans of the lower class in the same predicament