Page:History of the French in India.djvu/163

 MADRAS. 141 it constituted for a long time afterwards the principal chap. emporium of the English in India. It was not very t well situated for that purpose. On a bluff point of the 1639. coast, where the current was always rapid, and exposed to all the violence of the monsoon, and the inconveni- ence of a surf which made navigation for English boats impossible, it would have been difficult to find a posi- tion less adapted for commercial purposes than Madras. The roadstead was dangerous during some months of the year, especially from October to January, so much so, that on the appearance of anything approaching to a gale during those months, vessels were forced to slip their anchors, and run out to sea. Nor did the fertility of the neighbouring country compensate for these dis- advantages. The soil was hard, dry, and barren ; the population poor and sparse. In those days, however, it was apparently the custom of the different European nations to select, as their settlements, points on the coast in as close a contiguity to one another as was possible. And the situation of Madras probably owed its value in the eyes of Mr. Day, the English merchant who negotiated for the land, to the fact that it was but four miles from the Portuguese settlement of St. Thome. But notwithstanding its unfavourable situation, the industry and enterprise of English settlers soon brought prosperity to Madras. In 1768, the native population, attracted thither by the protection and opportunities of traffic they enjoyed under the English flag, amounted to 300,000, and the revenue, derivable from taxation, was estimated, nine years later, at about 160,000 rupees, equal, allowing for the probable increase of population during that period, to a capitation tax of eight annas. In 1696, Mr. Thomas Pitt, the grandfather of the great Commoner and possessor of the famous Pitt diamond, became Governor, and held the office for eleven years. It was during his administration that Madras first came