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the share enjoyed by the lyots to -i- or J-. Where there were 

 no zemindars, renters were employed, especially by Mnhammadan 

 Governments, to collect the revenue and these renters mercilessly 

 fleeced the people. Mr. Wallace, the Collector of Trichinopoly, 

 .writing in 1802, has given an account of the revenue adminis- 

 tration of the district under the Nabob. The Government tax 

 on 'wet lands was received in grain, and the whole of the grain 

 produced was a strict Government monopoly, so strict, indeed, 

 that if one ryot lent to another a small quantit}^ of grain for 

 consumption, he was severely fined. The ryots were compelled 

 to pay in grain even the taxes on swarnadayam (literally 

 money-rented) or garden lands which were ordinarily payable 

 in money. The grain was taken from the mirasidars at a 

 valuation of 7 or 8 fanams per kalam and sold back from the 

 Government granaries at 9 or 10 fanams per kalam. When 

 Mr. Wallace settled the Government revenue he had to base 

 his settlement on the prices of grain in the adjoining district 

 of Tanjore, as the natui*al prices of grain in the Trichinopoly 

 district itseK could not be ascertained in consequence of the 

 Government monopoly of grain which had long been subsisting 

 there. Of all the portions of the Presidency the most prosperous 

 were perhaps Malabar and South Canara, which, owing to their 

 isolated position, had not suffered from frequent and destructive 

 wars like other provinces. ' Both these districts were, however, 

 ruined by the exactions of Hyder and Tippoo, and, more especi- 

 ally, by the attempt of the latter to convert all the inhabitants 

 to Islamism. Most of the landholders in Malabar fled to Travan- 

 core and Tippoo carried away nearly 60,000 Christians of South 

 Canara into captivity to Mysore. Colonel, afterwards Sir 

 Thomas, Muni'o, who was Collector of Canara, wrote : " Canara 

 has completely fallen from its state of prosperity. The evils 

 which have been continually accumulating upon it, since it 

 became a province of Mysore, have destroyed a great part of 

 its former population and rendered its remaining inhabitants as 

 poor as those of neighbouring countries. Its lands, which- are 

 now saleable, are reduced to a very small portion and lie chiefly 

 between the Kundapur and Chandragiri rivers and within 5 or 6 

 miles of the sea. It is not to be supposed, however, that the 

 whole of this tract can be sold, but only that saleable lands are 

 scattered throughout every part of it, thinner in some places 

 and thicker in others, particularly in the Mangalore district. 

 There is scarcely any saleable land, even on the sea coast, any 

 where to the northward of Kundapur, or any where inland from 

 one end of Canara to the other, excepting on the banks of the 

 Mangalore and some other great rivers. It is reckoned that the 



