of two distinct arms of the sea, extending in different directions, while the hulks of large vessels laid ashore for shelter from the monsoon, the number of smaller ones dismantled and refitting, and others again of the smallest size ready for crossing the bar and getting to sea, gave to the whole picture an animation, and a variety that was quite charming.

We landed at the beach, where we found conveyances ready to take us all to the house prepared for the reception of the gentlemen who came passengers with us, and found there the best accommodation that we could desire. In the course of the day, I had occasion to ride out to a place called Waltair, to confer with the Collector of the district, on the subject of landing the copper coins, which we had brought to this place, from Madras. In the course of our interview, I learnt, that not long since a quantity of copper coin, from the manufactory of Bolton and Watts, having been had from England for the use of the Madras Government, it remained at the Presidency so long, without their being able to force it into circulation, that the Governor in Council ordered its sale by public auction, and it was sold, accordingly, to the highest bidder, at a loss of about thirty per cent., and afterwards melted up by the natives, into copper vessels and domestic utensils. The present investment of similar coins that the Company had sent out, was now to be distributed, if possible, at the out-stations-but the opinion of the best-informed here was, that the sum of 12,000 pagodas, which was the amount we had brought up in it, would not be distributed in circulation for half a century at least. The spot, called Waltair, is about three or four miles distant from the town of Vizagapatam, in a northerly direction. A number of petty dwellings are here collected about the summit of a promontory, which is steep and rocky, and projects so far out into the sea, as to admit of an extensive view of the coast, both to the northward and southward of it. As the road leading to it from Vizagapatam is excellent, and the scenery of the way interesting, most of the English gentlemen have their residences at Waltair, though their offices are in the town, and the difference in the climate is at least seven or eight degrees of the thermometer at any given time, besides that the air of Waltair has a freshness and purity which is scarcely ever felt on the low level of Vizagapatam.

This town is nearly of an oblong form, and little more than a mile in its whole circumference. About the centre of it is a military square, with guard-houses on one side, an European shop, and officers' dwellings on the other-an arsenal of military stores, and an isolated bomb-proof magazine on a third side, while the fourth is open to the sea, and defended by a battery of eight or ten guns. The houses appropriated to the residences and offices of the English here, are mostly buildings of two stories, with a verandah and balustrades in front below, but none above; and as they are solidly built,

and constructed more after the Native than European fashion, from being wholly the property of the Natives themselves, they are rather closer and warmer than the houses of the Presidencies. The dwellings of the lower orders, though humble as elsewhere, have cleanliness and neatness about them not usually seen, and the general appearance of the town, bespeaks competence and comfort among its inhabitants. There are two rich Bramins residing here at present, who rival each other in the display of their wealth, and are each considered to be worth twenty lacks of pagodas, or nearly a million sterling Their religious feasts and shows are frequent, and most expensive, and serve to distribute their superfluous riches among the poor. I had, myself, an opportunity of seeing one of them take his evening ride, which was in an English barouche, drawn by two English blood horses, that had been brought out to this country, either for the field or the turf, and which he had bought of a military officer, at a most extravagant rate, more than double their original price and charges for bringing them to this country, merely to possess what his rival, however widely he opened his purse, would, for some time at least, be unable to obtain.

The population of Vizagapatam, which, in the reigns of Hyder and Tippo, was mostly Mohammedans, is now composed chiefly of Hindoos, though some Mussulmans still remain, and are generally employed in occupations about the sea. The present number of the inhabitants does not exceed five thousand, and those are all subject to the British Government. In stature and person they are a superior race of people to those about Madras, and they are less black in colour-effects most probably of a more hilly country, and a more northern climate. The military force here consists of two battalions, an European and a Native one, under the command of a Lieutenant-Colonel, as Governor of the Garrison, or Military Commander-in-Chief. There are, besides, a large body of European Invalids, from the East India Company's regiments, who remain here on their full pay, and having nothing to do, and very little authority exercised over them, are to be seen staggering drunk about the streets at all hours of the day. The civil officers are a Collector of the Land Revenues, and one of the Sea Customs, a Commercial Resident, and half a dozen others in the rank of Deputies and Assistants, with a Master-Attendant for the management of all port business. The Native inhabitants of the town are mostly engaged as writers and inferior servants in the public offices; as merchants and shopkeepers, and as porters, boatmen, &c. for the shipping off the manufactures of the district. There are a few ingenious mechanics, who execute chess-boards and men, ladies' work-boxes, toilet tables, dressing-cases, &c., in ivory, ebony, and variegated woods; but these meet with too few purchasers to support a large body of workmen. In the interior of the district, the people are nearly all cotton growers and weavers, and there is not a village throughout its whole extent, that has not many looms.

The manufactures are wholly white cotton cloths, known here by the name of punjums, or, as we more commonly call them, calicoes, of every degree of fineness, from muslin down to sail-cloth. The quality most in demand, and of which by far the greatest quantity is made, is that which would be sold in England for a shilling a yard, but which costs nearly eighteen pence here. It is a fact established beyond all doubt, that the English manufacturers can import their cotton from India, at a great expense of time, risk, and actual cost, work it into cloths in England, return it to this country again with renewed expences of conveyance, and sell it profitably after all, at a less rate than the same kind of goods can be made for in India-where the cotton, the looms, the labourers, and the buyers, are all upon the same spot. This is owing, no doubt, to the wonderful facilities granted to manufacturers by the use of machinery. The consequences of it promise to be most important, and at Bombay and Madras, where this fact has been completely verified by importations from England, and profitable sales of such goods, among the natives themselves, I have heard several most intelligent men express their belief, that the whole of India would, bye and bye, be clothed in the manufactures of Britain. The East India Company have already lessened the amount of their supplies of these articles for the European market, since the value which the name of India gave to every thing of the kind imported into England has worn off, and since the nations of the Mediterranean, who consumed so much of then, have found a substitute in the cheaper and finer manufactures of Glasgow. It was night before the business of the ship was closed, when I prepared to embark. In parting from the very excellent and amiable men whom I had the good fortune to convey from Madras to this place, I confess that I felt as if I were separating myself from friends of a much longer standing. It was gratifying to me to believe that the feeling was reciprocal, for though politeness and good breeding will urge some men great lengths in their expressions, yet it was impossible hot to perceive that there was much more than empty sounds in the interchange of our adieu.

25th. Though it was past midnight when I reached the ship, and there was not a breath of air stirring, we weighed immediately under the hopes of getting a land breeze to take us to Bimlipatam by day-light. In this, however, we were disappointed, as the calm continued, and we rolled about without making any progress for several hours. With the first gleam of the dawn, a light air came over the hills whieh enabled us to steer, but it was nine o'clock before we had the sea-breezes. We stood in with this to the road of Bimlipatam, and anchored there at eleven a. M. in seven fathoms water, with the flag-staff bearing N.W. W. distant off shore nearly two miles.

By sights for our chronometer taken this morning at nine a. M., while Vizagapatam was in sight, as well as by others taken yes

terday, while the ship was at anchor in the roads, we had an opportunity of correcting the longitude of that place, which is in 83° 13′ 45′′ E. instead of 83° 26' E. as given by Horsburgh, in his Directory; or, 83° 30′ E. as laid down in his chart; and Bimlipatam in long. 83° 22′ E., the latitudes being both correct.

A shore boat having been sent off by Messrs. Suter and Connell, merchants here, to convey me on shore, I left the ship in it, and landed in about half an hour afterwards. The appearance of Bimlipatam from the sea is interesting. A high range of land sloping downwards to the north, forms the southern boundary of the inlet here, and at the foot of this slope, or on the left hand on entering the inlet, the town itself is seated. Some good looking houses and an abundance of trees are seen, and including the surrounding country, the view on the whole may be said to be picturesque. On approaching the bar of the inlet, or arm of the sea, which runs up here, the same dangerous surf is met with as we had yet found in all the ports of the Coromandel and Golconda coasts, and this cannot be passed with safety in ship's boats; but is always crossed in the inconvenient and uncomfortable boats of the country. The most prominent objects seen on landing, are three obelisks near the flagstaff, which are probably monumental, and a little rotunda, built with open niches, quite in the Roman style, overhanging the sea, and apparently forming either an evening pleasure-seat, or a daystation for revenue officers superintending the landing or shipment of goods, for it would answer for either.

After some little detention at the warehouse in dispatching off to the ship some bales of punjum, which we were to take to Bengal. I found a conveyance ready to take me to Mr. Suter's house, which was nearly four miles in the country. In passing along the skirts of the town, the ravages of war were most apparent-and among a number of buildings seemingly battered down by cannon, was a large edifice with a highly ornamented façade, which had been probably the residence of the former Dutch governors. Several still larger buildings, probably barracks and military store-houses, were also seen in ruins, and the place looked as if it had been once abandoned, and but now recently peopled again. The road to Mr. Suter's country residence, was over a plain of considerable size, but uncultivated, as far as I could perceive, throughout its whole extent. There were several detached houses seen in the way, each having a garden attached to it: but there were no fields either of cotton or of grain. The interior of the country to the N.W. appeared to be hilly, and resembled in general features the scenery about Vizagapatam.

I found at Mr. Suter's an agreeable party of military officers, who had come down from their stations in the interior, to breathe, during the hot months, the less oppressive atmosphere of the seaThe Dutch Resident, Mr. Van Braam, was also of the com

coast.

pany. This settlement having formerly belonged to the Dutch, had come into our possession during the late war, and had been restored again to the Dutch, by the English East India Company. The Resident took charge of his post here about a month ago only, and the Dutch flag had been displayed here ever since, but the customs and revenue departments were still filled by gentlemen of the Madras establishment.

The whole of the district around Bimlipatam is a manufacturing one, and the people of it, who are almost all weavers, make the same kind of punjums, or white cotton cloths, as those manufactured all along the coast of Golconda. At Chicacole, about thirty miles to the northward of this, the finest muslins are made, and all these, as well as the coarser calicoes, are sent to Bengal, and from thence transmitted to Europe, or elsewhere. The people of the country are mostly Hindoos, and are altogether a much finer looking race than those about Madras.

7

26th. We had weighed immediately on my coming on board, and made some little offing to the eastward, but the wind falling light, and a heavy swell rolling directly on the shore, we anchored again at two A. M. in six fathoms. At sun-rise we weighed with a light air from off the land, and stood out East, to clear the Santapilly Rocks. This is a dangerous reef, standing at the distance of eight or nine miles from the shore, and occupying a length of more than a mile. Its latitude is about 17° 58′ N. and long. 83° 32′ E., or eleven miles from Bimlipatam, on a course of N. 63° E. There is a channel between these rocks and the main, with nine or ten fathoms water, and perfectly safe, and on the outside there are sixteen and seventeen fathoms close to their edge.

At noon we observed in lat. 17° 55′ N., and were in long. 83° 30′ E. with the breakers on the Santapilly Rocks, bearing N.N.E. distant about three miles, and our soundings in sixteen fathoms water. We now steered a course of N.E. by E. with a light southerly wind, keeping in the stream of fifteen to eighteen fathoms throughout. At sun-set it fell calm, and continued so all the night.

27th. We had a light air at sun-rise from the eastward, which veered round gradually to the S. W. and gained a little strength before noon, though it at no time carried us more than four knots, while the heavy sea continued, and occasioned us to roll and labour excessively.

At noon we observed. in lat. 18° 25′ N., and were in long. 84° 20′ E.,with soundings in twenty-three fathoms. The whole of the coast of Orixa, which we had passed since leaving Vizagapatam, is high near the sea, and safe to approach to ten or twelve fathoms, which is within a mile or two of the shore. The longitudes of the places on it are too far easterly in the charts and directories, and the coast from Vizagapatam thus far extends more easterly than it is there delineated.