those who have not seen them can hardly form any idea of them. Navigation on these coasts is attended with great danger, on account of the currents. The ancients, therefore, were accustomed always to drop their anchors towards evening, and to remain in that state during the night, that they might not have the misfortune of being driven out by the violence of these currents into the open sea. This practice is still observed by the Portuguese seamen, when they sail along the coast of Malabar. It, however, sometimes happens, that an unexperienced captain, after doubling Cape Comari with great toil and labour, and just at the moment when he flatters himself with the hopes of reaching the Malabar coast, is driven to the Maldivia islands, which lie at the distance of nearly 300 sea miles. Such was the case with Father Louis Maria à Jesu, of the order of the barefooted Carmelites, apostolical vicar and bishop of _Usula_. He had taken his passage from Puduceri to Malabar in a small vessel commanded by an unexperienced navigator; and the vessel having got into one of these currents, was carried by it to the Maldivia islands, and thence to Mosambique on the eastern coast of Africa[71]. Cochin is a beautiful city, built by the Portuguese, in the tenth year after the arrival of Vasco de Gama at Calicut. In 1663 it was besieged by a Dutch fleet under the command of Peter Van Bitter and C. Valkenberg, who made themselves masters of it, and who carried off from it a great deal of riches. After that period the beautiful cathedral was converted into a warehouse for the Dutch East India Company. This edifice is now employed for preserving the sugar which the Company obtains from Batavia, and the cinnamon they receive from Ceylon, together with nutmegs, cloves, iron, copper, cordage, rice, pepper, and various other articles of merchandise, which they bring hither from foreign countries, and sell partly to the Indian princes, and partly to the Arabian as well as other native and foreign merchants. Cochin is intersected by beautiful streets: the arsenal is well provided with all kinds of military stores, and the citadel is strongly fortified. The latter, in the year 1778, was supplied with new ditches, bridges, batteries and bastions, under the direction of the governor Adrian Moens. It lies on the southern bank of the _Coci_, and commands the harbour, which is open to merchant vessels, but into which no ship of war is suffered to enter[72]. _Mattanceri_, a very populous town, lying a quarter of a league higher up on the same river, or rather lake, is a kind of magazine where merchandise of all kinds, both the production of India and of other countries, is deposited for sale.