THE COAST OE MALABAR. 25 



" twenty miles, full of thieves, being under the King 

 " of Calicut, (the Zamorin,) a King alfo of the Gen- 

 " tiles, and a great enemy to the Portugals, with 

 c< whom he is always in war ; and he and his country 

 " are the neft and refting for ftranger thieves, 

 <c and thofe be called Moors of Carpofa, becaufe they 

 " wear on their heads long red hats; and thieves part 

 <c the fpoils that they take on the fea with the King of 

 •f Calicut, for he giveth leave unto all that will go a 

 * c roving, liberally to go; in fuch wife that all along 

 11 that coaft there is fuch a number of thieves, that 

 ,c there is no failing in thofe feas, but with great fhips, 

 " and very well armed ; or elfe they muft go in com- 

 " pany with the army of the Portugals." 



XXVI. Upon the decline of the Portuguefe power, 

 the Dutch, eftablifhing themfelves on the Malabar 

 coaft, took from the former the fortrefTes of Cannanore 

 and Cochin : and about the fame period, or as early as 

 1664, the Englijh Eaft India Company appear, by the 

 records at Tellicherry, to have begun to tra flick in the 

 Zamorinh dominions, in the fouthern districts of Ma- 

 labar, as well as to have obtained, in 1708, in the 

 northern parts of the fame coaiT, a grant of the fort of 

 Tellicherry, from the Colaftry y or Cherical Rajah, the 

 limits of which they foon extended on the fouth fide, 

 by the fuccefsful termination of a warfare, which they 

 had in 171 9 with the Corngotte Nayr, who alfo agreed 

 that they ihould enjoy the exclufive trade of pepper 

 duty free within his country ; an acquifition which was 

 followed, in 1722, by their obtaining a fimilar exclu- 

 five previlege (with a refervation in favour of the 

 Dutch trade alone) throughout the more extenfivc 

 country of Cherical : and in 1725 they concluded a 

 peace with the Rajah of the-diftricl: of Cartinad ; by 

 which they became entitled to the pre-emption of all 

 the pepper and cardamums it produced; acquiring 

 alfo fimilar exclufive privileges in Cottiote in 1759: 

 and in this 'manner fo rapid appears to have been "the 

 extenfion of the power and influence of the Britifh 



Nation 



