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140 castle-like crag, and beetling precipice. It is certainly a land, if not flowing with milk and honey, inhabited by a population of sweet and kindly disposition, whose virtues are admitted by Missionaries, and whose exceeding tract-ability has gained for them the praise of masters, not always given to indulge in over-laudation of any native virtues.

"The part of India, which the Missionaries call Tamil-land, is larger than Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemburgh, and the German Dukedoms together, and contains a population of about sixteen millions of peope. The Neilgherries rising to the height of 8,000 feet, the Pulney with peaks 7,000 feet high, and their eastern offshoots, diversify the surface; and the watersheds throw off supplies for the great rivers, which become, however, for part of the year, little more than beds of sand. Coffee is planted on the lower ranges ; rice in great quantities is cultivated in the plains, and sugar cultivation is extending. Indigo and different kinds of ^rain thrive in parts of the District, if so it may be called, and cotton is not only sufficiently abundant for the wants of the native manufacturers, but gives margin for export. The manufacture of iron, of very great excellence, the ore of which, is found in large quantities throughout is still carried on. Here we have the Salt Tax and monopoly in full force, the French, at Pondicherry receiving £ 40,000 a year for prohibiting the manufacture within their Settlements; the revenue of the Tamil District from this objectionable source amounting to about two millions of Rupees per annum.

"At Maniachi, 18 miles from Tuticorin, a deputation of about 6,000 native Christians including a large body of clergy and catechists, and 1,000 boys and girls receiving