The Portuguese built a fort at Cannanore in 1505. They were driven out by the Dutch, who sold the place to a Moplah, from whom the present Beebee of Cannanore is descended, the succession going in the female line. She is much in debt, but owns the Laccadive islands, as well as Cannanore, and the land round the town. We were told that the Beebee considered that she had been shamefully treated by the English Government, and that she spoke her mind very freely on the subject. It appears that, in about 1545, the Laccadive islands were conferred in jagheer on the head of the Moplah caste at Cannanore, the ancestor of the Beebee, by the Rajah of Cherikul, on the payment of a certain tribute, which was duly rendered to the Cherikul family until its destruction by Hyder Ali in the last century. After the storming of Cannanore by the English in 1791, the islands came into possession of the East India Company, and in 1799 they were restored to the Beebee's family, subject to the payment of an annual peshcush of 10,000 Rs.
In April, 1847, a hurricane of unequalled violence swept over the islands, which are only nine feet above the sea in the highest part. The wind tore up the trees by the roots, the waves flooded the land, and almost everything on the two most valuable islands was destroyed. The Beebee borrowed a steamer from the Government to send supplies for the relief of the islanders, and she also obtained a remission of one-third of the peshcush for ten years, on certain conditions connected with reforms in her administration. Her difficulties have chiefly arisen from being unable to pay the sum demanded for arrears of peshcush, and for the use of the steamer, and in 1854 the English Government assumed the administration of the islands until the debt was paid. It was desired that the Beebee should give them up altogether for a pecuniary equivalent, but to this she has resolutely refused to consent. The islands have since been restored to her.[479]
On the day after sailing from Cannanore we put into Mangalore, where the town, like that of Calicut, is completely hidden from the sea, the lighthouse and a few bungalows being visible on a hill in the rear. This was the dry season, and the coast of Canara was not nearly so pretty as that of Malabar, looking parched and dried up. North of Mangalore is the port of Compta, with a lighthouse on a steep conical hill, but no town visible. Compta is now the port of shipment for the cotton of Dharwar, and there were several pattamars in the anchorage, with their decks piled up with bales of cotton. They take it up to Bombay, where it is pressed and shipped for England; and we heard that the crews of the pattamars work their way into the bales, and pull out large handfuls of cotton, filling the space up with filth. In this way there is a petty trade in stolen cotton along the coast, and the people work it up into gloves, stockings, &c., for sale.
Though, at the time of my visit, Compta was used as the cotton-port for Dharwar, yet the port of Sedashighur, further north, has a great advantage over it, and is the only place along the coast where there is safe anchorage during the S.W. monsoon. A point of land, called Carwar head, forms and protects the bay of Carwar and Beitcool cove, and, with the assistance of a breakwater, there would be safe anchorage throughout the year. A line of islands and rocks, called the Oyster rocks, a little to the northward, also offers a place of shelter. There is an anchorage under their lee during the S.W. monsoon, where vessels might ride in perfect safety, and, when a lighthouse is established on the highest Oyster rock, vessels will be able to approach this dangerous coast, and run into the anchorage, during the summer months. Sedashighur is nearer Dharwar than any other port; a river, the Kala-nuddee, navigable for boats for twenty miles, falls into the sea close to the anchorage, and a good road is all that is required to make this place an important port for the shipment of cotton. Energetic measures have already been adopted for this purpose, and it will not be long before Dharwar, the only cotton district in India where the American species has as yet been profitably cultivated, will be supplied with a port where the cotton may be pressed and shipped direct for England.[480]
After passing Sedashighur we put into Goa harbour, and went thence to Vingorla, the port of the Belgaum district, and a great place for the manufacture of earthenware chatties, which are taken up the coast in pattamars. The following day we were at Rutnagherry, and passing Sevendroog, the famous stronghold of the pirate Angria, we concluded our coasting voyage by anchoring in Bombay harbour.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE MAHABALESHWUR HILLS AND THE DECCAN.