34 
CHAPTER 
Valar river. 
People. 
Appearance 
of the coun- 
try. 
Villages,, 
A JOURNEY FROM MADRAS THROUGH 
• V 1 ^ v • 1 - • 
it to the utmost extremity. It contains an old temple, the roof of 
which, as an additional defence, lias been surrounded by a parapet 
of mud. 
The town stands about three hundred yards west from the Palar, 
which, here, is not above forty feet wide, and at this season con- 
tains two or three feet depth of water nearly stagnant. In the rainy 
season, it fills several fine reservoirs, or 'tanks, for the use of 
cultivation. 
The people here are a mixture of Tamils , Telingas , and Karnataca, 
or Canarese , with a good many Mussulmans. They complain, that 
the Amildars of the Mysore government take more money from 
them, than they did in the reign of Tippoo ; but acknowledge, that 
they are exempted from the licentiousness of that prince’s army, 
and from the arbitrary exactions usual in his government. 
/ 
6th May. — I went sixteen miles to Tayculum . The country in 
most points resembles that through' which I passed yesterday ; but 
I think the proportion of land that has never been cultivated is 
greater ; I should estimate it to be four tenths of the whole. Of 
this also a greater part consists of high rocky hills. Those towards 
Colar are very extensive ; and the last two miles of our road lay 
between two immense piles of bare granite, gradually crumbling 
into fragments that roll down into the plain. These hills occupy 
three fourths of the land that has never been ploughed ; the re- 
mainder is covered with copse wood, chiefly of the Mimosa which 
I call Taggula , and seems to be capable of cultivation. The propor- 
tion of watered land to that of the dry arable fields, seems to be 
very small, and the supply of water appears not to be plentiful. A 
considerable quantity of it was occupied by betel leaf gardens; 
and I observed one field under sugar-cane. The nakedness of the 
country does not proceed from any incapacity in the soil to pro- 
duce trees; for to-day I observed many that were really line. The 
Tamarind , Mango, Pipal, and Robinia mitis , thrive well. 
The villages appear miserable ; the houses being entirely hidden 
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