een
degrees, where there is a small fort and factory belonging to the
company, standing on the south side of a bay, with a river capable of
receiving ships of pretty large burden. The climate here is remarkably
salubrious; the country abounds with provisions of all sorts, and the
best pepper of India grows in this neighbourhood. The next English
settlement we find at Tilli-cherry, where the company has erected
a fort, to defend their commerce of pepper and cardamomoms from the
insults of the rajah, who governs this part of Malabar. Hither the
English trade was removed from Calicut, a large town that stands fifteen
leagues to the southward of Tillicherry, and was as well frequented
as any port on the coast of the Indian peninsula. The most southerly
settlement which the English possess on the Malabar coast, is that
of Anjengo, between the eighth and ninth degrees of latitude. It is
defended by a regular fort, situated on a broad river, which falls into
the sea, and would be very commodious for trade, were not the water on
the bar too shallow to admit ships of considerable burden. Then turning
the Cape, and passing through the strait of Chilao, formed by the island
of Ceylon, we arrive on the coast of Coromandel, which forms the eastern
side of the isthmus. Prosecuting our course in a northern direction,
the first English factory we reach is that of Fort St. David's, formerly
called Tegapatan, situated in the latitude of eleven degrees forty
minutes north, within the kingdom of Gingi. It was, about six and-twenty
years ago, sold by a Mahratta prince to the East India company,
and, next to Bombay, is the most considerable settlement we have yet
mentioned.*

* The trade consists of long cloths of different colours,
sallampores, morees, dimities, ginghams, and succations.

Its territory extends about eight miles along the coast, and half that
space up to the country, which is delightfully watered by a variety
of rivers; the soil is fertile, and the climate healthy. The fort is
regular, well provided with cannon, ammunition, and a numerous garrison,
which is the more necessary, on account of the neighbourhood of the
French settlement at Pon-dicherry. But the chief settlement belonging
to the company on this coast is that of Madras, or Fort St. George,
standing farther to the northward, between the thirteenth and fourteenth
degrees of latitude, and not a great way from the diamond mines of
Golconda. It is seated on