THE CITY OF MADURA. 
37 
brought a population of upwards of a hundred million 
under the control of a wiser and more beneficial le- 
gislation. 
Madura,, at this moment in the proud but dim 
splendour of her decay, exhibits abundant memorials 
of her former greatness, though these cannot vie in 
antiquity with many structures of still grander con- 
ception and execution to be seen in other parts of 
India. Of late years, this ancient city has suffered 
considerably by the petty chieftains in its vicinity, 
whose continual struggles for supremacy have per- 
petually exposed it to the depredations of contending 
factions. During the Carnatic wars, in the middle of 
the eighteenth century, it was occupied by a number 
of turbulent Polygars, who held their dens and fortified 
castles within the recesses of the thick jungles by which 
this district was overspread. The city at that time 
suffered in no small degree from the ravages of these 
turbulent chieftains ; nor was it until the year 1801 , 
when it was transferred to the British government 
by the Nawaub of Arcot, that it became secure from 
the depredations of rival princes. 
The present aspect of Madura is not attractive to 
the traveller. The town stands upon an extensive 
level, though the country around it is much ele- 
vated, and about a hundred miles north by east of 
Cape Comorin. The fort is near four miles in circum- 
ference, and environed by a strong wall ; this is fur- 
ther protected by a deep ditch, filled from the river 
V aylaur ; though immediately before the rains, this 
river becomes exceedingly shallow, consequently the 
ditch which encompasses the fort, together with the 
