Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/16

4 Coromandel Coast, comes 'To answeare the building of the fforte St. George, the charge whereof hath cost from ye first of March 1639 to ye thirtieth of June 1643 pagodas new 9250.'

It was in September 1877 that I had my first view of the long low shore of Madras. In the pearly haze of the muggy heat a Muckwa paddled his boat towards the steamer. His dark wet skin glistened in the rays of the sun like the scales of a fish brought up from the depths of the ocean. A rope was thrown to him, and by its aid he climbed up the bulwarks and dropped on deck. His sole articles of clothing were a diminutive loin-cloth and a conical grass cap. He took from the cap a packet of letters wrapped in oil-cloth and handed them to the captain's steward. Having executed his commission he departed as he came and paddled away towards his fishing-grounds. No wonder the old sea-captain, who saw the Muckwa for the first time, took him for a demon and recorded the event thus: '6 A.M.-Saw distinctly two black devils playing at single-stick. We watched these infernal imps above an hour, when they were lost in the distance. Surely this doth portend some great tempest.'

Since the entry was made in the log-book the Muckwas have changed neither their habits nor their appearance. The same primitiveness marks them in dress and in their mode of living. As the fisherman welcomed the huge steel ship of modern build, so one of his forbears must have greeted the Globe. He carried letters from the Shahbunder or port-officer to ask for information concerning the strangers and what their mission might be. In a similar manner St. Xavier and the Portuguese traders were met, and centuries earlier St. Thomas, who is said to have visited India fifty-two years after the birth of Christ. The boats of the fisher-folk remain unchanged