12 
COCHIN, 
bardkoota, besides great quantities of oysters. Boats also came out to 
us laden with fruit, and some with fresh water ; and in less than an 
hour we might have got a sufficient stock to proceed on our voyage, 
without the trouble of anchoring — such is the confidence which the 
English flag inspires. 
. We went on shore, and were a little more than half an hour rowing 
to the town from our anchorage. About a mile from the landing place 
it is necessary to cross the bar of a considerable river, which breaks 
with much surf, as soon as its waters become opposed to the sea. In 
the morning we found the entrance easy, keeping a mid channel 
between two reefs ; but later in the day, after the sea breeze was set in, 
the whole entrance became much agitated, and dangerous to timid and 
unexperienced boatmen. The landing place is close to a clump of 
trees, which, combined with the turret on which the flag-staff was 
placed, and the groups of inhabitants on the shore, made a lively 
picture. We were conducted to the Commandant, a young man, who, 
by the apathy of his manner, and the wan tint of his complexion, 
afforded us a strong proof of the pernicious effects of the climate of 
India. The heat at Cochin, though not great by the thermometer, 
yet was sufficiently overpowering to destroy the energy of the body. 
We were told, that in this month the thermometer seldom rises above 
87.; and that in March and April, which are reckoned the hottest, it 
never exceeds 90. It is, however, remarked in the travels of Abraham 
Parsons, that on the 25th December, 1775, his Fahrenheit stood at 
102. from that day to the 5th of January following, and that the nights 
were so sultry that he could not endure to sleep in a room. Cochin is 
situated on low ground, and stands on an island, formed by an arm of 
the river which flows by it into the sea. Its fortifications have been 
totally demolished, and nothing is now left of them but confused heaps 
of brick and stone. The style of its building is Dutch ; and if it were 
divested of its Oriental vegetation and inhabitants, the scene would be 
like one in Flanders. The original Europeans, however, were Portu¬ 
guese, and their language is the most prevalent, being adopted by those 
who can boast of the smallest intermixture of European blood. Of 
