easily distinguished from the true provinces of the empire of Dehli by their situation, and perhaps I ought to have reserved them for their proper place, but I thought it better to present you with the statement of the Ayeen Akbery, without changing any thing, as it is unquestionably the most authentic document we possess of the former state of India.

LETTER IX.

AFTER my last long letter on the geography of India, you will, I fancy, think me unreasonable to begin another with the same subject. But I had only laid before you the ancient divisions of India, more properly called Bharata, when we are speaking of it before the Mahomedan conquest, and the provinces of Hindostan Proper, or the country north of the Nermada or Nerbudda, with the very small portion of the Deccan, annexed by Akbar to the Mogul empire. I must now mention the kingdoms of the South, or Deccan, in its widest extent, that is, from the Nermada to Cape Comorin, about fifteen degrees of latitude.

The greater part of this tract consists of high table-land, elevated from three to five thousand

feet above the sea, called the Balaghaut or land above the mountains; the rest is a belt of unequal breadth surrounding this land, and called Payeen Ghaut, or below the mountains. In the Deccan you may place the ancient kingdoms, distinguished and circumscribed by their languages, called the five Dravirs, but omitting Guzerat and substituting Orissa. The ancient divisions were however lost, among new and more numerous partitions, long before any intimate intercourse between Europeans and India.

Telingana, divided into Andra and Kalinga, seems to have retained its distinctive name longer than most of the Dravirs, for it was known to the Mahomedans by it; and, at the period of their invasion, its capital was Warankal.

Carnataca was early divided into a number of separate states, the south-western portion of which was Mysoor. Of the modern Carnatic a small portion only formed part of the ancient province, and Bejapoor occupied the northern part, and perhaps a small part of Telingana. The ancient capital of Carnataca was Dhoor Summudra, about a hundred miles north-west of Seringapatam; but the seat of government was removed to Tonoor, only twelve miles from that city, upon the Mussulman invasion in 1326, when the ancient city was destroyed by the army of Mahommed III.

About the same time a new kingdom was founded upon the banks of the Toombudra by some officers of the dethroned king of Warankal, and its capital was named Videanaggur, sometimes called Bisnuggur. This kingdom was subsequently enlarged by the acquisition of the greatest part of Dravira or Draveda.

From

Niliseram, near which there is a considerable wall in ruins, the country of Toolava extended to the neighbourhood of Goa; and bordering on it to the East is the small country of Coorg, whose present Rajah and his father have distinguished themselves by the desire of improving their country and people. The three principal parts into which Dravira was divided, were named from three rival dynasties, the Chola or Chora*, the Cheran and the Pandian. Combaconum and Tanjore, upon the Cavery, appear to have been the capitals of the former, which comprehended the provinces of Tanjore, Trichinapoli, part of the modern Carnatic, including probably Gingee and Wandiwahi. The kingdom of Pandian included Madura, Tinivelly, Marawas, and probably part of Dindigul, and the country of the Polygars; and the country of Chera compre

* From Chola, or Chora, comes our name of Coromandel. Mandala signifies a circle or country, thus, Chora Mandala the country of Chora.

hended Kerala or Malabar, Cochin, Travancore, Shallam, and Coimbatoor. In this division is Calicut, where the first European ships, under Vasco de Gama, touched, after doubling the Cape of Good Hope. The coast is bold, and the most picturesque I ever saw; and the coun try abounds in the finest timber in the world. There are no harbours for any thing larger than a boat; and it is only during the rains that the small rapid rivers, that fall directly from the mountains, are deep enough to float the timber to the coasts.

At the time when the Mahrattas or Maha rastras emerged from obscurity under Sevajee and his successors, the country anciently known by their name was divided into a number of dis tinct provinces, which were successively seized by the Mahomedans, with the exception perhaps of the mountainous districts near Poonah and the Cokun. Candeish and Berar were added to the Mogul empire; Aurungabad, Beder, Beja. pore, and Gundwana, with their subdivisions, formed the greatest part of the Mahomedan do minions in the Deccan, to which must be added Hydrabad, Golconda, and other provinces of Telingana north of the Godavery.

Such is the general view of the division of India at two very different periods. The first, when its ancient kingdoms were so settled and

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polished as to have formed and cultivated each its own language; the last, as it was found at the time of the first permanent European establishments in the country. Had it been possible to have been more minute in stating the precise ancient boundaries of the different, provinces, I am not sure that I should have attempted it, for the task of tracing their perpetual variations would have been endless, and perhaps useless.

The British dominions extend over by far the greater part of the above provinces, and accident, rather than convenience, seems to have fixed the situations of the three presidencies from which they are governed. Calcutta, the seat of the supreme government in India, stands on that branch of the Ganges called the Hoogly, about eighty miles from Saugor island, where that river falls into the sea. The approach to it is defended by a most dangerous coast, owing to the shoals called the sand-heads, which are deposited by the thousand mouths of Ganges as it rolls into the ocean, and which, during the floods occasioned by the rains, are continually changing their places. The bed of the Hoogly is also encumbered by similar sands, and the bays formed in its low woody shores are in general extremely unhealthy. The aspect improves as you approach the capital, and the