GHERIAH, a fortress of Hindustan, in the south of India, on a rocky promontory in the southern Concan, about one mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad. It is joined to the main land by a narrow neck of land; and lies about a mile from the entrance of a capacious harbour, formed by the mouth of a river which descends from the Western Ghats. It was taken possession of by the Mahrattas in the seventeenth century; and in 1707 Conajee Angria had established an independent sovereignty here, and possessed a numerous piratical fleet. The depredations of these pirates drew on them the vengeance of the British; and in 1756 Angria's fleet was destroyed by Admiral Watson and Colonel Clive. Gheriah having surrendered, it was given up to the Peishwa under the treaty concluded in the same year with the Mahrattas; and upon the overthrow of that potentate in 1818 the place escheated to the British with the rest of his dominions. Distant south from Bombay 170 miles. Lat. 16. 32., Long. 73. 22. (E.T.)