Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/377

Rh being so much oppressed by the Nabob Tippu on the one hand, and the Dutch on the other, as to have little or nothing left for himself. He is a Gentoo (Hindu).

Cochin, in former times, was a place of considerable celebrity, and was one of the places pitched upon by the first Portuguese settlers in the East after the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama; but that people have now very little left of the vast wealth and power they formerly enjoyed; a revolution of three centuries has reduced them below mediocrity in the general scale of European adventurers. The fort is a very large one, and very well fortified on the land side; toward the sea not so well, but it is secured by a very dangerous bar, which will not admit of ships coming nearer the shore than three or four miles. There are some regular Dutch troops in the garrison, and a few native militia; there was also here a part of a French regiment, which the Dutch borrowed during the late war. Provisions of every kind are to be had here in the greatest plenty. The 10th sailed; on the 15th we came to anchor in Tellicherri roads; 16th, having received a very polite invitation from my friend and schoolfellow Mr. Ince, I went on shore and spent several very pleasant days with him.

Among other places I saw in and about Tellicherri, I had a view of the fortifications, or rather of the regular lines drawn round Tellicherri, for the defence of the place against the Nabob Hyder Ali during the late war. These lines are exceedingly strong; they take in a space of about three miles and a half in circumference,