PROVISIONS AND REFRESHMENTS.-Plenty of good provisions may be had, particularly all kinds of poultry. It is usual for ships proceeding on their voyage to and from Bombay and Surat, to touch at this place, to take in a stock of fresh provisions, all of which are very reasonable when compared with the prices paid at the settlements belonging to the English on this side of India. Fowls are in general small. Bullocks are procured from Chitwa, but are small. Good yams and other vegetables are to be procured, with various kinds of fruit. COINS.-Accounts are kept in rupees of 16 annas, which are considered equal to the Surat rupees. Accounts are also kept in fanams, 20 of which equal the rupee, and 4 fanams make a schilling. Most Indian and other coins pass here: the exchanges are generally as follow: Schillings. Fanams. 38 to 40 72, 74, 76 20 32 Spanish Dollars in tale............... 10 ... Spanish dollars are seldom weighed here, but are taken by the tale at 2 Surat rupees each. When these dollars are valued at 40 fanams, an English crown is worth 40. When Surat rupees are 20 fanams each, pagodas are 64. Gubbers are 1 per cent. less than sequins. WEIGHTS.-Gold and silver are weighed by the sicca weight (See BENGAL): 1 sicca is equal to 31 fanams; 72 fanams make 8 pagodas, or 1 dollar weight; and 93 fanams are the weight of 10 sequins, or 3 sicca weight. The great weights are the maund, which is 27lbs. 2 oz. avoirdupois ; 20 of which make a candy, or 543 lbs. The Cochin candy equals 7 Bengal Factory maunds, 11 seers, 2 chittacks. ALIPEE is in lat. 9° 30' N. long. 76° 34′ E., near a river, which has a communication with that of Quilon, and runs nearly parallel with the coast; the banks are woody, and the lands well cultivated. The town is of considerable size, and very populous, having many good houses; it belongs to the Rajah of Travancore, whose flag is generally kept flying. There is a kind of tavern, but the accommodations are dirty and bad. TRADE-A number of merchants are settled here, some of whom act as agents for the houses at Bombay. A few drugs are to be procured, such as coculus indicus, cardamums, zedoary, cassia, and coffee. Elephants' teeth are likewise to be met with occasionally; pepper, grain, and timber form the principal articles of trade; but the pepper is reserved for the Rajah to supply the Com pany, and their ships occasionally stop here to receive it on board. Small coasting vessels are sometimes built here. PORCA is situated in lat. 9° 20′ N. about 9 leagues S. by E. from Cochin, belonging also to Travancore. It is a small town, consisting of low houses covered with cadjan leaves; there is one house with white walls larger than the others, by which this place may be distinguished. The anchorage is in 5 or 6 fathoms, the white house bearing N. E. by E., distance off shore 1 to 2 miles. There are several villages on the coast between Cochin and Quilon, which are only frequented by the small coasting vessels, for coir, timber for ship-building, and pepper. QUILON.—The fort of Quilon is on a point of land, in lat. 8° 53′ N. and long. 76° 37' E., about 3 miles to the S. of Iviker river, which is a wide inlet leading to several rivers, one communicating with Alipee and Cochin, navigable only by flat-bottomed boats. The Company have warehouses at Quilon for pepper, and their ships call here to receive it on board. ANJENGO, in latitude 8° 39′ N. longitude 76° 49′ E., about 20 miles to the S. of Quilon, is the most southerly possession belonging to the Company on the Malabar Coast. The fort is regular; on the land side it is secured by a broad and deep river, which, after winding round the greatest part of the fort, empties itself into the sea a little to the S. This river would be useful, but it has a bar navigable only for small vessels. The Chief and the Company's servants reside within the fort; and as there is no tavern or place of accommodation for visiters, the Chief generally entertains them during their stay in the roads. There are a few small houses and huts in the vicinity of the fort, but nothing that deserves the name of a town. Ships generally anchor with the flagstaff bearing E. N. E. in 11 or 12 fathoms, about 2 miles from the shore. The principal intention of this settlement is the procuring pepper produced in the Travancore country. TRADE.-Pepper is the staple commodity, which is generally purchased on account of the Company, and shipped off in donies, or country boats, on account of the surf. There are some coarse white piece-goods manufactured here, for the Europe market. A few drugs, such as cassia, zedoary, coculus indicus, &c. are to be met with, and coir in considerable quantities. The European articles imported are very trifling, consisting of a few necessaries for the Chief and his establishment. PROVISIONS AND Refreshments.—But few articles are to be procured here. No beef, on account of the religious prejudices of the natives; a few fowls, vegetables, and fruit are all that can be reckoned upon. Water is scarce and very indifferent; but at the red cliffs, a few miles to the N. of Anjengo, it is said to be good, but difficult to be shipped, on account of a considerable surf which generally prevails on the coast, particularly to the S., which renders it unsafe to attempt landing in a ship's boat. The charge for filling water by country boats, is three rupees a butt. COINS.-Accounts are kept here in fanams, pice, and budgerooks. 4 Budgerooks.......equal to......1 Pice. A silver rupee is worth 6 new, or Gallion fanams; and 7 old, or Travancore fanams. All these are real coins. In the Company's accounts, an Anjengo fanam is reckoned worth of a Calicut fanam, or of a Surat rupee; which makes its intrinsic value about 4 d. The mean rates of exchange at which other foreign coins pass current here are as follow, in Anjengo new fanams : 193 Fanams.........equal to......... 1 Madras Pagoda. WEIGHTS.—The maund is 28 lbs. avoirdupois; and 20 maunds make 1 candy, equal to 560 lbs. avoirdupois; or 7 Bengal factory maunds, 20 seers; or 22 Madras maunds, 3 vis, 8 pollams; or 20 Bombay maunds. MEASURE. The covid is 18 inches, or half an English yard. CAPE COMORIN, the S. extremity of the Peninsula of Hindostan, is in latitude 8° 5' N. and longitude 77° 44′ E. Between Anjengo and this Cape there are several villages on the coast, which are only frequented by small coasting vessels. MALDIVES.—These are a great range or chain of numerous low islands and rocks, nearly on a meridian from 7° 6′ N. to 0° 40′ S. latitude; the large islands are inhabited, and abound with coco-nuts; but many of the others are only sandbanks and barren rocks. The greatest breadth of the range is said to be 20 to 24 leagues, and is formed of large groups or clusters, called by the natives Attollons, thirteen in number, the principal of which is denominated Male, or King's Island. The road seems unsafe for large ships, the bottom being coral, and the anchorage very near the shore, which is lined with rocks; it is customary to moor with two or three anchors and hawsers fast to the shore, to prevent a vessel from sheering about. The boats belonging to the natives lie inside the rocks, the passages between which are secured at night by booms. The houses are built of wood, and covered with leaves of the coco-nut tree, and are scattered about, not together in a town. Formerly these islands were much frequented by trading ships from India; but from the difficulties experienced in procuring a cargo for a large vessel, and the danger attending the navigation, it has lately been given up, and the trade is carried on in their own boats, some of them of 30 tons burden, which are formed of coco-nut trees. They arrive at Balasore, in fleets of about 20 or 30, in the months of June or July, when the S. W. monsoon is steady in the Bay of Bengal. They are Mahometans, dress after the manner of the Moors of India, and appear to be an industrious quiet people. Where bays The American navigator, formerly quoted, states that these islands are not so dangerous as believed, the reefs being near the land, and visible day or night. He adds, "They are formed in circular clusters, enclosing smooth, shallow seas, and are surrounded by chains of coral reefs, generally level with the water, extending from half a mile to 50 yards of the land. are formed by projecting parts of the clusters, there is, in anchorage over a sandy bottom, mixed with shells and coral. islands furnish fresh water a few feet from the surface. poor and inoffensive, and generally shy."- A tolerably full account of Male is derived from the Captain of the Hayston, wrecked near there in 1819, who experienced the most hospitable treatment from the Sultan, who refused any recompence for his services and supplies. some places, Many of the The natives are TRADE. In return for the goods they carry to Bengal and Madras, they bring back broad-cloth, betel-nut, coarse cutlery, china-ware, coffee, glassware, hard-ware, iron in bars, looking-glasses, opium, piece-goods, rice, sugar, silk-stuffs, steel, and spices. The produce of the coco-nut tree, vix. coco-nuts, coir, and oil, with cowries, form the principal part of their exports to Bengal. To Acheen they send large quantities of dried bonito, in small pieces of two or three ounces weight, which, when properly cured, is as hard as horn; it is dried in the sun, and is with them a staple commodity. Some tortoise-shell is to be met with, which is black and smooth, having many curious figures in it. They make some beautiful reed mats at these islands. Ships going from Madras to Rangoon generally call here for coco-nuts, in exchange for blue cloth of Coromandel, and coarse white cloths from Madras; the nuts are bartered at Rangoon for timber. Small hatchets are much desired by the Maldivans, and are a very good article of traffic. COINS. Their money is of silver wire, and called Larins; the value about a quarter of a rupee each. All other monies pass current by weight, and every man keeps weights for the purpose; so that they are frequently obliged to cut dollars, rupees, &c. into pieces, to pay for any commodity. SECTION XVII. CEYLON. THIS island is separated from the Peninsula of India by the Gulph of Manar, formed between it and the Tinnevelly coast; the gulph is bounded to the N. E. by a narrow ridge of sand and rocks, mostly dry, which is called Adam's Bridge. It extends nearly E. and W. 8 or 10 leagues; the E. end joining to the Island Manar, which lies close to Ceylon, in latitude about 9° N.; and the W. end to the Island of Ramisseram, which is situated close to the continent. There is a narrow passage for small country trading boats, drawing about three feet water, between the island and the main. The general direction of the island is N. and S. Its length, from Dondra Head to Point Pedro, is about 250 miles, and its greatest breadth about 150. Since the year 1818, this island has been entirely subjected to British authority, and is governed by a liberal constitution. The trading places are Aripo, Calpenteen, Negombo, Columbo, Matura, Point de Galle, Batticaloe, Trincomalee, and Jaffnapatam. Of these, Columbo, Point de Galle, and Trincomalee are the only ports frequented by large ships. ARIPO is about four leagues to the S. of the E. end of Manar, and about two miles N. of the scene of the pearl fishery, in latitude about 8° 47′ N. About 500 yards to the N. of the fort lies a small village chiefly inhabited by fishermen, and adorned with a neat Portuguese chapel rising from its centre. The beach is steep, and the large donies lie so close to the shore, that a person might step into them; at the same time they ride in perfect security. The gulph being narrow, no surf is perceptible. The pearl fishery is carried on at CONDATCHY, about three miles distant from Aripo, where in general nothing is to be seen but a few miserable huts, and a sandy desert; but |