COCHIN, a small province of Hindustan, on the coast of Malabar, intersected by the 10th degree of north latitude. It has the Malabar province on the north, Travancore on the south, Dindigul on the east, and the sea on the west. A portion of this territory, equal to about 745 square miles, is attached to the district of Malabar, and is subject to British laws and regulations; but the remainder is under the independent jurisdiction of the rajah. This country is beautiful in the northern parts, about Pargunur and Shilacary. It consists of low hills, intersected by narrow fertile valleys, finely wooded, well peopled, and extremely well watered by small perennial streams, which enable the cultivators to raise two crops of rice annually. The high grounds are in general rocky, but the soil is good, though the cultivation of these hills is everywhere exceedingly neglected. Groves of palms, mangoes, jacks, and lapintains skirt the bottom of the little hills, and shade the houses of the natives. The pasture is excellent, and the cattle, though remarkably small, are in good condition. Above these are woods of forest-trees, which, though not equal in size to those in Chittagong, are very fine, and free from rattans and other climbers. In these forests the same sort of trees grow as in Malabar, namely, the jack wood, which is in general demand for cabinet-work, and is small; the erambo, or iron wood, which is too heavy for general use, and is seldom felled; the black wood, which is large and of fine dimensions, but which is rendered unsaleable by the practice of dividing it into short logs, which are dragged by elephants to the nearest river, and are frequently much bruised and splintered in the passage; the teak, which is inferior in essential oil, the grand preservative of iron from corrosion, to that produced in Malabar. The viti, a black wood, also abounds in these forests; but most of the trees have been cut, and no care is bestowed to increase their reproduction, or to check the growth of useless timber. There are extensive forests of teak in the rajah's territories; but before the wood reaches the
sea it must be floated through the British territories to the sea-port town of Paniany, in South Malabar; and the Company's government hesitated long whether they would admit the rajah's subjects to the free navigation of this river. They were only determined to this wise and liberal policy by the earnest remonstrances of Major Munro, the resident at Cochin.
In this province are many Nazarene or Christian villages, which, for Indian towns, are well built and cleanly; and the inhabitants are a very orderly and industrious people, who live chiefly by trade or agriculture. The Jews are numerous in the vicinity of Cochin; and Mattachery, about a mile distant from that town, is almost wholly inhabited by them. They are divided into two classes, namely, the Jerusalem or white Jews, and the ancient or black Jews.
The Cochin rajah maintained his independence to a much later period than most of the other Hindu chiefs. When Hyder invaded his country, he quietly submitted to pay tribute, which was continued to his son Tippoo, and which is now paid to the Company. In May 1809 a treaty offensive and defensive was concluded by Colonel Macaulay, between the rajah and the East India Company, by the conditions of which the friends and enemies of either of the contracting parties were declared the friends and enemies of both. The rajah at the same time agreed to pay an additional tribute.
R. Buchanan's Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara, and Malabar; Rev. C. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia.