District of Jafnapatam, 69 
extremity of tli^ island stretched out into an oblong peninsula, 
almost cut off from the rest by a branch of the sea, which, 
as we have already mentioned, penetrates across the island, ex- 
cept that a small strip of land remains which is nearly inun- 
dated. at high water. This district, which is known by the 
name of Jafnapatam, looks directly towards Negapatam on the 
Coromandel coast, and is considered as the most healthy in the 
island. This is owing to its situation, surrounded by the sea 
on almost all sides ; by which means the violent hot winds 
from the continent of India are cooled in their passage. 
These land-winds are to Europeans the most intolerable cir- 
cumstance in the climate of India. In Bengal, and several 
other parts in our possession, they prevail almost to suffoca- 
tion ; and it is with pain I recollect the expedients we were 
obliged to have recourse to in order to diminish their effects. 
The common remedy is to place, in frames before the win- 
dows or doors, tatts., or blinds of straw loosely woven ; and 
these being kept constantly wet by black fellows retained for 
the purpose, the air which penetrates through the interstices 
is cooled by the water, and deprived in a great measure of 
its noxious heat. The violence of these winds, indeed, depend 
on the quantity of moisture they meet with in their passage. 
In those parts where they blow over tracts of low and marshy 
grounds, or rice fields, they are much cooled and less sensibly 
felt at the places which they afterwards meet in their course. 
I recollect to have observed a very striking instance of this 
while I was stationed at Trichinopoly. On one side of the 
fort is an extensive sandy plain, and on the other a large tract 
of low marshy ground : during the season of the land-winds, 
that part of the fort which s exposed to those from tlie. 
