^2 



population of the country has been diminished one-third within 

 the last 40 years and there can be little doubt that its property 

 has suffered much greater reduction. Garisappa, Ankola and 

 Kundapur, formerly flourishing places, contain now only a few 

 beggarly inhabitants. Honawar, once the second town in trade 

 after Maugalore, has not a single house ; and Mangalore itself 

 is greatly decayed." 



13. Dr. Buchanan, who travelled from the East to the West 

 Coast in 1800, mentions that the country was infested by 

 gangs of marauders to such an extent that " the smallest village 

 of 5 or 6 houses is fortified. The defence, of such a village 

 consists of a round stone wall, perhaps 40 feet in diameter and 

 6 feet high. On the top of this is a parapet of mud with a 

 door- way in it, to which the only access is by a ladder. In 

 case of a plundering party coming near the village, the people 

 ascend this tower with their families and most valuable effects 

 and having drawn up the ladder defend themselves with stones, 

 which even the women throw with great force and dexterity. 

 Larger villages have square forts, with round towers at the 

 angles. In those still larger or in towns, the defences are more 

 numerous and the fort serves as a citadel; while the village or 

 pettah is surrounded by a weaker defence of mud. The inha- 

 bitants consider fortifications as necessary to theii* existence and 

 are at the expense of building and the risk of defending them. 

 The country indeed, for a long series of years, has been in a 

 constant state of warfare and the poor inhabitants have suffered 

 too much from all j)arties to trust in any." The internal trade 

 was greatly restricted by the number of choukies or custom- 

 houses existing in the country and the absence of a recognized 

 currency. Every petty poligar levied customs duty on goods 

 passing through his estate. In the Salem district there were no 

 less than 25 choukies on 206 miles of road or one for every 8 

 miles. Colonel Eeade, Collector of Salem, in 1797, calculates 

 that the customs duties alone levied on goods sent from Salem 

 to the coast, a distance of 150 miles, added 40 per cent, to the 

 cost price of articles exclusive of the cost of carriage, and the 

 result was that it did not pay to send most of the articles in 

 demand to the coast. In Salem and the Ceded districts no less 

 than 40 different descriptions of coins were current, and, as 

 most of them did not bear to one another the relation of multi- 

 ples or sub-multiples, the shroffs were enabled to cheat poor 

 people right and left. Tippoo Sultan used to change the value 

 of the coins in a very arbitrary manner. When he was about 

 to pay his troops the nominal value of every coin was raised 

 very high and kept at that level for a few days, and during 



