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straggling appearance, though there were many neat buildings scattered along the beach near the sea shore. The fort is situated to the southward of the town, where there is a small river, having a dangerous bar at its entrance, and, therefore, navigable only by small country vessels, which must pass close to a battery on the north side of the river, either on entering or coming out, for there are two channels which are used, the weather one on going in, and the lee one in leaving the river, according to the prevailing monsoon. The anchorage for large ships in fair weather, is with the flag-staff west, in five fathoms; but in foul weather with the flag-staff W. by S., and the largest of the Pagodas of Nagore N.W. in seven fathoms, in both of which berths good holding ground is found. To the southward of Negapatam, about eight miles, is a long shoal with twenty to twenty-four feet water on it. It lies at the distance of from three to four miles off shore, and extends for six or seven miles in a direction of north and south. Small vessels, of course, pass over and inside it—but large ships generally keep without, approaching it no nearer than six and seven fathoms, as those are the depths close to its outer edge. The depths between it and the shore vary from three fathoms and a half to five. There is a rise of tide of three feet on the springs experienced here, and high water falls at five o'clock on the full and change.

The first Europeans who possessed Negapatam, were the Portuguese. From them it passed into the bands of the Dutch in 1660, who fortified it so strongly, that it formed one of their chief settlements on this side of India. It surrendered to the English in 1781, after withstanding a siege made by land and sea forces under the joint command of Admiral Sir Edward Hughes and General Sir Hector Munro. The besieging force is stated to have been much less effective than that of the garrison. The siege lasted about a fortnight, during which time the garrison made several desperate sallies, but were repulsed, and refused to listen to the summons to surrender, This was at length submitted to, however, on condition of military honours being granted to them, and private property respected. In the following year, when peace was concluded between the English and the Dutch; the town of Negapatam and its dependencies were ceded to the former by treaty, in whose possession it still remains as a dependency of the Government of Madras, and garrisoned and made tributary to that Presidency. Negapatam was considered formerly as the principal Port of Tanjore, and as such carried on an extensive foreign and inland trade. It imported cotton from Bombay and Surat, raw and worked silks from Bengal; sugar, spices, &c. from the Eastern Islands, Java, Sumatra, and Malacca; elephants, horses, timber, and gold, from Pegu; and the manufactures and productions of China from Canton. As it was itself chiefly a manufacturing town, its exports were made in muslins, chintzes, handkerchiefs, Oriental Herald, Vol. 23.

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ginghams, cotton cloths, and coarse articles of clothing for the American and West India markets, suited to the wants of the negro slaves there. The wars of Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo, are thought to have been the chief cause of the decline of its consequence, and since that period it has not possessed much importance as a place of import for foreign trade; but there still continue to be large manufactures of cotton in the various kind of cloths made on this coast, carried on under inspection of a commercial resident and other officers at Negapatam.

To the northward of the town about three miles, we observed an old black pagoda of a rude and inelegant shape, standing close to the sea-beach, and about three miles farther to the northward, were five white pagodas, of a much more light and elegant form. These resemble, from a distance, five obelisks, for they are precisely of that shape, being square at the base, and rising to a considerable height till they terminate nearly in a point at the summit. On a nearer approach, the appearance of dark windows, or of something which form lines of black, alternately with the white, is seen. They all stand near each other, and the principal one being much higher than the rest, they form altogether an excellent sea-mark on the

coast.

Close to these five white pagodas, and on the northern side of them, is the river of Nagore, on the bar of which it is eight feet at high water, and the rise of tides about three feet on the springs, when high water falls at a quarter past eight o'clock. The anchorage in the road of this place is two or three miles off the river's mouth, with the five white pagodas bearing W.S.W. in five fathoms. The town of Nagore, which is under the Government of Madras, and has a Commercial Resident, is a place of manufacture for cotton cloths, &c., and the Natives there are wealthy enough to have small square-rigged vessels for carrying on their own trade.

We had an earlier breeze to-day than we had been favoured with for many days past, and, crowding all sail, we soon came abreast of Karicaulo, neither the town nor fort of which are easily discernible from the sea, as they lie about three hundred yards up from the mouth of the river, on the northern bank of which they are seated. This place, with a rich and populous territory around it, was a grant of the Rajah of Tanjore to the French, in 1729, and at subsequent periods. It then exported the produce of the surrounding country, in rice and other grain, and the labour of the people in manufactured goods of various kinds. The country itself is represented as the most fertile of any portion of this coast, being watered by two navigable branches of the Cavery, which descend through it to the sea. The fort was besieged in 1760, by an English force under Major Monson, and there were then 155 pieces of cannon, besides mortars, and a proportionate quantity of ammunition and other military stores, found among the spoils when they surrendered.

There were then dependent on this settlement of Karicaul 113 villages, the revenue from which, including the customs of the port and town, produced 30,000 pagodas a-year.

At noon, we observed in lat. 10° 55′ N., and were in long. by a set of lunar distances taken in the morning and brought up to noon, of 80° 5' 10" E., and by chronometer, at the same time, 80° 3′, having the five white pagodas of Nagore to bear S. W. by S., and the town of Tranquebar to bear N.W., with soundings in fourteen fathoms.

The breeze continued to freshen from the S.E., and, as we hauled in N.N.W. in order to have a nearer view of Tranquebar, we came up abreast of it at one P.M., within the distance of a mile or two, so as to be able to distinguish all the buildings of the town quite plainly. The Danish flag was displayed from a very elevated flagstaff affixed to the northern end of the principal church, which had a tower at its other end, and stood apparently near the centre of the town. We answered this by the display of our own flag as we passed, and neither of us hauled them down until they were no longer to be distinguished by the other. The appearance of Tranquebar is interesting from the sea. To the southward were chiefly the dwellings of the Native Indians. The bastions of the fort, which were constructed of black stones, were seen close to the sea, with the surf beating on their foundations. In the centre was a large dark building, which appeared like a church, with a tower at one end and the flag-staff at the other. North of this, and apparently without the fort, was a pretty modern house, with a pillared portico, whose white columns were well contrasted with the verdure of a garden of trees behind them. Close by this stood a larger edifice close on the beach, with its light yellow front relieved by lofty pilastres in white chunam, facing the sea. The centre of the town showed the tops of many large and apparently well-built houses, and in the roads were anchored two brigs, and several smaller vessels, engaged most probably in trade. There is a small river at Tranquebar, for coasting boats, but vessels anchor with the flag-staff from W. to W.N.W., in five or six fathoms.

As a settlement of Europeans, Tranquebar was first subject to the Danes, whose flag still flies there. The circumstances which led to their first possession of it are worth noting. About the year (612, Marcellus de Boschhonder, an officer of the second rank in the Dutch East India Company, was sent with letters from the States General, and Prince Maurice, of Nassau, to Cenuwieraat, Emperor of Ceylon, the object of which was to undermine as much as possible the interests of the Portuguese in India, and to expel them as speedily as possible from Ceylon. The Dutch ambassador was received with great consideration, and the result of his mission was a treaty between the States General and the Emperor, by which they were permitted to build a fort at Cotjaar, or Trincomalee, the

materials for which were to be provided by the Emperor, who was also to provide magazines of stores for their goods and merchandize. Boschhonder was detained in the island, at the Court of Candy, rather against his own wish, but, during a stay of several years, all the honours that could be conferred on him were granted by the King, and in the conspicuous part which he acted, both in council and in the field, where he repeatedly met and defeated the Portuguese, he became one of the greatest heroes and most distinguished characters in the country. He was at length invested with unlimited powers to conclude treaties and form any engagements he thought fit, in the King's name, and being unable to procure the necessary aid which they desired against the Portuguese, from this country, it was thought expedient to send him to Europe, in order to make known his powers to the States General, the Prince of Orange, and the Directors of the Dutch East India Company.

When Boschhonder arrived in Holland, some dissensions soon arose between him and the Directors of the latter body. This Prince of Mingore (for that, among a multitude of others, was one of his Candian titles) exalted above measure by the part he had acted in Ceylon, the influence he had acquired, the servility he had experienced, and the rank and the titles which he enjoyed, exacted more homage from the Directors than they were disposed to yield to one whom they regarded as their servant and inferior. The Prince of Mingore, accordingly, listening more to the suggestions of vanity than to the precepts of duty, repaired to Copenhagen, where, on the 20th of March, 1618, he concluded a treaty with Christian the 4th, King of Denmark, which promised to secure to that monarch those advantages, of which the want of more condescension in the Dutch East India Company, to their supercilious countryman, seemed to have deprived them.

Boschhonder sailed from Copenhagen, in the Elephant man-ofwar, with a yacht to attend her, which had been furnished him by the Danish king, for the conveyance of himself, his wife, the Princess of Mingore, and their numerous retinue. The East India Company also sent five ships of their own for the purposes of trade, under the command of a Danish nobleman, named Gule Gedde. These were on the Company's own account, but for the Elephant and her yacht Boschhonder had guaranteed to the King of Denmark the payment of their value by the Emperor of Ceylon. This enterprising character unfortunately died on the passage out, and it was not until twenty-two months after leaving Copenhagen that the squadron anchored in the bay of Trincomalee.

On anchoring here, intelligence was sent to Candy of the arrival of the fleet, and of the death of the ambassador and his son, on the voyage, while copies of the treaty were forwarded, and a statement of the charges for the vessels, which were stated to have been, all of them, built for the Emperor, and to be awaiting his orders. The

Emperor's grief and disappointment at the death of his most distinguished favourite, was accompanied, also, with a feeling of so much indignation at the injustice of the claim made on him for vessels which he had neither authorized to be built, nor could ever hope to use, that he despatched messengers to declare he would have nothing to do with the ships, and that as for the treaty, he should never ratify or observe it.

The Danish Admiral, Gule Gedde, now thought fit to show his resentment on the yet unburied corpse of Boschhonder, which was still on board, as well as that of his son. It is said that the interment of this unfortunate ambassador was accompanied with circumstances of the most marked contempt, and an expression of the most vindictive feelings, while the corpse of the son, merely because his Danish Majesty, Christian the Fourth, had stood sponsor, at his baptism, was buried with all the pomp that the funeral obsequies of a royal infant could have demanded. From his wife, too, who still remained alive, to mourn over her husband and her child, this unfeeling Admiral took nearly the whole of her property, and sent her off to Candy, with three staatdogters, or maids of honour, and an old waiting-maid, where she remained at the court for about seven years, and then was taken by the Danish Admiral, Rowland Carpes, with the Emperor's permission, to the settlement at Tranquebar.

To amend, in some degree, for this failure of the expedition to Ceylon, Gule Gedde proceeded to the coast of Coromandel, seemingly in search of some eligible spot for a settlement, when he anchored at Tranquebar, and purchased of the Rajah of Tanjore the port itself, and a limited district around it, for the payment of an annual rent of 2,000 pagodas. The troops that were destined for Ceylon, and had come out in the squadron, were now landed here, and a factory, with a good fort for its defence, was soon erected, and the Admiral returned to Denmark.

The Jesuits had settled here some time before the arrival of the Danes, and their persevering labours had made many converts to the Christian faith. Their church is still existing, and besides it, there is another, belonging to the inhabitants and to the garrison, which is called Zion, and a third, erected by the Danish Missionaries, and consecrated in 1707, under the name of Jerusalem. In 1699, the Rajah of Tanjore, wishing to dispossess the Danes of Tranquebar, brought an army of 30,000 men against it; and after incredible labour and patience, they had brought their trenches to within half-pistol shot of the walls. The Danes had applied to the English, at Madras, for assistance, and just at this critical moment the reinforcements arrived. A sortie was immediately made on the besiegers, and they were put to flight, with great loss, and compelled to raise the siege. It was again besieged by the Rajah, in 1718, but without effect; and they have never disturbed them

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