Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/355

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GAZETTEER.

may here be mentioned, was built in 1838 by Captain J, H. Bell. The belfry was blown Down in the cyclone of 1870 (p. 153) and rebuilt by Government.

North of the fort, in a lane off the bazaar-street, chocked up by houses, is the old cemetery, often wrongly called the Dutch Cemetery.' There are no Dutch tombs in it, but it is the last resting-place of many of those who made Vizagapatam history and the burials date from 1699 to 1823. Among the graves are those of four Chiefs of the settlement, Simon Holcombe (1705), Sandys Davis (1734), Charles Simpson (1741) and Alexander Davidson (1791); of Kingsford Venner, a cadet of 19 who was killed in the sepoy mutiny of 1780 (p. 47); of John Dykes, a young seaman of H.M.S. Centurion, 50 guns, who was killed in a stirring fight in the Vizagapatam roads on the 18th September 1804, between his ship and a French man-of-war of 80 guns aided by two frigates, which resulted in the enemy being beaten off; 1[1] and of Benjamin Roebuck (1809), builder of the Mint at Madras and the docks at Coringa, who was sent to Vizagapatam as a punishment for supposed complicity in the scandals connected with the debts of the Nawab of the Carnatic.2[2]

North-east of the fort, on excellent sites facing the sea, are the new office of the deputy tahsildar and the Town Hall presented to the place by the Mahárája of Bobbili to comme- morate the late Queen-Empress' diamond jubilee. They stand on land which used to be occupied by a very dirty fishermen's hamlet called Jáláripéta. In 1896-99 the houses in this were bought up at a cost of Rs. 27,000 and the fishermen transferred to a site across the river purchased and improved at a cost of Rs. 9,000. The fisher people, however, died at such a rate in their new quarters that in 1900 they were brought back and settled on a new site on the sand-hill.

On this hill are the civil hospital (see p, 157), the Mrs. A. V.Narasinga Rao college (p. 161), the site destined for the medical school and the Gajapati Rao poor-house. This last was started in 1863 by the then voluntary municipal association, was managed by a committee from 1866 till 1871, when it was taken over by the municipality; fell to a committee again between 1878 and 1886, when the council once more assumed charge;and in 1899 was taken over by Mahárája Sir Gajapati Rao,

The Turner Chattram and the new market, both in the bazaar-street, have been referred to elsewhere. Dábá Gardens,

331

  1. 1 See Col. Campbell's letter describing the fight in Asiatic Annual Register for 1805, 32,
  2. 2 More particulars of the various graves will be found in Mr. J. J. Cotton's List of Inscriptions on Madras Tombs,