The whole sea-coast from Surat to Cape Comari is inhabited by fishermen, who, because they belong to the despised or rather lowest casts, dare not settle in the interior part of the country, and are consequently obliged to construct habitations for themselves on the sea-coast, or in the neighbourhood of harbours, rivers, and other streams of water. These people are almost all Christians; a small number of them only are Pagans and Mahometans. The latter were induced to embrace Mahometanism by the Arabs, who established themselves there in the eighth and ninth centuries; the former were converted to the Christian faith by the Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits, and bare-footed Carmelites. As most foreigners who visit India travel along the sea-coast, and have no opportunity of going far into the interior parts, they form an opinion of the country and its inhabitants from the manners, customs, laws, peculiarities, and fabulous relations of these fishermen. Hence the unfounded, ridiculous, partial and insipid tales respecting the Indians, which have been spread throughout all Europe. The _Mucarèr_ (fishermen, or, according to the literal meaning of the word, people who dive under water), _Paravas_, _Ciànas_, _Tupasis_, _Mestizes_, _Creoles_, and other inhabitants of the sea-coast, are certainly incapable of giving any authentic information respecting India; as they never saw the interior part of the country, and dare enter into conversation neither with the nobility nor the Brahmans. This regulation is founded on the religious system and political constitution of the Indians. The sea, in the Samscred language, is called _Samudra_, _Abdhi_, _Sàgara_, _Arnavà_, _Ambudhi_, and _Udadhi_; but, in the Malabar, _Cadel_. According to the poetical fables of the Indians, there are in this world _Sapta Sagara_, that is, seven seas. The first, named in the Samscred _Kshìròda_, consists merely of milk; the Second, _Lavonoda_, of salt; the third, _Suroda_, or _Sura_, of coco-nut juice; the fourth, _Dadhimaṅòda_, of water which separates itself from the sour milk; the fifth, _Ikshùda_, of water from the sugar-cane; the sixth, _Svavduda_, of fresh water; and the seventh, _Navanidàmbudhi_, of fresh butter. In the centre of these seas lies the island _Gembhu_, that is, the globe which we inhabit. The English have promised to explain this allegorical system in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches; and I shall not, therefore, dispute with them that honour.