XXXI 



was greatly increased, multitudes of Hindus were circumcised by force, 

 and many of the lower orders were converted. By these means, at the 

 breaking out of the war conducted by Lord Cornwallis, the Hindu 

 population was reduced to a very inconsiderable number. The descend- 

 ants of the rajahs were then invited to join the Company's forces ; and, 

 when Tippoo's army had been expelled from Malabar, many Nairs 

 returned from their exile in Travancore ; but their number was trifling 

 compared with what it had been at the commencement of the Sultan's 

 reign. 



" From this short sketch it is evident that this province, at the time 

 it was ceded, had really no form of government, and required a new 

 system to be framed for its use. The feudal system was broken ; and 

 no other kind of administration was known to the rajahs who laid claim 

 to their respective districts than that which they had exercised or 

 witnessed under Hyder, and which was a compound of corruption and 

 extortion. To these men, however, the most unfit that could have been 

 selected, was the whole authority of government over the natives 

 entrusted. Two evils of great magnitude were the consequence of this 

 measure ; the extortions and corruptions of the preceding administra- 

 tions were continued, while the ancient feudal institutions of military 

 service were revived, and all the Nairs thereby attached to the different 

 chieftains, and these again to the rajahs. Nothing could exceed the 

 despotic rapaciousness of these men to oppose which there was no 

 barrier ; for it is well known that none of the inhabitants dare complain 

 against a rajah, whatever injuries they may have sustained, assassina- 

 tion being a certain follower of complaint. It is not surprising that 

 under such rulers agriculture did not flourish, and that the flelds now 

 cultivated (which in some districts bear but a small proportion to those 

 that are waste) should yield but very indifferent crops." 



South Canara {acquired from Tippoo Sultan in 1799). — Canara has, 

 however, now completely fallen from this 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 the neigh- 

 bouring countries. Its lands, which are now saleable, are reduced to a 

 very small portion and lie chiefly between the Kundapur and Chandra- 

 giri rivers, and within five or six 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, anywhere to 

 the northward of Kundapur or anywhere inland from one end of Canara 

 to the other, excepting on the banks of the Mangalore and some of the 

 other great rivers. In the vicinity of the ghdts, the lands are not only 

 unsaleable, but the greater part of them is waste and overgrown with 

 wood. It is reckoned that the population of the country has been 

 diminished one-third within the last forty years ; and there can be little 

 doubt but that its property has suffered a much greater reduction. 

 Grarisappa, Ankola, and Kundapur, formerly flourishing places, contain 

 now only a few beggarly inhabitants ; Honawar, once the second town 

 in trade after Mangalore, has not a single house ; and Mangalore itself 

 is greatly decayed. 



