Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/376

318 off by the most violent gale of wind I ever experienced; it lasted six-and-thirty hours without cessation, the sea miming mountains high. Fortunately the ship received no damage, excepting the loss of the main-yard, which was broken in two. On the 8th we found ourselves, by observation, to the northward of our port, and on the 9th, came to anchor in Cochin roads, and went on shore immediately.

Cochin is a large settlement belonging to the Dutch East India Company. It is very populous and a place of great trade; the inhabitants are a mixture of a variety of Eastern nations, being composed of Malabars, Armenians, Persians, Arabians, Jews, Indians, and native Portuguese. The Jews occupy a whole village, a little to the westward of the town; they live separate from the rest of the inhabitants. I went into several of their houses and could not help observing in this people a striking peculiarity of features, different from any I had ever seen; a resemblance seemed to run through the whole, as if they were all of one family. They seldom or never marry out of their own tribe, by which the likeness is preserved, from father to son, for a long time. I am told there is the same similarity of features to be observed amongst the Jews of Amsterdam in Holland and other parts of Europe. This certainly serves to distinguish them more as an original people than any other. They have a good synagogue here, and are less oppressed, and have more liberty than in most other parts of the East. The raja of Cochin resides here, but lives in an indifferent state,