312 MANUAL OF THE NILAGIEI^DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XIII. exception is noteworthy, as it appears from a letter ^ from the 

 Revenue Collector of Coimbatore to the Board of Revenue (3rd August 

 HisToin. 1843) that in other hill-tracts in that district the monopoly of 

 the forest produce was farmed out.^ The inference is that the 

 Badagas were too powerful to submit to the exactions of a renter. 

 Major Immediately after the cession of the Coimbatore District the 



McLeocVs settlement of its revenue was entrusted to Major McLeod, the 

 Principal Collector of Coimbatore and Malabar. The object of 

 Major McLeod's settlement was to rectify the evils of Tippu's 

 revenue system. It will be remembered that Haider Ali had 

 abolished the ancient system of division of produce and had 

 introduced a fixed money assessment on the cultivated lands of 

 each village. The collection of the revenue was entrusted to 

 amildars, whose charges were of considerable extent. Tippu 

 increased the number of the amildars and decreased the area 

 entrusted to each. He required the cultivators to pay for all 

 cultivable lands, whether cultivated in the year or not. The 

 result was that the ryots became terribly impoverished, and 

 when the country came under our rule most of them were 

 heavily in arrears. Major McLeod^s first settlement was in 

 December 1799. It was based upon the accounts rendered by the 

 curnams. Being fully persuaded of the inaccuracy and falsity of 

 many of these accounts, Major McLeod proposed to the Board 

 of Revenue that the arable lands of each village should be 

 measured by competent surveyors, trained in Salem. The project 

 was approved. Operations began in North Coimbatore in March 

 1800 and were completed in March 1801. The area of each 

 field was recorded, the cultivable area being distinguished from 

 non-cultivable, whether waste, or grass, or occupied by water- 

 courses, &c. The assessment of each field was noted, also the 

 name of the holder or holders and the character and legality of 

 the tenure, and such other particulars as were considered necessary 

 for the completeness of a revenue register. After this information 

 was complete the surveyoi's and others were employed to classify 

 the lands according to their fertility after full consultation with the 



' The foUowiBg passage from Mr. Wroughton's letter is deserving of mention : 

 " This (tax on forest produce) is one of a class of imposts which have the effect 

 of marking the sovereignty and defining the boundary limits more effectually 

 than could be arrived at under any other system, and with reference to the 

 proximity of this district (Coimbatore) to the States of Travancore and Cochin, as 

 also to Malabar, and its being bounded by dense and impenetrable jungles, it 

 appears to me that the continuance of this tax is beneficial also in a political 

 point of view, and that its interruption would be an inexpedient measure." 



2 Vide also letter from this Collector to the Board of Revenue, loth March 

 1856. 



