The coast of _Ciòmandala_[5], which the Europeans very improperly call _Coromandel_, has at a distance the appearance of a green theatre. The sea-shore is covered with white sand; and a multitude of beautiful shells are here and there to be seen. The country is intersected by a great many rivers and streams, which flowing down from the high ridge of mountains on the west, called the _Gauts_, pursue their course towards the east, and discharge themselves into the sea; some with impetuosity and noise, others with gentleness and silence. In the months of October and November, when the rainy season commences, these streams are swelled up in an extraordinary degree, and sweep from the mountains a multitude of serpents, which, to the no small terror of the unexperienced traveller, they carry a great way out with them into the sea. This, in all probability, has given rise to the fabulous tales of sea monsters, which some pretend to have seen in the Indian ocean. The land here is covered, to a considerable distance, with trees of all kinds, and particularly that called by the Europeans the real Indian palm or the coco-nut tree. The Indians give it the name of _tenga_, and make much use of it for planting neat gardens, with which not only the coast of Malabar, but a great part of that of _Ciòlamandala_ also is, in a manner, overspread. Various hamlets and villages are interspersed between these gardens, and the whole surrounding country delights the eye with never-fading verdure. During my travels through India I found the climate every where mild and healthful; and in no place did I hear complaints of bad weather. The Indians generally sleep with their doors and windows open, except when there is any appearance of the _Caracatta_, which is a certain kind of wind that blows from the quarter of the _Gauts_. This chain of mountains begins at Cape _Comari_[6], in the eighth, degree of north latitude, and extends thence towards the north; so that it almost intersects India in the middle. The eastern part is called _Ciòlamandala_, that is, the _land of millet_[7]; the western _Malayala_, or the _land of mountains_. The latter is called by the Arabians and Europeans Malabar, or the Malabar coast. The _Gauts_, the highest ridge of mountains in this country, occasion that difference in the weather, and that remarkable change of seasons which take place on both these coasts. This is one of the most singular phenomena of nature ever yet observed. On the coast of _Ciòlamandala_ the summer begins in June; but on the coast of Malabar it does not commence till October. During the latter month it is winter on the coast of _Ciòlamandala_, whereas on the coast of Malabar it begins so early as the 15th of June. The one season therefore always commences on the east coast at the time when it ends on the western. When winter prevails on the coast of Malabar; when the mountains and valleys are shaken by tremendous claps of thunder,