to it, it is now of no commercial importance. Coringa appears in Pliny's pages as the name of a cape, but the village is now several miles from the sea. It was for long the residence of British merchants, but little now remains to call them to mind. There are a few old tombs in the graveyard — some dating back to l8l6*[1] — and portions of a few bungalows survive. One forms the present deputy tahsildar's office. Two others, one of which must have been a fine building, belonged to a certain Mr. Graham, whose name is still well known. The latest date in the churchyard is 1857, and apparently English merchants did not live in the place long after that.
An interesting account of the town as it was in its busiest days was given by Mr. Topping, an astronomer in the service of the Madras Government, who visited it in 1789. He deplored in particular the want of police, which he said were badly needed owing to the number of ships — English, French, Dutch and Portuguese — that anchored in the road and the many disorderly people that landed from them. 'Nothing is more common,' he said, 'than night broils and frays among people under the influence of intoxication. Frequent thefts and even attempts to assassinate happened during my short stay, which induced me to apply for a guard of sepoys, to protect myself and the Company's property from violence and rapine.' A curious contrast, this, to the quiet country village of to-day!
It appears that the present town of Coringa, which is on the east of the river, was 'built' about 1759 by Mr. Westcot, a resident of Injaram; while what is known as 'old Coringa,' on the western bank, is older than this.†[2]The bulk of the inhabitants and the deputy tahsildar live in the former, but there are a few good houses in the latter. The village suffered severely from the hurricane of 1839, and has twice (in 1787 and 1832) been nearly swept away by tidal waves. The old village was also damaged by the tidal wave of 1706.
The place is indeed a shadow of its former self. Its seaborne trade was valued in 1877-78 at Rs. 8,22,000, and in 1880-81 at Rs. 3,20,000; but by 1884-85 it had fallen to Rs. 33,000; and since 1898-99 it has ceased altogether.
Moreover the neighbouring village of Tállarévu has now monopolised the ship-building that was formerly the pride of Coringa. In l802 Mr. Ebenezer Roebuck, a private gentleman residing at Coringa, constructed at a great cost a dock near
