In 1648, the English settled at Anjengo, obtaining permission to build a factory. The Commercial Resident located there used to supply the Travancôr Raja with military clothing, arms and ammunition, in exchange for pepper and other valuable produce of the country. At this time the Travancôr army was disciplined on the European model and commanded by Portuguese, Dutch, and Italian adventurers. During our wars with Haidar Ali and Tippu Sultan, Travancôr was the steadfast ally of the British; and it was an attack upon Travancôr that brought upon Tippu Sultan the military operations which terminated in his death on the ramparts of Seringapatam. In 1795 and 1805, the Honorable East India Company concluded treaty engagements with the State, and except for a brief period in 1809, the most friendly relations have ever since continued to subsist.

According to a fundamental law of the State, the succession to the throne descends through the female line. If the Chief, for example, has two sons and a daughter, he will be succeeded by the male offspring of his daughter. In the event of a failure in the direct female line, the selection and adoption of two or more female relatives of the family, or Tumbarans, is necessary to the continuance of the royal race. An adoption of this character occurred in 1788, when two sisters were chosen. Both sisters gave birth to daughters. The younger and her child both died. The daughter of the elder was the mother of the late Maharaja ; while the present Chief is a son of his predecessor's sister. In 1857, the female line again became extinct, when the Maharaja, with the concurrence of the British Government, adopted two of his female relatives to continue the race.

The present Maharaja, who is a highly educated, accomplished and travelled Prince, is one of the ablest and best rulers in India. He speaks English fluently and correctly, and carries on an extensive correspondence in that language. In addition to his own tongue,-Malayalim, he can speak Hindi, Mahratti, Tamil, and Telugu. His Highness has, moreover, a refined and cultivated taste in literature and music.

Travancôr is one of the most beautiful portions of southern India. The mountains which separate it, on the east, from the British provinces of the Coromandel Coast, and which at some

points rise to an elevation of 8,000 feet above the level of the sea, are clothed with magnificent primeval forest, while the belt of flat country to an average distance of about ten miles from the sea inland is covered with an almost unbroken and dense mass of cocoanut and areca palms. The forests contain teak, anjelly, ebony, blackwood, borassus and simal. Pepper, cardamoms, nutmegs and cloves form characteristic items in the Trade Returns.

COCHIN.-According to tradition the Rajas of Cochin claim to Cochin. hold territory in right of descent from Cheruman Perumal, who ruled over the whole of Kerala, including Travancôr and Malabar, as Viceroy of the Chola kings, about the beginning of the ninth century, and who afterwards established himself as an independent sovereign.

In 1776, Cochin was conquered by, and became tributary to, Haidar Ali; but Tippu ceded all claims upon it to the British in 1792. The Honorable East India Company then reconferred the full sovereign powers of the State upon the Raja, subject to a tribute of Rs. 1,00,000, to be paid in consideration of war expenses incurred by the British in recovering from Tippu Sultan the forts and districts he had seized. By a Subsidiary Treaty entered into, in 1809, after the suppression of the insurrection in which Cochin and Travancôr conjointly took part, the Raja agreed to pay the Honorable East India Company, in addition to the former tribute, an annual sum of 1,76,037 Arcot Rupees, calculated to cover the cost of maintaining a contingent battalion of Native Infantry.

- Subsequently these payments were reduced to one sum of two lakhs a year, the present pecuniary obligation of Cochin to the British Government.

Travancôr and Cochin form one political charge, under a British Resident. The present Raja, or Muta Tumbaran, Rama Virma, is a fair Sanscrit scholar. He is a Knight Commander of the Most Exalted Order of the Star of India.

tai.

PUDUKOTTAI.-The Chiefs of this State are Sudras of the PudukotKallan tribe, the predatory "Colleries" of Orme and early English writers.

Our first relations with the State were formed at the siege of

Banganapalli.

Sandur.

Trichinapalli in 1753, when the British army greatly depended on the fidelity of "the Tondiman,"—as he was called,—and on his exertions to provide supplies. The Chief of Pudukottai subsequently rendered us service in the wars with Haidar Ali, and in the Poligar* war. In recognition of these services, the fort and district of Kilanelli, yielding a revenue of about Rs. 30,000 a year, were conferred upon him, subject† to the yearly tribute of an elephant.

The administration is conducted under the supervision of a Political Agent stationed at Trichinapalli.

His Excellency Raja Rama Chandra Tondima Bahadur has a good knowledge of English, and a slight acquaintance with French; he speaks,-besides Tamil, his own vernacular,Telugu, Hindi and Mahratti.

BANGANAPALLI.-This Jaghir seems to have been originally granted to Mahomed Beg Khan, eldest son of the Grand Vizier of the Emperor Aurangzeb. It was afterwards confirmed by successive grants from Maisur and Haidarabad; and by the Treaty of 1800 was conferred on Muzaffar Mulk and his heirs for ever. In 1825, in consequence of the gross mismanagement that prevailed, the Honorable Company found it necessary to assume charge of the State for a time: but, in 1848, it was restored to Hussein Ali Khan, the eldest surviving heir. Under the terms of a sanad granted to the late Nawab, Banganapalli is declared to be an independent State, free of peshkash and pecuniary demand; but the Chief is at all times bound to maintain faith and allegiance to the Paramount Power. The civil jurisdiction of the Chief is unrestricted; but, in the administration of criminal justice, he is debarred from mutilating prisoners, and bound to refer all capital sentences to the Government of Madras for confirmation.

Banganapalli is famed for its mangoes and oranges.

SANDUR. The founder of the ruling family of Sandur was Malloji Rao Ghorpuri, an officer in the army of the King of Bijapur. His son, Biroji, entered the service of the Raja of

* The operations against the usurpers of the great zemindari of Sivaganga, in the Madura district, after the cession of the Karnatik.

† Remitted in 1836.

Sattara, and bore the name of Hindu Rao. Sandur had belonged previously to a Beder Poligar, but Biroji's son, Siddoji, among other exploits, took Sandur from the Beders, and his conquest was confirmed to him and his heirs by his sovereign, Sambhaji, the successor of the great Sevaji. On the death of Siddoji, in 1715, his son, Gopal Rao, succeeded. The fate of this Chief is involved in obscurity. All we know is, that Sandur was taken by Haidar Ali, some time after his capture of Guti, in 1799; and that he commenced and Tippu completed the fort, and that Gopal Rao's son, Siva Rao, was killed in battle, in 1785, in a fruitless attempt to recover his patrimony. Siva Rao's brother, Vencata Rao, on behalf of the former's son, Siddoji, expelled Tippu's garrison in 1790, but did not attempt to occupy the State. After the fall of Seringapatam, the Peishwa, assuming possession of Sandur, conferred it upon a distinguished Mahratta soldier, Jeswant Rao Ghorpure, who, however, never entered upon the grant; and, on Tippu's death, Siva Rao, who had been adopted by Siddoji's widow, was put in possession. The British Government granted him a sanad confirming him and his heirs in possession for ever, free of all pecuniary demands.

Sandur is completely surrounded by a cordon of hills, which isolates it from the neighbouring portions of the Bellary district. In the year 1846, the Madras Government obtained permission from the Chief to establish a Convalescent Depôt for the European troops at Bellary on the plateau of Ramandrug. The sanitarium stands at a height of 3,150 feet above sea level.

Raja Siva Shan Mukha Rao, Hindu Rao Ghorpuri, Mamlekat Madar, Senapatti, is a Mahratta. Besides his own vernacular, he knows both Telugu and Canarese.

APPENDIX A.

List of Ruling Chiefs present at the Imperial Assemblage, Delhi, on January 1st, 1877.

The Maharaja of Jammu and Kash- The Raja of Suket.