COCHIN, ktt-clre'n' or ko'chin (Tamil kaei, Telugu loci, harbor). Once the capital of the principality of the same name, but now a sea port of the District of Malabar, Madras, British India (Map: India, C 7). It stands on the south side of the principal channel between the open ocean and a lagoon known as the 'Back water.' This lagoon, 120 miles long, is, even in its lowest state, always navigable for canoes, and forms a valuable means of eommunication with the interior. Cochin is one of the chief cities on this coast for ship-building and mari time commerce. Here the Portuguese erected their first fort in India, in 1503. They were supplemented by the Dutch in 1602. Under the Dutch Cochin was a great emporium of trade. In 1796 the town was captured by the British, and again in 1506, when its fortifications and public buildings were destroyed and its private dwell ings very much damaged. Notwithstanding this
cheek, the place continued to flourish. It has a safe harbor, citadel, and arsenal. It is the see of a Roman Catholic bishop and of two Syrian bishops. Among the buildings is a church erected by the Portuguese in the early part of the sixteenth century. The population, numbering about 17,600, is very heterogeneous, including Hindus. descendants of the Portuguese and Dutch, Armenians, Arabs, Jews, and Persians. The Black Jews of Cochin occupy a separate suburb. The trade consists chiefly in the export of cocoa oil, eoeoa-fibre, teak-wood, cardamoms. etc. Water is brought from a distance of IS miles. The average temperature is 78° F. Ad joining Cochin is a native town of the same name, nearly as populous, in the State of Cochin.