Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/207

Rh M A D M A D 189 handsome European mansions and their spacious &quot; com pounds&quot; or parks. (5) South-west and south lie the European quarters of Tanampet and aristocratic Adyar. Amongst the buildings most deserving of notice for their architectural features are the cathedral, Scotch church, Government house, Patcheappah s hall, senate house, Chepauk palace (now the Revenue Board), and the Central Railway station. Nearly all the most important offices of the presidency, and the headquarters of every department, are located in Madras. Apart from the headquarters staff of the Madras army, that of the central division is also stationed here, with a garrison of 1 European and 3 native infantry regi ments, 1 battery of artillery, and the bodyguard of the governor (100 sabres). At St Thomas s Mount are 3 bat teries of artillery and a detachment of native infantry. Including these, the garrison of Madras is about 3500 strong, of whom 1200 are Europeans. The population of Madras city, as ascertained by the census of 1871, was 397,552, including 330,062 Hindus, 50,961 Mohammedans, 12,013 Eurasians, and 3613 Europeans. The annual municipal income is about 53,000. Madras, notwithstanding its exposed situation, ranks third among the ports of India in respect of the number and tonnage of vessels calling and the value of its imports and exports. The port trades with every part of the world, exporting coffee, cotton, grain, hides, indigo, oilseeds, dyes, sugar, and horns, and importing piece goods, iron and other metals, and all kinds of European manufactures. The lighthouse, 125 feet high, is visible from a ship s deck 15 miles at sea. The Madras roadstead, like the whole line of the western coast of India, is liable to be swept by hurricanes of irresistible fury, which occur at irregular intervals of years, generally at the beginning of the monsoons in May and October. The first recorded cyclone was in October 1746, a few weeks after the fort had surrendered to Labourdonnais. A French fleet then lay at anchor in the roads. Five large ships foundered, with 1200 men on board; and scarcely a single vessel escaped with its masts standing. Perhaps the most destructive of these storms occurred in May 1872. On this occasion the registered wind pressure reached a maximum of 53 ft to the square foot. In the space of a few hours nine English vessels and twenty native craft were driven ashore. In May 1874 another cyclone broke on the Madras coast, but the ships were warned in time to put to sea and gain an offing. The most recent of these periodical hurricanes occurred in November 1881, when the new harbour works sustained serious damage. The trade of the town does not depend on any special local manufactures or produce. Such industries as once flourished weaving, for instance have decayed, and no others have grown up to replace them. As elsewhere in India, spinning companies have recently been formed, but what effect they are likely to exercise on local trade remains to be seen. With the exception of banks, and enterprises connected with the preparation of produce for export, e.g., cotton-pressing and coffee-cleaning, joint-stock undertakings have not prospered. As the capital of southern India, Madras is the centre on which all the great military roads converge. It is also the terminal station of two lines of railway, the Madras line and the Madras and Tanjore section of the South Indian Railway. The Buckingham Canal, which passes through an outlying part of the city, connects South Arcot district with Nellore and the Krishna and Godavari system of canal navigation. This long delayed project was undertaken as a famine work. The town of Madras dates from 1639, when Francis Day, chief of the East India Company s settlement at Armagon, obtained a grant of the present site of the city from the raja of Chandragiri. A factory, with some slight fortifications, was at once constructed, and a gradually increasing population settled around its walls. lu 1653 Madras, which had previously been subordinate to the settle ment of Bantam in Java, was raised to the rank of an independent presidency. In 1702 Diiud Khan, Aurangzeb s general, blockaded the town for a few weeks, and in 1741 the Mali rat tas unsuccess fully attacked the place. In 1746 Labourdonnais bombarded and captured the fort. The settlement was restore! to the English two years later by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, but the government of the presidency did not return to Madras till 1762. In 1758 the French under Lally occupied the Black Town, and invested the fort. The siege was conducted on both sides with great skill and vigour. After two months, the arrival of a British fleet relieved the garrison, and the besiegers retired with some precipitancy. With the exception of the threatening approach of Hyder Ali s horsemen in 1769, and again in 1780, Madias has since the French siege been free from external attack. The town of Saint Thome, now part of Madras city, was founded and fortified by the Portu guese in 1504, and was held by the French from 1672 to 1674. MADRID, a province of Spain, one of the five into which New Castile is divided, is bounded on the W., N.W., and N. by Avila and Segovia, on the E. by Guadalajara, on the S.E. by Cuenca, and on the S. by Toledo. The area is 2997 square miles, with a population in 1877 of 593,775, an increase of 104,443 since 1860. Madrid belongs to the basin of the Tagus, being separated from that of the Douro by the Sierra Guadarrama, which skirts the province on the north-west and north. The Tagus itself is the southern boundary for some distance, its chief tributary being the Jararha, which rises in the Somosierra in the north, and terminates at Aranjuez. The Jarama, in turn, is joined by the Henares and Tajuna on the left, and by the Lozoya and Manzanares on the right. The Guadarrama, another tributary of the Tagus, has its upper course within the province. Like the rest of Castile, Madrid is chiefly of Tertiary formation ; the soil is mostly clayey, and there are sandy tracts. Agriculture is in a somewhat backward condition; the rainfall is deficient, and the rivers, poor though they are, are not utilized as they might be for irrigation. The chief products are wheat, barley, rye, oats, algarrobas (Erviimtetraspermum), pease, chick pease, and various other legumes, wine, oil, flax, hemp, wax, honey, and various fruits. Gardening is carried on to some extent near the capital, though the markets of Madrid receive their most liberal supply of fruits and vegetables from Valencia. Sheep, goats, and horned cattle are reared, and fish are found in the Jarama and other rivers. The province is on the whole treeless ; but some wood is grown on the mountain slopes in the north. The Sierra Guadarrama has quarries of granite, lime, and gypsum, and is known to contain iron, copper, and argentiferous lead, but these resources are as yet unde veloped. The manufactures are trifling (coarse cloth, leather, paper, earthenware, porcelain, bricks and tiles, saltpetre, glass and crystal, chocolate, lace); and there is very little commerce beyond that for the supply of the capital with necessaries. The only towns with a population above 10,000 are Alcala (Complutum) on the Henares, and Madrid ; the famous university of the former was trans ferred to the latter in 1836. Aranjuez (8154), on the Tagus, is also of historical importance. MADRID, capital of the above province and of Spain, is situated in 40 24 35&quot; N. lat. and 3 41 51&quot; W. long., on the left bank of the Manzanares, a subtributary of the Tagus, at a maximum elevation of 2372 feet above the sea-level. The population (397,816 in 1877) was over 400,000 in 1881. The town is nearly in the centre of the kingdom, almost equidistant from the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Bay of Biscay. The site consists of some sandy hills of little elevation, in the midst of an extensive plain, bounded to the view on the north only by the Sierra Guadarrama. The basin in which it stands is of Tertiary formation, consisting of gypsum, marl, and limestone.