Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/273

 THE ENGLISH AT PULICAT AND MASULIPATAM 221 Amboyna, soon rendered our position untenable at Puli- cat, and in 1623, shortly after that tragedy, we had to quit the lagoon-haven for a refuge further north. Later English projects to reoccupy Pulicat came to nothing, and our first attempt at a settlement on the Madras coast ended in failure and a heavy loss. The mud-creeks of Pettapoli, where Captain Hippon had found shelter in 1611, promised, under the protec- tion of the powerful Golkonda kings, a better fortune. In 1614 Peter Floris built a half-fortified factory at Pettapoli with a lofty flagstaff. But its mangrove- swamps were deadly, the trade was small, and the fac- tory was dissolved in 1621; a solitary merchant being left to collect country cloths from the fever-stricken delta of the Kistna. In 1633 the English again settled at Pettapoli, and the factory lingered on to 1687, when it was finally broken up by orders from home. What the Dutch were to us at Pulicat the pestilence proved to us at Pettapoli. A local writer in the records of Fort St. George, Madras, in 1687 describes the whole region as depopulated and the trade " wholly ruined/ 9 " there being scarce people left to sow and reap their little harvest.' ' Thus perished our first two settlements on the Madras coast. But Captain Hippon, although he sought shelter at Pettapoli in 1611, seems to have suspected its unhealthiness, and after a halt sailed a few days north- ward, to Masulipatam. This ancient port (whose name, Masuli-patanam, or Machli-patanam, meant " Fish- town/' and whose harbour is still known as Machli-