Cochin

Cochin, a native state of India, politically connected with Madras, between the British district of Malabar and the state of Travancore, with the Arabian Sea on the SW. It contains 1361 sq. m., and (1891) 722,906 inhabitants. Its hydrography is singular. The Western Ghauts, which have here an elevation of fully 4000 feet, intercept the south-west monsoon, and render the coast one of the most humid regions in the world during June, July, August, and September. As the space between the mountains and the sea is almost on a level with the tide, the countless streams have each two contrasted sections—a plunging torrent and a sluggish river ending in a brackish estuary. Further, these estuaries, almost continuously breasted by a narrow belt of higher ground, form between them a backwater or lagoon of 120 miles in length, and of every width between a few hundred yards and 10 miles, which communicates at only three points with the ocean. The forests produce the cocoa-nut, teak, red cedar, and many other woods, while the low country produces drugs, dyes, and gums. The great mass of the population (430,000) are Hindus, but there are also 34,000 Mohammedans and 138,000 Christians (of the Syrian and Roman confessions), and 1250 Jews. The capital is Ernakolam (pop. 14,000). Cochin formed a treaty with the East India Company in 1798.