326 
tains, and transported from thence to the river-side by elephants; 
where it remains to be floated down to Vapura, when the stream 
fills in the rainy season. 
This part of Malabar also produces the chapingum, or sapan- 
wood (gullandina sapan): the trees are planted in gardens and 
orchards, for the sake of the wood, which produces a valuable 
dye. 
From Calicut, we proceeded to Cochin, and arrived there on 
the 14th, after sailing along a bold coast, of cocoa-nut trees and 
rice-fields, extending over a sandy plain to the Gaut mountains: 
whose majestic summits in the morning are generally enveloped in 
clouds; but towards sun-set, their western acclivities display an 
assemblage of rocks and woods, in broad masses of light and sha- 
dow, which rival the Alps and Appennines of Europe; although 
deficient in those pinnacles and glaciers, whose sublimity and 
beauty, seen through the clear atmosphere of an Italian winter, 
baffle the artist’s skill, and defy the power of language. 
Cochin, in the latitude of 9° 58' north, and ?6 east longitude, 
was among the early conquests of the Portugueze; from them it 
fell into the hands of the Dutch, and is now in possession of the 
English. The town is pleasantly situated at the entrance of a 
broad navigable river, or more properly a lake, which extends 
southerly for near twenty leagues to Quilone, another Dutch fac- 
tory, affording an inland navigation through that part of the king 
of Cochin’s dominions. 
When I was at Cochin it belonged to the Dutch; and as such 
only can I speak of it. The town was surrounded by a fortifica- 
tion, built by the Portugueze; of no great strength except towards 
