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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 12, p. 102.

102 FORT ST. DAVID Gingee by Sivaji in 1677 this passed into the possession of the Marathas. From them it was purchased by the English in 16go, the sale including all the land round to the distance of a ` randome shott of a great gun.' The great gun was carefully loaded and fired to the different points of the compass, and wherever its shot fell a boundary mark was set up. The villages so obtained are called the 'cannon- ball villages' to this day. The place was originally known in those days as Tegnapatam or Devipatam ; and it has been conjectured with much probability that it was named Fort St. David by Elihu Yale, then Governor of Fort St. George, who was a Welshman, in honour of his country's patron saint. From 17 2 5 onwards the fortifications were greatly improved and the place became of considerable strength. Upon the capitulation of Madras to the French under La Bourdonnais in 1746, Fort St. David became the British head-quarters on the coast, and the Company's agents there assumed the general administration of affairs in the South of India. They successfully resisted an attack made in the same year by Dupleix. Clive received his first commission here in 1747 and was appointed its Governor in 1756. In 1758 the French under Lally (see the graphic account of the affair in Orme's History) captured and dismantled the fort, but abandoned it in 176o when Eyre Coote marched on Pondicherry. In 1782 they again took it, and restored its defences in 1783 sufficiently to withstand an attack by General Stuart. It was given back to the English in 1785. A curious feature of the fortifications was the subterranean passages under the glacis. These appear to have run completely round the fort, thus forming a safe means of communication for the garrison. At short intervals other galleries, striking off at right angles and terminating in powder chambers, served as mines. At the south-east corner the gallery ran down to the edge of the sea. Some of these passages are still to be seen. Fort St. George.-The citadel of Madras. See MADRAS CITY. Fort Sandeman Subdivision.-Subdivision and tahsil of the Zhob District, Baluchistan, forming the north-eastern corner of the District, and lying between 30° 39′ and 32° 4′ N. and 68° 58′ and 70° 3′ E., with an area of 3,583 square miles. Population (rgoi), 34712. The land revenue, including grazing tax and royalty levied on wood, amounted in 1903-4 to Rs. 40,ooo. The head-quarters station is FORT SANDEMAN (population, 3,552). The tahsil possesses 19o villages. The country is hilly, and intersected by the valley of the Zhob and many minor valleys. Cultivation is sparse and back- ward. The Girdao plain is covered with rich pasture in years of good rainfall. The ShInghar spurs of the Sulaiman range contain fine forests of edible pine. Fort Sandeman Town.-Head-quarters station of the Zhob