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    "source_title": "Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)",
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    "chunk_id": "1911:cochin:c5bdd050b275",
    "title": "COCHIN",
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    "verified_text": "cochin, a town of british india, in the district of malabar, madras. pop. (1901) 19,274. the town lies at the northern extremity of a strip of land about 12 m. in length, but in few places more than a mile in breadth, which is nearly insulated by inlets of the sea and estuaries of streams flowing from the western ghats. these form the cochin backwaters, which consist of shallow lagoons lying behind the beach-line and below its level. in the monsoon the cochin backwaters are broad navigable channels and lakes; in the hot weather they contract into shallows in many places not 2 ft. deep. the town of cochin is about a mile in length by half a mile in breadth. its first european possessors were the portuguese. vasco da gama founded a factory in 1502, and albuquerque built a fort, the first european fort in india, in 1503. the british made a settlement in 1634, but retired when the dutch captured the town in 1663. under the dutch the town prospered, and about 1778 an english traveller described it as a place of great trade, \"a harbour filled with ships, streets crowded with merchants, and warehouses stored with goods from every part of asia and europe, marked the industry, the commerce, and the wealth of the inhabitants.\" in 1795 cochin was captured from the dutch by the british, and in 1806 the fortifications and public buildings were blown up by order of the authorities. the explosion destroyed much private property, and for a long time seriously affected the prosperity of the town. considerable sea-borne trade is still carried on. a lighthouse stands on the ruins of the old fort. the chief exports are cocoanut products, for the preparation of which there are factories, and tea; and the chief import is rice. cochin is the only port south of bombay in which large ships can be built. cochin-china,[1] a french colony in the extreme south of french indo-china. the term formerly included the whole annamese empire--tongking, annam, and lower cochin-china, but it now comprises only the french colony, which corresponds to lower cochin-china, and consists of the six southern provinces of the annamese empire annexed by france in 1862 and 1867. cochin-china is bounded w. by the gulf of siam, n.w. and n. by cambodia, e. by annam, and s.e. by the china sea. except along part of the north-west frontier, where the canal of vinh-the divides it from cambodia, its land-limits are conventional. its area is about 22,000 sq. m. in 1901 the population numbered 2,968,529, of whom 4932 were french (exclusive of french troops, who numbered 2537), 2,558,301 annamese, 231,902 cambodians, 92,075 chinese, 42,940 savages (min huong), the rest being asiatics of other nationalities, together with a few europeans other than french. _geography._--cochin-china consists chiefly of an immense plain, flat and monotonous, traversed by the mekong and extending from ha-tien in the west to baria in the east, and from bien-hoa in the north-east to the southern point of the peninsula of ca-mau in the south-west. the last spurs of the mountains of annam, which come to an end at cape st jacques, extend over parts of the provinces of tay-ninh, bien-hoa and baria in the north-east and east of the colony, but nowhere exceed 2900 ft. in height; low hills are found in the north-western province of chau-doc. cochin-china is remarkable for the abundance of its waterways. the mekong divides at pnom-penh in cambodia into two arms, the fleuve superieur and the fleuve inferieur, which, pursuing a course roughly parallel from north-west to south-east, empty into the china sea by means of the numerous channels of its extensive delta. from june to october the inundations of the mekong cover most of the country, portions of which, notably the plaine des joncs in the north and a large tract of the peninsula of ca-mau, are little else than marshes. besides a great number of small coastal streams there are four other rivers of secondary importance, all of which water the east of the colony, viz. the don-nai, which rising in the annamese mountains flows west, then abruptly south, reaching the sea to the west of cape st jacques; the saigon river, which flowing from north-west to south-east passes saigon, the capital of the colony, 12 m. below which it unites with the don-nai; and the two vaicos, which join the don-nai close to its mouth. these rivers flow into the sea through numerous winding channels, forming a delta united by canals to that of the mekong. the waterways of cochin-china communicate by means of natural or artificial channels (_arroyos_), facilitating transport and aiding in the uniform distribution of the inundation to which the country owes its fertility. canals from chau-doc to ha-tien and from long xuyen to rach-gia join the mekong with the gulf of siam. east of cape st jacques the mountains of annam come down close to the sea; west of that point, as far as the southern headland of ca-mau, the coast-line of cochin-china runs north-east to south-west for about 160 m. in a straight line broken only by the mouths of the don-nai and mekong. from cape ca-mau to rach-gia it runs north for a distance of 120 m., then north-west as far as ha-tien, where the boundary line between it and cambodia meets the sea. _climate and fauna._--the climate of the country is warm, humid, and very trying to europeans. the wet season, during which heavy rain falls almost daily, lasts from april to october, coinciding with the south-west monsoon. the hottest period lasts from the middle of april to the middle of june, the thermometer during that time often reaching 94°",
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