a maritime tract of western India, situated within the limits of the Presidency of Bombay; and extending from the Portuguese settlement of Goa on the south to the territory of Daman, belonging to the same nation, on the north. On the east it is bounded by the Ghauts, and on the west by the Indian Ocean. This tract comprises the two British districts of Tannah and Runaghirry, and may be estimated at 300 miles in length, with an average breadth of about 40. From the mountains on its eastern frontier, which in one place attain a height of 4700 feet, the surface, marked by a succession of irregular hilly spurs from the Ghauts, slopes to the westward, where the mean elevation of the coast is not more than 100 feet above the level of the sea. Several mountain streams, but none of any magnitude, traverse the country in the same direction. One of the most striking characteristics of the climate is the violence of the monsoon rains—the mean annual fall at Mahabulishwar amounting to 239 inches. It is believed that the abundant moisture borne along from the Indian Ocean by this aerial current becomes arrested and condensed by the mountain barrier of the Ghauts, and in this manner accounts for the excessive rains which deluge the Concan. The products of this country are the same as those of Malabar; and the hemp raised is said to be of a stronger quality than that raised above the Ghauts. The coast has a very straight general outline, but is much broken into small bays and harbours. This, with the uninterrupted view along the shore, the elevated coast favourable to a distant view, and the land and sea breezes which blow alternately in the twenty-four hours, and which force the vessels steering along the coast to be always within sight of it, had rendered this country from time immemorial the seat of piracy; and so formidable had the pirates become in the eighteenth century, that all ships suffered which did not receive a pass from the chiefs of the pirates. The Great Mogul maintained a fleet for the express purpose of checking them, and they were frequently also attacked by the Portuguese. British commerce having suffered from their depredations, expeditions were despatched from time to time from Bombay for the purpose of suppressing them, commencing as early as 1756; but the piratical system was not finally extinguished until the year 1812. According to ancient traditions, this country was inhabited by a tribe of savages, till they were conquered by the Hindus, who gave it to a tribe of Brahmins; and it was held by them until it was taken possession of by the Mohammedan kings of Bejaipore. It was conquered in the seventeenth century by Sevajee, the founder of the Mahratta empire. Towards the close of the same century Comjee Angria established a kingdom on this coast, extending 120 miles from Tannah to Bancootie, together with the inland country as far back as the mountains. The dominion of this prince and his family, over a portion of the tract, continued until within the last ten or twelve years, when the legitimate line of descent to the state became extinct, and the territory lapsed to the paramount power. The remainder of the Concan had been already incorporated with the British dominions since the fall of the Peishwa in 1818.