Laccadive Islands. 



9 



the Kadgalier and the IMelacherry, and correspond ■svith the fisher- 

 men and Teers of Malabar. The higher and lower castes at least do 

 not intermarry. These distinctions are confined to the island of 

 Ameeny, all the inhabitants of the others being of the Melacherry 

 caste. 



The people are quiet and inoffensive, many read and write, and 

 Some find employment on the coast as teachers and mookries. They 

 also make good pilots and several have been so entertained on Arab 

 ships. Their language is a dialect of Malyalum, v.hich they write 

 in the Arabic character. 



The group was discovered by Vasco de Gama on his return from 

 his first voyage in the end of the 15th century, and has probably 

 been visited from time to time by ships on the Goa trade. It is 

 even said that there were once European settlers on Ameendevy, one 

 of the islands, the tradition probably arose from the detention cf 

 some shipwrecked crew, on the island where it is said they were 

 murdered ; there could be no inducement to European adventurers to 

 settle there. Of their subsequent history the islanders seem to 

 know nothing ; but for some centuries they have been subject to the 

 small kingdom of Cannanore — the circumstances which f^rst placed 

 them under that rule, are preserved among the islanders only in im- 

 probable and vague legend. Under the Cannanore rule, the system 

 still obtaining in the islands which remain to the Beeby, extended 

 over the whole group. The local management was entrusted to an 

 officer on a nominal salary in kind, who lived on contributions, &c. 

 from the islanders. Their powers were frequently abused, and it 

 was the oppressive conduct of one of these Kavilgars, as they are 

 called, towards the inhabitants of Ameendevy M hich produced the 

 revolt of that island and the three others to the north of it in 17S8 or 

 89. The islanders then brought their coir the staple produce of the 

 islands to Mangalore, and proffered their allegiance to Tippoo's 

 officers here. The supply of good coir was probably found at the 

 time convenient, although it is said that several unsuccessful at- 

 tempts were made to induce the islanders to return to their allegi- 

 ance. At length an equivalent from the Cherical Rajah's territory 

 was found for the Cannanore house by the Sultan, and Ameeny, Ka- 

 damut, Kiltan, and Chetlat with Bitra and the other shoals north of 

 Ameeny remained in the hands of the Sultan. When the Cherical 

 Rajah's territories were ceded to the British in 1792 the Rajah was 



