Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/112

92 E. long. The state, which is of irregular shape, is bounded on the W., N., and E. by the districts of South Malabar and Coimbatore, and for some distance on the W. by the Indian Ocean ; on the S. it is bounded by the state of Travancore. Cochin contains a total area of 1361 square miles, and a population, according to a census taken in 1875, of 598,353 souls, dwelling in 118,196 houses. The state is divided into seven taluks, or sub -districts, viz., Cochin, Cannanore, Mugundapuram, Trichur, Tallapalli, Chitur, and Cranganore. Cochin consists for the most part of a maritime lowland hemmed in between the sea and the Ghdts. It includes, however, the mountains which thus wall it out from inner India, and the lower portion is copiously watered by the torrents which pour down them. These torrents dwindle in the hot weather to rivulets, but during the rains they swell into great cataracts, rising in one instance at least 16 feet in twenty-four hours. Oil the lowlands, they unite as elsewhere on the western coast into shallow lakes or &quot; back waters,&quot; lying behind the beach line and below its level. In the monsoon the Cochin backwaters are broad navigable channels and lakes ; in the hot weather they contract into shallows in many places not 2 feet deep. The vegetation is luxuriant ; rich crops of rice are grown on the lowlands ; the hills send down vast quantities of timber by means of the torrents. The remains of once fine forests of teak are preserved in the north-eastern corner of the state, and still form a considerable source of wealth. Coffee has of late years received much attention and promises well. The other products are the usual ones of an Indian state, cotton, pepper, betel nut, chillies, ginger, various spices, cardamoms, arrowroot, &c. An excellent account of Cochin will be found in Dr Day s Land of tlie Permauls. The rajas of Cochin claim to hold the territory by descent from Cherman Perumal, who governed the whole of the surrounding country, including Travancore and Malabar, as viceroy of the Chola kings, about the beginning of the 9th century, and who afterwards established himself as an independent raja. In 1776 Cochin was subjugated by and became tributary to Hyder AH. In 1792 Tippu ceded the sovereignty to the British, who made over the country to the hereditary raj A, subject to a tribute of Us. 100,000. The state is now in subsidiary alliance with the British Government, under a treaty dated 17th October 1809. By this engagement, which was entered into on the suppression of an insurrection on the part of the rajas of Cochin and Travancore against the British power, the Cochin chief agreed to pay, in addition to the tribute of Rs.100,000, an annual sum, equal to the expense of maintaining a bat talion of native infantry, or Arcot Ils.176,037, making an aggregate annual payment of Rs. 276,037. In return for this payment, and certain engagements entered into by the raja, the East India Company undertook to defend the integrity of the state territory against all enemies. Subse quently the annual tribute to the British Government was reduced to Us. 240,000, and again afterwards to Rs. 200,000 (20,000) at which it now stands. A British resident represents the government of India in Cochin conjointly with Travancore. The present rajA succeeded to the throne in March 1864. The total revenue of Cochin for the Malabar year 1049 (1873-74 A.D.), amounted to 130,851, being the highest in come recorded for any year; the principal items were the land revenue, 61,764; customs, 11,035; and salt, 15,713. The disbursementsfor the same year amounted to 1 1 1 858 leaving a surplus for the year of 18,993. The state has now the sum of 200,000 invested in British Government securities. A high school, with an average of 170 pupils, and 5 district schools are maintained by the state. Hospitals and dispensaries and a post-office are also kept up, and a considerable sum, amounting to 13,669 in 1874, is annually spent in public works. The military force is a nominal one of 1 commissioned officer and 340 non commissioned officers and men. The two trading ports (exclusive of the British port of Cochin) are Malipuram and Narakel, at which 31 vessels, a burden of 22,626 tons, arrived in 1873-74. The capabilities of Narakel as a port of shelter during the S.W. monsoon have been satisfactorily proved, and the mail-steamers of the British India Company touch there for four or five months of the year, when the neighbouring English port of Cochin is unapproachable.

, a town and port of British India, belonging to the Malabar district of Madras, situated in 9 58 5&quot; N. lat. and 76 13 55&quot; E. long. The town lies at the northern extremity of a strip of land about twelve miles in length, but at few places more than a mile in breadth, which is nearly insulated by inlets of the sea and estuaries of streams flowing from the Western Ghats. These form the Cochin backwater described in the article on the Cochin state. The town of Cochin is about a mile in length by half a mile in breadth. Its first European possessors were the Portuguese, from whom it was captured by the Dutch in 1 663. Under the Dutch the town prospered, and about 1778 an English traveller describes it as a place of great trade ; &quot; a harbour filled with ships, streets crowded with merchants, and warehouses stored with goods from every part of Asia and Europe, marked the industry, the commerce, and the wealth of the inhabitants.&quot; In 1796 Cochin was captured from the Dutch by the British, and in 1806 the fortifications and public buildings were blown up by order of the authorities. The explosion destroyed much private property, and for a long time seriously affected the prosperity of the town. Under Dutch rule Cochin was very populous, containing Europeans, Moplas or Musalrncins, Hindus, Arabs, Persians, and Christians of various sects, comprising natives, Armenians, Indo-Fortuguese, and those denominated Syrian Christians. The Jews have also a settlement here. They are of two classes, the Fair or White Jews, of more recent arrival and settlement in the country, and the Black Jews, who reside apart in a village outside the town. According to the census of 1871, Cochin town contains 2731 houses and a population of 13,840 souls, classified as follows: Hindus, 3883, Muhammadans, 2174; Christians, 7783; and &quot; Others,&quot; 46. The town is constituted a municipality, and in 1873-74 the municipal income (excluding balances) amounted to 1573 10s., and the expenditure to 1560 10s. The entrance to the port of Cochin is obstructed by a bar across the mouth of the river, and during the S.W. monsoon, which lasts for four or five months, vessels can neither enter nor depart from it in safety. Notwithstand ing the difficulties of navigation, however, the port has a considerable maritime trade. In 1873-74, 171 British vessels of a burden of 108,579 tons, 27 foreign vessels of 7010 tons, and 1644 native craft of a total of 49,215 tons burden entered the port, and paid a total of 1974 as port dues, by far the greater part, 1 520, being paid by the British ships. The value of the exports in 1873-74 amounted to ?55,796, and of the imports to 547,252, paying a total customs duty of 5161. A lighthouse at the south entrance of the harbour marks the entrance to the port, and is visible at a distance of 15 miles.  COCHIN CHINA, a name applied to the eastern division of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, composed of the territories of Anam proper, Tong-king, and the French colony of Cochin China. It forms a long strip of country which stretches in an arc of a circle along a coast-line of 1 240 miles from 8 30 to 23 N. lat. With a breadth of 372 miles in the north of Tong-king, it is afterwards narrowed by a chain of mountains parallel to the China Sea, and has 