Besides the work mentioned above, Sir John Malcolm published Sketch of the Political History of India since ... 1784 (in 1811 and 1826); Sketch of the Sikhs (1812); Observations on the Disturbances in the Madras Army in 1809 (1812); Persia, a Poem, anonymous (1814); A Memoir of Central India (2 vols., 1823); and Sketches of Persia, anonymous (1827). A posthumous work, Life of Robert, Lord Clive, appeared in 1836. See Life and Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm, by J. W. Kaye (2 vols., 1856).
MALDA, a district of British India, in the Rajshahi division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. Area, 1899 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 884,030, showing an increase of 8.5 in the decade. The administrative headquarters are at English Bazar (pop. 13,667) near the town of Old Malda. The district is divided into two almost equal parts by the Mahananda river, flowing from north to south. The western tract between the Mahananda and the main stream of the Ganges is an alluvial plain of sandy soil and great fertility. The eastern half is an elevated region broken by the deep valleys of the Tangan and Purnabhaba rivers and their small tributary streams. The soil here is a hard red clay; and the whole is overgrown with thorny tree jungle known as the kātāl. Agricultural prosperity centres on the Mahananda, where mango orchards and high raised plots of mulberry land extend continuously along both banks of the river. The Ganges nowhere intersects the district, but skirts it from its north-western corner to the extreme south. The Mahananda flows in a deep well-defined channel through the centre, and joins the Ganges at the southern corner. Its tributaries are the Kalindri on the right, and the Tangan and Purnabhaba on the left bank. The two principal industries are the production of indigo and silk. The first has declined, and so has the second as far as concerns the weaving of piece goods, but the rearing of silkworms and the export of raw silk and silk thread are carried on upon a large scale. No railway touches the district, but the communications by water are good.
Malda supplied two great capitals to the early Mahommedan kings of Bengal; and the sites of Gaur and Pandua exhibit the most interesting remains to be found in the lower valley of the Ganges. (See [Gaur].) The connexion of the East India Company with Malda dates from a very early period. As far back as 1676 there was a factory there. In 1770 English Bazar was fixed upon for a commercial residency, the buildings of which at the present day form both the public offices and private residence of the collector.
MALDEN, a city, including several villages, of Middlesex county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the Malden river, about 5 m. N. of Boston. Pop. (1890), 23,031, (1900), 33,664, of whom 9513 were foreign-born, 3673 being English Canadians, 870 English, and 617 Swedes; (1910 census) 44,404. Malden had in 1906 a land area of 4.78 sq. m. It is served by the Boston & Maine railroad, and by inter-urban electric railways. Although it is largely a residential suburb of Boston—its post office is a Boston sub-station—it has important manufacturing industries. The most valuable manufactured product is rubber boots and shoes. The capital invested in manufacturing in 1905 was $5,553,432; and the value of the factory product, $11,235,635, was 70.2% greater than the value of the factory product in 1900. Among Malden’s institutions are the public library (endowed by Elisha S. Converse), the Malden hospital, the Malden day nursery, a Young Men’s Christian Association, and a home for the aged. A fine system of parks is maintained; the best known is possibly Pine Banks. To the north and west is the Middlesex Fells, a state reservation; about 60 acres of this and about 20 acres of the Middlesex Fells Parkway lie within Malden. Malden, when first settled about 1640, was part of Charlestown, and was known for some years as Mystic Side. It was incorporated as a town under the name of “Mauldon” in 1640, and was chartered as a city in 1881. The north part of Malden was set off in 1850 to form Melrose, and the south part in 1870 to form the town of Everett. Malden was the birthplace of Adoniram Judson, the “apostle to Burma.” Michael Wigglesworth was pastor here from 1656 until 1705.
See D. P. Corey, History of Malden (Malden, 1899); and Malden, Past and Present (Malden, 1899).
MALDIVE ISLANDS, an archipelago of coral islets in the Indian Ocean, forming a chain between 7° 6′ N. and 0° 42′ S. It consists of seventeen atolls with an immense number of islands, of which some three hundred are inhabited. In the extreme south are the isolated atolls of Addu and Fua-Mulaku, separated from Suvadiva by the Equatorial Channel, which is itself separated from the main chain of atolls by One-and-a-half-degree Channel.[1] Following the chain northward from this channel, we have Haddumati and Kolumadulu, after which the chain becomes double: to the east the chief atolls are Mulaku, Felidu, South Malé, North Malé, Kardiva (where the channel of the same name, 35 m. broad, partly breaks the chain), and Fadiffolu. To the west are South Nilandu, North Nilandu, Ari, South Mahlos, North Mahlos and Miladumadulu. To the north again are Tiladumati and Ihavandifulu. Finally, to the north of Eight-degree Channel is Minikoi, 71 m. from the nearest point of the Maldives, and 110 m. from that of the Laccadives to the north. The main part of the archipelago, north of One-and-a-half-degree Channel, consists of a series of banks either surrounded or studded all over with reefs (see J. S. Gardiner, “Formation of the Maldives,” in Geographical Journ. xix. 277 seq.). Mr Gardiner regarded these banks as plateaus rising to different elevations beneath the surface of the sea from a main plateau rising steeply from the great depths of the Indian Ocean.
After the Portuguese, from about 1518 onwards, had attempted many times to establish themselves on the islands by force, and after the Maldivians had endured frequent raids by the Mopla pirates of the Malabar coast, they began to send tokens of homage and claims of protection (the first recorded being in 1645) to the rulers of Ceylon, and their association with this island has continued practically ever since. The hereditary sultan of the archipelago is tributary to the British government of Ceylon. The population of the Maldives is estimated at 30,000. All are Mahommedans. By Messrs. Gardiner and Cooper they are classed in four ethnological divisions. (1) Those of the atolls north of the Kardiva Channel. Here the reefs are generally less perfect than elsewhere, seldom forming complete central lagoons, and as they were formerly exposed to the constant attacks of the Mopla pirates from India, the people are hardier and more vigorous than their less warlike southern neighbours. They annually visited the coasts of India or Ceylon, and often married Indian wives, thus acquiring distinct racial characters of an approximately Dravidian type. (2) Those of the central division, comprising the atolls between North Malé and Haddumati, who are under the direct rule of the sultan, and have been more exposed to Arab influences. They formerly traded with Arabia and Malaysia, and many Arabs settled amongst them, so that they betray a strong strain of Semitic blood in their features. (3 and 4) The natives of Suvadiva, Addu, Mulaku and the other southern clusters, who have had little communication with the Central Malé people, and probably preserve more of the primitive type, approximating in appearance to the Sinhalese villagers of Ceylon. They are an intelligent and industrious people, growing their own crops, manufacturing their own cloth and mats, and building their own boats, while many read Arabic more or less fluently, although still believers in magic and witchcraft. The language is a dialect of Sinhalese, but indicating a separation of ancient date and more or less mahommedanized.