242 PULICAT TO HVN
north of Madras city. Population (rgor), 5,448. Pulicat was the site
of the earliest settlement of the Dutch on the mainland of India. In
16og they built a fort here and called it Geldria, and in 1619 the
English obtained from the chiefs a permission to share in the pepper
trade of Java. Later, it was the chief Dutch settlement on the Coro-
mandel coast. It was taken by the English in 1781 ; restored in 1785
to Holland under the treaty Of 1784, and again surrendered by the
butch in 1795. In 1818 Pulicat was handed back to Holland by
the East India Company under the Convention of the Allied Powers
in 1814; in 18 2 5 it was finally ceded to Great Britain by the treaty
of March, 1824. The only relics of Dutch authority now remaining
are the curious and elaborate tombs in their old cemetery, which are
maintained at Government expense. The town was formerly a centre
of trade with Penang and the Straits, but this has now ceased. It was
also once a sanitarium much frequented by residents of Madras, but
the prevalence of malarial fever put it out of favour. The place is now
comparatively deserted, and is inhabited chiefly by the Muhammadan
trading community of Labbais. The only trade now carried on is
managed by these people. It consists chiefly of the export of woven
cloth, dried fish, and prawns. The Hindus of the town are for the
most part very poor and earn their livelihood by fishing and daily
labour. The old Roman Catholic church here attracts large crowds
from Madras and elsewhere to one of its annual feasts.
Pulicat Lake.-A shallow salt-water lagoon, about 37 miles in
length and from 3 to I 1 in breadth, lying along the . shore of the Bay
of Bengal in Nellore District, Madras, between 13° 24' and 13° 47' N.
and 8o° 2' and 8o° 16' E. It is separated from the sea by the long,
narrow, sandy island Of SRIHARIKOTA, and by the spit of sand on which
stands the town of PULICAT, after which it is named. Like the Chilka
Lake, it was probably formed by the antagonism between the sand-
bearing currents of the Bay and the silt-laden streams which flow into
it. There is shoal-water for some distance to seaward, and this shoal
probably grew gradually into a long sand-bar which checked the flow
of the land streams. The lake contains several islands (on which
much lime is made from the shells found upon them), and is connected
with the sea by openings north of Pulicat and elsewhere, and so is
influenced by the tide. It is seldom more than 6 feet deep in the dry
season. About thirty years ago a dam was built across the middle
of it from Sriharikota through the island of Venad to the mainland, in
order to reduce its extent and thus check the smuggling of the natural
salt which forms along its shores. This has turned the northern half
into a sandy waste. The BUCKINGHAM CANAL enters the lake south
of Pulicat and utilizes it for about 6 miles.
Pulivendla.-North-western taluk of Cuddapah District, Madras,
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