347 
Particular Account of the Cinnamon. 
711011 moodeUers, whose business it is to judge and punish all 
small offences, and to superintend the different districts and vil- 
lages where the choliahs reside. Over the whole a head offi- 
cer is placed, usually known by the Portuguese name of Cap- 
tain CannailU, which means Captain Cinnamon. He is styled 
by the natives Corunda Mcdiabadda, or Chief of Cinnamon. 
The chief Moodelier receives all the reports concerning the 
woods, and the cinnamon affairs in general, from the inferior 
officers, and transmits them to the Captain, who is accounta- 
ble only to the governor. 
Under the government of the Dutch the choliahs enjoyed- 
very extensive privileges, and were accounted amenable only 
to their own Moodeliers. From hence they thought them- 
selves entitled to resist the authority of our military officers. 
In the district of Caltura, where lieutenant I. Macdonnell com- 
manded, they absolutely refused to acknowledge his authority, 
and a party of them one day crossing the Caltura river, almost 
under the commandant’s windows, they shewed their disrespect 
by maltreating the natives who ferried them over and throw- 
ing several headlong out of the boats into the river, to the 
imminent danger of their lives. Mr. Macdonnell, having inves- 
tigated the circumstance, ordered the offenders to be tied up 
and flogged, the ordinary punishment in such cases. At the 
same time he reported what he had done to governor North, 
and represented to him the necessity there was of punishing 
such contempt of subordination. The choliahs on their part 
complained to the governor of tliis encroachment on their pri- 
vileges, and insisted that they were amenable only to their 
own chiefs. Governor North, however, was well convinced that 
the admission of this plea would only pave the way to greater 
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