48 MALABAR COAST Beypoor, 7 m. S. of Calicut, where the river of the same name falls into the sea, is the terminus of a railway connecting Madras with the coast of Malabar. The attempts of the English to manufacture iron here have not been successful. Many ships have been built at Beypoor, for the construction of which the forests situated on the banks of the river sup- ply teak timber of a darker color and better description than is found elsewhere, and of very large size. It was at Beypoor, and not at Calicut as generally supposed, that the first European navigator, Vasco da Gama, landed in 1498. At that time the Portuguese established themselves in Malabar, and the Dutch made some settlements there in 1 663. The exports of Malabar amount in value to about $3,000,000 per annum. They consist chiefly of cocoanuts and cocoanut oil, coir rope, arrack, betel nuts, coarse cotton cloth, pepper, ginger, cardamoms, camphor, coffee, kino, and various gums and resins. The imports do not amount to more than one third of the value of the exports. The name Malabar is supposed to be a cor- ruption of the Indian malayalam, signifying skirting the hills, and the original Sanskrit name is said to have been Kevala. It is sup- posed that the country was conquered in very early times by a king from the opposite side of the mountains, and that the Nairs came at the same time as a military body. They took every opportunity to aggrandize themselves, and continued to rule the country till Hyder Ali invaded it in 1763. Hyder subdued the country, plundered it almost to exhaustion, and expelled all the rajahs except such as con- ciliated him by immediate submission. His son Tippoo Sahib proposed to the Hindoos to embrace the Mohammedan faith, and followed up his proposition by levying large contribu- tions on his infidel subjects, and forcibly cir- cumcising many of the Brahmans, Nairs, and others. On the breaking out of the war be- tween Tippoo and the British in 1790, the re- fractory Nairs, many of whom had fled to the forest to escape his persecution, joined the lat- ter and succeeded in driving him from the country. With some slight disturbances, Mala- bar has since remained a portion of British India. It was incorporated with the Madras presidency in 1803, and since then the popula- tion has more than quadrupled, and the coun- try i* steadily advancing. MALABAR COAST, an indefinite term applied to the W. side of the Indian peninsula. In a somewhat restricted sense it means the coasts of Concan, Canara, Malabar proper, Cochin, and Travancore. The coast of Malabar proper is about 150 in. in length, and has numerous har- bors, though most of them are so shallow as to be available only to vessels of light draught and coasters. MALACCA. I. A British territory, one of the Strait* S.-ttl.-m.-nN. on the W. side of the Malay p-mn<ul.-i. U-t veen lat. 2 and 2 30' N., extending 42 m. along the coast, and varying in MALACCA breadth inland from 14 to 24 m. ; area, 658 sq. m pop. in 1870 (estimated), 67,267, of whom 2,648 were white. The territory lies in an ir- regular triangle, the S. E. boundary or base of which is formed by the Cassang river, which rises near a remarkable conical hill named Mt. Ophir, about 50 m. E. of the capital. In the interior the country is arranged in a series of undulating hills and valleys, generally lying parallel to the seacoast. There are no great ranges of hills, but a large number of detached elevations are found, varying in height from 100 to 1,000 ft. Mt. Ophir, called by the na- tives Ledang, is the only considerable elevation; it rises to the height of about 5,000 ft. above the level of the sea. The general formation of these hills and of the territory is granitic, with a cov- ering of laterite, or red clay ironstone. The coast line may be divided into three portions of distinct character. The N. W: portion, from Lingie river to Tanjong Kling, 17 m., shows a bold wooded elevation reaching to the sea. Behind this coast plateau the series of hill and valley commences immediately. The central portion, or from Tanjong Kling to the town of Malacca, 5 m., is a sandy beach, with ferru- ginous rocks, appearing in points jutting into the sea. The third part, 21 m., is a mud flat, exposed for a great distance at low water ; and the inner portion is covered with man- grove jungle. Inland from the two latter por- tions, an immense alluvial plain, with detached hills, extends considerably beyond the inner boundary of the territory. The district is watered by five navigable rivers, of which the Lingie is navigable for vessels of 200 tons as far as Simpang, a distance of 8 m. Numer- ous smaller streams fall into the sea. The soil of the low lands is a rich alluvium, vary- ing in color from light brown to red. The territory is capable of producing in perfection almost every article of intertropical culture, and of late years the forests have been cleared away to a considerable extent, and agriculture is on the increase. It enjoys the equable tem- perature and salubrious climate of the Malay archipelago, to which it geologically and eth- nologically belongs. The greatest recorded range of the thermometer is from 68 to 86. Tigers, leopards, black panthers, and other ferocious animals abound. Among the other animals are monkeys of various species, the elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, wild ox, tapir, several species of deer, the antelope, and musk deer. The chief crops are rice, the cocoa- nut, and tapioca. Nutmeg plants have been brought from the Moluccas, and cultivated with moderate success. Cinnamon, of superior quality to that of Ceylon, is cultivated for exportation. Cotton, chocolate, sugar cane, indigo, and a great variety of fine fruits are raised. Among the exports are tin, known in commerce as "straits tin," ebony, ivory, rat- tans, lac, eagle wood, hides, hogs, and fowls. Gold is washed from the sands of all the streams in fine dust. The trade is chiefly with
