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Chapter 12 – Francklin’s Notes on Ceylon and on Southern and Western India

1786 A.D.

The following descriptive notes are taken from the diary of the English ensign William Francklin, of the East India Company’s service, who visited Southern India on his way by sea from Bengal to Persia in 1786. Francklin touched at Point de Galle, Ceylon, on March 24th, and proceeded thence along the Malabar coast and the western shores of India, making stops at Anjengo in the district of Travancore, at Cochin and Tellicherri in Malabar, at Goa, and at Bombay. His observations give us a view of these places at the close of the eighteenth century.

‘Point de Galle is a small fort, situated on the southwest side of the island of Ceylon, belonging to the Dutch East India Company, and has a commandant and a small military force. The commandant is subject to the orders of the governor of Colombo, the chief residency on the same island; the inhabitants, excepting the Dutch, are a mixture of Malabars and native Portuguese, but great numbers of the latter, especially of the lower class of people. There is a tolerable tavern

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Temple of the tooth of buddha at Kandy, Ceylon

here, the only one in the place; the living very cheap. There is little trade at this place, excepting on account of the Dutch Company. Topazes, amethysts, and other precious stones are found on the island of Ceylon and brought here for sale; but it is dangerous to purchase them, when set, without being skilled in those commodities, the people who sell them being very expert in making the false stones appear like true ones, by colouring them at the bottom. No kind of spice, nutmegs, or any other rarities for which this island is so celebrated, are to be met with at this place; nor ‘did we, on our approach to the island, perceive any of those odoriferous gales described by travellers as exhaling from the cinnamon and other spices with which this island abounds. The harbour is circular; at the entrance of it lie many rocks, just above the surface of the water, which make it very dangerous for strange ships to go in without a pilot; the waves beat with

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amazing violence against the fortifications. Along and. almost all around the harbour are the country homes of the inhabitants, which have a pleasing effect to the eye; the road to these by land is through a grove of cocoanut-trees, which forms an agreeable shade. However, this place must be very unhealthy, as very high hills lie close behind the houses and exhale noxious vapours both morning and evening, which make it very precarious to the inhabitants in point of health; they are in general sickly, but particularly the Europeans. I observed in the course of a few hours’ stay on shore several people whose legs were swelled in a most extraordinary manner; this the natives account for from the badness of the water and the vapours which arise from the adjoining hills. I have heard that the inhabitants of Malacca are liable to the same disease and from similar causes.

Fish is to be had here in great plenty; poultry of all kinds is very scarce; the fruits are chiefly plantains, pineapples, and pumple noses; the cocoa-nuts are also in great plenty and very good; the bread is tolerable, but the butter execrable, it being little better than train oil; and indeed this is the case in all the Dutch settlements and most other foreign ones, the French and English excepted. We slept on shore that night, and, not being able to sell any part of the cargo, the next morning went on board and sailed immediately. On the 29th of March we saw the land a little to the eastward of Cape Comorin, and the 31st of March came to anchor in the roads of Anjengo, where we found

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A ruined shrina at Pollonarua in Ceylon

the Company’s ship, the Duke of Montrose, waiting for a cargo of pepper. On the 1st of April went on shore at daylight, and returned on board in the evening.

Anjengo is a small fort and English residency, the first that you arrive at upon the Malabar coast from Cape Comorin; the inhabitants are Malabars and native Portuguese, mixed. It is reported to be one of the first places in India for intelligence, and the English have received great service from it in that respect during the late war; it would be still more advantageous if the road to Europe by way of Suez was open, but that has been for some time shut up, on account of some unhappy differences. At Anjengo there is a post to several parts of India; this is but lately established. On the 2d of April, sailed; 6th, saw a ship at anchor in Cochin roads, which we could not enter, being driven

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off by the most violent gale of wind I ever experienced; it lasted six-and-thirty hours without cessation, the sea running mountains high. Fortunately the ship received no damage, excepting the loss of the main-yard, which was broken in two. On the 8th we found ourselves, by observation, to the northward of our port, and on the 9th, came to anchor in Cochin roads, and went on shore immediately.

Cochin is a large settlement belonging to the Dutch East India Company. It is very populous and a place of great trade; the inhabitants are a mixture of a variety of Eastern nations, being composed of Malabars, Armenians, Persians, Arabians, Jews, Indians, and native Portuguese. The Jews occupy a whole village, a little to the westward of the town; they live separate from the rest of the inhabitants. I went into several of their houses and could not help observing in this people a striking peculiarity of features, different from any I had ever seen; a resemblance seemed to run through the whole, as if they were all of one family. They seldom or never marry out of their own tribe, by which the likeness is preserved, from father to son, for a long time. I am told there is the same similarity of features to be observed amongst the Jews of Amsterdam in Holland and other parts of Europe. This certainly serves to distinguish them more as an original people than any other. They have a good synagogue here, and are less oppressed, and have more liberty than in most other parts of the East. The raja of Cochin resides here, but lives in an indifferent state,

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being so much oppressed by the Nabob Tippu on the one hand, and the Dutch on the other, as to have little or nothing left for himself. He is a Gentoo (Hindu).

Cochin, in former times, was a place of considerable celebrity, and was one of the places pitched upon by the first Portuguese settlers in the East after the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope by Vasco da Gama; but that people have now very little left of the vast wealth and power they formerly enjoyed; a revolution of three centuries has reduced them below mediocrity in the general scale of European adventurers. The fort is a very large one, and very well fortified on the land side; toward the sea not so well, but it is secured by a very dangerous bar, which will not admit of ships coming nearer the shore than three or four miles There are some regular Dutch troops in the garrison, and a few native militia; there was also here a part of a French regiment, which the Dutch borrowed during the late war. Provisions of every kind are to be had here in the greatest plenty. The 10th sailed; on the 15th we came to anchor in Tellicherri roads; 16th, having received a very polite invitation from my friend and schoolfellow Mr. Ince, I went on shore and spent several very pleasant days with him.

Among other places I saw in and about Tellicherri, I had a view of the fortifications, or rather of the regular lines drawn round Tellicherri, for the defence of the place against the Nabob Hyder Ali during the late war. These lines are exceedingly strong; they take in a space of about three miles and a half in circumference,

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A scene in Travancore, Southwestern India

and are well defended by batteries and redoubts; a river runs parallel to the western angle, which, breaking off from thence, runs among the hills. Here the English troops sustained a severe siege for several years against the army of Hyder under the command of Sadik Khan; however, on the arrival of Major Abingdon with a reinforcement from the Bombay settlement, the garrison made a most spirited and successful sally, in which, having defeated the enemy and killed great numbers of them, they at length compelled them to raise the siege, obtaining, at the same time, a considerable booty of horses, tents, and elephants. The general of the enemy was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner, and died a few days after, of that and a broken heart, at Tellicherri. I am informed that if he had lived and returned to the presence, he would have been cashiered, as the Nabob Hyder had set his heart on the reduction of the place. He lies buried close to the fort of Tellicherri;

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a tomb has been erected to him, in which lamps are continually burning, which many Mussulmans visit out of respect to the memory of the deceased. The lines in some parts appear rather out of order, as they have not been thoroughly repaired since the siege of the place, and I am inclined to think a great number of troops would be requisite for their defence against a resolute enemy, owing to their great extent. They are now repairing throughout, as the government entertains an idea of the importance of the place, which is certainly considerable, in case of a war with Hyder, as by his being in possession of it he might greatly injure the other settlements of the English on the Malabar Coast.

The garrison of Tellicherri consists generally, in time of peace, of one battalion of sepoys, a company of artillery, and sometimes a company of European infantry; they are also able to raise about three thousand native militia. The view of the country round Tellicherri is very pleasant, consisting of irregular hills and valleys. The boundaries of the English are terminated by the opposite side of the river, and at a very little distance is a strong fortress of the Nabob Hyder; if the lines were once to be forced, the place would soon fall, the fort of Tellicherri itself having no kind of defence. Tellicherri is esteemed by all who reside there to be one of the healthiest places in India, Europeans seldom dying there; it is also much resorted to by convalescents; the sea produces plenty of very fine oysters, and provisions of all kinds are to be had in abundance.

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I observed, in the Company’s garden, the pepper vine, which grows in a curious manner, and something similar to the grape; the pepper on it, when fit to gather, appears in small bunches; it is in size something larger than the head of a small pea; the pepper, however, for the Company’s ships’ cargoes, is brought from some distance in the country. Tellicherri also produces the coffee-tree.

On the 28th, in the evening, we sailed; and on the 29th we anchored in the roads of Goa, off the Fort Alguarda.

Goa is a large city, and was once populous; it is the capital of the Portuguese settlements on this side the Cape of Good Hope; it is the residence of a Captain-General sent from Portugal, who lives in great splendour. The city stands upon the banks of a river of the same name, about twelve miles distance from the entrance of the harbour. The view up this river is truly delightful, the banks on either side are adorned with churches and country-seats of the Portuguese, interspersed with groves and valleys; the river has several pleasing openings as it winds along, its banks are low, but the hills behind rise to an amazing height, and add grandeur to the spectacle, greatly tending also to beautify the prospect. The city of Goa itself is adorned with many fine churches, magnificently decorated; and has several handsome convents. The church of Saint Augustine is a noble structure, and is adorned in the inside by many fine pictures; it stands on the top of a hill, from whence you have an extensive view of the

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city and adjacent country. It is a circumstance that has always been observed, and very justly, that the Portuguese have ever chosen the spots for their convents and churches in the most delightful situations. I have observed it in the Brazils, and the inhabitants of Goa have by no means failed in attention to this point, all their public buildings being well situated. The body of this church is spacious, and the grand altarpiece finished in the most elegant style. The building of the choir is of Gothic architecture, and therefore of antiquity. This church has a convent adjoining to it, in which live a set of religious monks of the order of St. Augustine. Some of the brothers of this convent have given Popes and cardinals to the Roman See, as appears by their portraits which are hung up in a neat chapel dedicated to St. Augustine, the patron of the order. Adjoining to this church is a convent of religious women, who have taken the veil and are therefore prohibited from all kind of intercourse with the world. These chiefly consist of the daughters and nieces of the Portuguese inhabitants of the place, and a sum of money is generally given with them on their entrance into the convent.

A little lower, on the declivity of the hill, stands another church, dedicated to the Bon Jesus, in which is the chapel of Saint Francisco de Xaviere, whose tomb it contains. This chapel is a most superb and magnificent place; the tomb of the saint is entirely of fine black marble, brought from Lisbon. On the four sides of it the principal actions of the life of the saint are

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An Indian bullock-cart

most elegantly carved in basso relievo; these represent his converting the different nations to the Catholic faith; the figures are done to the life, and most admirably executed. It extends to the top in a pyramidical form, which terminates with a coronet of mother-of-pearl. On the sides of this chapel are excellent paintings, done by Italian masters, the subjects chiefly from scripture. This tomb and the chapel appertaining to it must have cost an immense sum of money; the Portuguese justly esteem it the greatest rarity in the place. In the valley below is another convent for young ladies who have not taken the veil; out of this convent the Portuguese and others who go there may marry; some of the ladies have small portions, others none. As far as I could learn, the ceremony observed on taking out

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one of these ladies is as follows: when a gentleman, after visiting often at the grate, shall have chosen one to whom he wishes to pay his addresses, an exchange of rings between the parties is first made, after which the lover is permitted to visit his mistress in the convent, in the presence of one of the matrons; then if he still holds his purpose, he is obliged to make a solemn promise of marriage, in the presence of the archbishop of the place, which being done, he may take her away whenever he pleases; after which the archbishop marries them. It is, however, to be observed that the lover, whoever he is, must first make profession of the Roman Catholic persuasion, otherwise no connection would be allowed. I saw three of the young ladies, who were really fine girls, and could not help making some reflections on their unhappy situation. Shut up in a wretched convent, where they must pine away their youth, unless capricious chance should befriend them in the appearance of a husband, and being deprived of the company of men, for whom they were formed to grace society and create affection, they must, if capable of reflection, think themselves most unhappy.

The Captain-General of Goa is also Commander-in-chief of all the Portuguese forces in the East Indies. They have here two regiments of European infantry, three legions of sepoys, three troops of native light horse, and a militia; in all, about five thousand men. Goa is at present on the decline and in little or no estimation with the country powers; indeed their bigotry and superstitious attachment to their faith is so

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Bombay from Malabar Hill

general that the inhabitants, formerly populous, are now reduced to a few thinly inhabited villages, the chief part of whom have been baptized, for they will not suffer any Mussulman or Gentoo to live within the precincts of the city; and these few are unable to carry on the husbandry or manufactures of the country. The court of Portugal is obliged to send out annually a very large sum of money to defray the current expenses of the government; which money is generally swallowed up by the convents and soldiery. If other measures are not pursued, Goa must, in a very few years, sink to nothing. Although it is evident that the internal decay of the government has been occasioned by the oppression and bigotry of the priests and the expulsion of so many useful hands, yet the court of Portugal cannot be prevailed upon to alter its measures, although the flourishing situation of the English and other European settlements (and of which one cause is certainly the mild and tolerant principles adhered to in points of religion, provided it interferes not with the affairs of government) is continually before their eyes. The Nabob Tippu has lately shown an inclination to attack them, but was suddenly called off by the Alarathas. The Portuguese much fear he will return; and should he, there is little doubt but that the place will surrender to him The glorious times of Albuquerque are now no more; power and wealth have long since taken their flight from the discoverers of the East. There was formerly an inquisition at this place, but it is now abolished; the building still remains, and by its black

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outside appears a fit emblem of the cruel and bloody transactions that passed within its walls! Provisions are to be had at this place in great plenty and perfection; the Captain-General lives in great state; he is a well-bred man, and fond of the company of the English, whom he treats with great hospitality. On the 24th sailed; May 13th saw the lighthouse at Bombay, about nine in the morning.

The island of Bombay is in the possession of the English East India Company; it is situated on the coast of Conkan, in lat. 19 north, and long. 72.38 east; it was granted, as part of the marriage portion with the Infanta of Portugal, to Charles II. The harbour is capable of containing three hundred sail of ships with the greatest safety: there is also a most excellent dock, in which ships of his Majesty’s squadron, and others, are repaired, refitted, and completely equipped for sea. They build also here all sorts of vessels; and the workmen in the yard are very ingenious and dexterous, not yielding to our best shipwrights in England. This island is very beautiful, and as populous for its size as any in the world; merchants and others coming to settle here from the different parts of the Deccan, Malabar, and Coromandel, as well as the Guzarat country. Amongst those of the latter place are many Per-see (Parsi) families; these are descended from the remains of the ancient Gubres, or worshippers of fire; most of the country merchants, as well as the menial servants of the islands, are of this faith. They are very rich, and have in their hands the management of all mercantile

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A manuscript of the Avesta with Pahlavi translation

affairs. Their religion, as far as I could gain any information, is much corrupted from the ancient worship; they acknowledge that several Hindu forms and ceremonies have crept in amongst them, probably in compliance to the natives, in order to conciliate their affections. I have heard it observed, however, that the Hindu religion does, in itself, bear some analogy to the ancient Persian worship. It seems that their sacred book, the Zend, which is said to have been written by their celebrated prophet Zerdusht (called by us Zoroaster), is at present only a copy of a few centuries;

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which must, of course, invalidate its authenticity, as that prophet, according to the Persian historians, lived more than three thousand years ago; and indeed it is an indisputable fact that what religious books were in being at the time of the Grecian conquests of that country were carefully collected and burnt, by the express orders of Alexander, and were totally destroyed at the subsequent conquests of that country by the Saracens, at which period also happened the introduction of the Mohammedan religion. By these means their religion and language underwent a total change, the very traces of both which have long since disappeared, as is evident by the many fruitless efforts made to decipher those inscriptions still discernible on the walls of Persepolis, bearing not the least analogy to any character now existing. Hence it may be inferred that what is now given as the ancient character and language of this celebrated people is no more than an invention of a later date, and there remains not a probability that their real Zend will ever be known35.

The island of Bombay is about eight miles in length, and twenty in circumference: the most remarkable natural curiosity the island produces is a small fish; this fish, according to the description of a gentleman who has seen it, and from whom I received my information, is in form somewhat like a mussel, about four inches long, and has upon the top of its back, and near the head, a small valve, on the opening of which you

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discover a liquor of a strong purple colour, which, when dropped on a piece of cloth, retains the hue. It is found chiefly in the months of September and October, and it is observed the female fish has not this valve which distinguishes the sexes. It is not improbable to suppose that this fish is of the same nature as the ancient Murex, or shell-fish, by which the Romans attained the art of dyeing to such perfection, and is similar to that found formerly on the coasts of Tyre. The Company’s forces at this Presidency consist of eight battalions of sepoys, a regiment of European infantry, and a corps of European artillery and engineers. During the late long and very severe war, the Bombay troops have distinguished themselves in a peculiar manner, and the campaign of Bedanore and the sieges of Tellicherri and Mangalore will long remain testimonials of high military abilities, as well as of their bravery and patience under severe duty. The breed of sheep on this island is very indifferent, and all the necessaries of life are much dearer than in any other part of India. A work on this island is worthy of observation. It is a causeway on the southern part, about a mile in length and forty feet in breadth, eight of which on each side are of solid stone; the remainder in the centre is filled up with earth, a cement of clay, and other materials; the whole forming such a body as will endure for. many ages. This work keeps up the communication with the other parts of the island during the season of the monsoon, which would otherwise overflow it, and cause indefinite damage.

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Dec. 13th, after being detained seven months at this island, for want of a passage, I at length embarked on board an Arabian ship, bound for Bussora, in company with Captain Mitchell and Lieuts. James and Curry of the Madras military establishment, who were on their way to Europe over land. We had on board an exact epitome of Asia, being a collection of Armenians, Persians, Arabians, Ethiopians, Jews, Greeks, and Indians, who created as much confusion of tongues as at the building of the tower of Babel. On the 24th, in the evening, we saw Cape Rosalgate; and on the 1st of January, 1787, came to anchor in the harbour of Muscat.’

Footnotes

35. This statement is inaccurate, as the authenticity of the Avesta (wrongly called Zend) has been fully proved since the time when Francklin wrote.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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