42 



THE PREDECESSORS OF THE 



day the 12th. Chinandree pleaded guilty to his indictment and 

 Nulla Tornbee pleaded not guilty. The Court proceeded in their 

 trial and the Petit Jury withdrew and returned and gave their 

 verdict, viz., Nulla Tombee guilty of petty larceney, and Hosana 

 and Pochera not guilty of the murder. The sentence was accord- 

 ingly that Nulla Tombee should on Friday next have one of his 

 ears cut off, and be whipped and turned out of the Town. Chi- 

 nandree to be executed next Wednesday at the usual place of 

 execution between the hours of eleven and twelve in the fore- 

 noon, being the 19th instant, and Hosana and Pochera to be 

 discharged. 



" It is upon the question resolved in Council that Chinandree 

 be reprieved from the execution of sentence of death and that he 

 be sent to Anjengo (in Travancore) to work there in irons. In 

 the meantime to remain in the custody of the Marshall ; and 

 that the Choultry Justices see that the sentence of the Court be 

 executed upon Nulla Tombee."" 28 



CHAPTEE II. 



The trials mentioned at the end of the last chapter took 

 place during the Governorship of Mr. Nathaniel Higginson. 

 He was succeeded in 1698 by Mr. Thomas Pitt, who was 

 appointed " President of the Company's Settlements on the 

 coast of Coromandel, Orixa, in the Ginjee and Mahratta coun- 

 tries, and the coast of Sumatra ;" and also to be Commander- 

 in-Chief at Fort St. George and Fort St. David, with parti- 

 cular instructions to direct his attention to the administration 

 of justice, by rehearing the cases on which complaints had 

 been made, and to frame a table of fees to prevent extortions 

 from the inhabitants appealing to the law Courts. 29 



What his judicial powers were, or how conferred, I have 

 not been able to ascertain ; but after his arrival the Governor 

 and Council appear to have superseded the Court of Admiralty 



28 Wheeler's Madras, vol. i, p. 303. 



29 Bruce's Annals, vol. iii, pp. 228, 230. 



