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The large tract of country dealt with in the present volume includes: (a) the Madras Presidency, or Presidency of Fort St George, so named after the patron saint of England; (b) the States of Travancore and Cochin, and the smaller States of Pudukkottai, Banganapalle, and Sandur, which have political relations with the Government of Madras; (c) the State of Mysore, and the small British Province of Kodagu or Coorg, which have direct political relations with the Government of India; (d) the French Possessions, all of which, with the exception of Chandernagore in Bengal, are situated in the south of the Peninsula.

The title of Presidency, as applied to Madras, which has been called in disparagement the Benighted Presidency or the Cinderella of the Indian Provinces, and more happily Clive's Province, had its origin in the seventeenth century, when the Agent of the East India Company was raised to the rank of President, independent of Bantam in Java. The city of Madras is still known in official parlance as the Presidency, in contra-distinction to the outlying and up-country districts and stations, which are known as the mofussil (mufassal, provincial).

The etymology of the name Madras has been the subject of much speculation. It has, for example, been connected with a legend concerning a fictitious fisherman named