243 



CALICUT. 



fM-cut. built of teak wood, or of bricks baked in the sun, 

 v - and partly of huts composed of palm branches inter- 

 woven through each other, and covered with palm 

 leaves, and beautiful gardens appear in every part of 

 the town. The bazar was reckoned one of the finest 

 in Malabar, and contained four or five fine streets. 

 There are very few stone buildings, and the fortress 

 it of much greater antiquity than the city. The na- 

 tives suppose it to have been built by Cheruman 

 Permal. 



Mr Torin, the commercial resident at Calicut, has 

 been endeavouring (December 26-30th, 1800) to 

 establish a manufacture of the plain cotton goods 

 called long cloths. It is of six callo fineness, or 

 which is the same thing, its warp contains 744 threads, 

 and the length of the pieces is 72 cubits, and their 

 width 2^. The price of each piece is, according 

 to its quality, from 30^32, to 34- gold fanams, or in 

 our money l6s. 4|e7. 17*. 5d. 18*. 6|J. When this 

 cloth is bleached, it is sent to Europe on the Com- 

 pany's account. In this manufacture no fewer than 

 237 looms are used. These employ 344 men, and 

 produce monthly 468 pieces of cloth. The wea- 

 vers, who are indolent and dishonest, were brought 

 from the dominions of Travancore and Cochi. "Some 

 men of thePanchala tribe," says Dr Francis Buchan- 

 an, " which here is called Peringullan, paint and 

 varnish wood by the following process. They take 

 butter milk, and boil it with a small quantity of quick 

 lime, until strings form in the accretion, and sepa- 

 rate from the watery parts, which they decant. The 

 stringy matter is then mixed with the paint, which 

 has been well powdered. With these the wooden 

 work is first painted ; it is then allowed to dry for 

 one day, and afterwards receives a coat of pundum, 

 which is the fresh juice of a tree called peini ma- 

 ram. The pundum must be used while it is fresh, 

 and will not keep for more than two or three days. 

 After the first coat of pundum has dried, another 

 coat of paint is given, and that is followed by ano- 

 ther of varnish. In the same manner leather may 

 be painted and varnished. The varnish effectually 

 resists the action of water. All my attempts, how- 

 ever, to find out the varnish tree were vain. 



Calicut and Vuypura form a small district ; and 

 unfortunately I have received no answers to the sta- 

 tistical queries which I proposed relative to it. From 

 Mr Smee's valuable communications, I am persua- 

 ded, that, from the southern and middle divisions of 

 Malabar, at least the following quantity of the pro- 

 duce of plantations is annually exported : 



Cocoa nuts, 38,4-58, at 13* rupees 519,048 Rupees. 



Betel nuts, 58,392, at 3 fanams 32,916 

 Black pepper, 34<0 candies, at 



125 rupees -. - - 62,50Q 



Total rupees 614-,464 



Besides large quantities of ginger and turmeric ; 

 and I have already mentioned, that the quantity of 

 black pepper is more than double that here stated." 

 Teak-wood, which was one of the principal ar- 

 ticles of commerce at Calicut, has now become very 

 scarce, in consequence of Tippoo having carried off 

 all the elephants that were employed in this trade. 

 The process ef procuring this wood is very tedious. 



The tree which is intended to be cut down is : first Calicut. 

 deprived of its branches; the trunk itself is then ' --v 

 cut nearly two thirds through, and long incisions 

 made in the bark, in this state it is left to dry for 

 one year, during which the bark drops off. The 

 tree is then pushed into the river Beypour by ele- 

 phants, during the rains, and is floated down to 

 within a little distance of Calicut. 



The coast, which is low, and devoid of shelter, is 

 accessible only by small flat-bottomed boats. A small 

 cnpe or promontory projects into the sea ; and though 

 there is a good roadstead about three leagues from 

 the shore, yet, when the wind blows from the fiea, 

 the shipping is 'exposed to considerable damage. The 

 harbour is much less capacious than it was formerly, 

 as a great part of it has been filled up with sand by 

 the sea. The trade of Calicut is consequently in a 

 languishing 'condition ; but there is reason to hope 

 that the Mahometan Arabs will take eome means for 

 removing the evil. 



When the Arabs began to establish themselves in 

 India, during the 8th century, Cheruman Permal, 

 the sovereign of Malabar, not only embraced their 

 religion, but resolved to end his days at the holy 

 city of Mecca. Calicut, from which he departed, 

 was thus endeared to the Moors ; and, in spite of 

 the inconvenience and danger of its port, it became 

 the mart of their commerce. Precious stones, 

 pearls, amber, ivory, porcelain, gold, silver, silk and 

 cotton stuffs, indigo, sugars, spiceries, precious 

 woods, aromatics, and fine varnish, were brought to 

 Calicut from every part of the East, both in ships 

 and by land-carriage on the backs of elephants. 



When Vasco de Gama touched at the city of 

 Melinda, he was astonished at the information he re- 

 ceived respecting the commerce of Calicut ; and, with 

 the assistance of a skilful pilot, he stretched across 

 the Indian ocean, and reached Calicut on the 22d 

 of May 1498. Here he accidentally met with a 

 Moor of Tunis, called Menzaide, who understood the 

 Portuguese language, and who had admired the enter- 

 prising deeds ofthe Portuguese, which he had witness- 

 ed on the coast of Barbary. This Moor obtained 

 an audience of the Samorin for Gama, who proposed 

 an alliance and a treaty of commerce with the King 

 of Portugal. Before the treaty was concluded, the 

 Mussulmans succeeded in throwing suspicion on the 

 views of Gama ; and the Samorin dreading the ef- 

 fects which might result from such a connection, 

 formed the resolution of cutting off Gama and his fol- 

 lowers. The Samorin, however, had not the courage 

 to execute his purpose ; and he permitted the admi- 

 ral to return to his ship. In consequence of making 

 some reprisals, Gama compelled the Samorin to give 

 him hostages, and to restore to him the merchandise 

 which he had left in Calicut ; and he returned to 

 Portugal loaded with the rich spoils of the East. 



Some time afterwards, thirteen Portuguese ves- 

 sels, under the orders of Alvarez Cabral, arrived 

 before Calicut, and brought back to the Samorin 

 some of his subjects who had been carried off by 

 Gama. These Indians spoke highly of the treat- 

 ment they had received from the Portuguese, and in- 

 duced the Samorin to treat them as friendly allies. 

 The jealousy of the Moors, however, was again 

 roused, and the people of Calicut, seduced by their 



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