Many of the Arab ships used to make two voyages yearly. It still carries on an extensive commerce with Surat, Bombay, the Malabar coast, Canara, Arabia, China, and many of the eastern islands, exporting pepper, cardamoms, teak and sandal wood, cocoa-nuts, coir cordage, cassia, and fish maws; and importing chiefly almonds, dates, pearls, gum arabic, cotton, opium, benzoin, camphor, cinnamon, spices, sugar-candy, tea, china, silks, shawls, and piece-goods. On the north-east side of this town, at the junction of the river with the sea, there is safe anchorage for vessels, and ships can be built here on very advantageous terms; the cost, when coppered and thoroughly equipped for sea, not exceeding, in the year 1800, £14 per ton. It is called by the natives Cacha Bunder, or harbour. It stands on an island at the mouth of the Cali Coylang, is nearly a semicircle, and about a mile and a-half in circumference. It is regularly fortified, both on the land and water sides, with bastions, a wall, and a ravelin; a wet ditch surrounds it, and a glacis and covered way extend beyond this, so that it could withstand any sudden attack, though it could not abide a regular siege. The streets are wide, and it has three gates; among its buildings, may be particularly specified the church, the house of the governor, the barracks, and a public hotel. The Roman Catholic bishop formerly had his residence here, but when the Dutch took possession of the place he removed to Coilan; his jurisdiction was very extensive, including the whole southern peninsula and the island of Ceylon, comprising more than 100 churches. The English took it in the year 1795, and under their power it still contimues. It is governed by a president, under whom is a civil establishment of a judge and other officers, and it has a strong military garrison. Lat. 9° 57' N., long. 76° 8' E.

The Jews are numerous in this province; but Mattacherry is their principal residence, being almost entirely inhabited by them. There are two classes, the Jerusalem, or White Jews, and the ancient, or Black Jews; the latter, though they have a synagogue in Cochin, chiefly live in the interior, and differ very little in appearance from the Hindoos. They are considered as an inferior race by the White Jews.

The rajah of Cochin preserved his independence much longer than most of the other Hindoo chiefs. Tippoo first exacted a tribute of him, which he paid for some years; but on January 6, 1791, the East India Company entered into a treaty with him, by which he was enabled to throw off his subjection to that prince, to recover some districts of which he had been deprived, and to transfer his allegiance to them, which he accordingly did, agreeing to pay them one lac of rupees annually. A treaty of perpetual friendship was concluded on the 6th May, 1809, by colonel Macauley on the part of the British government, by which the friends and enemies of either party were to be considered and treated as such by both, and the British engaged to defend the rajah's country from all attacks; the rajah engaging to pay an additional annual sum of 176,037 rupees, in order to support a battalion of native infantry, to give the British free access to his

forts and towns, and to exclude from his dominions and service all Europeans not approved of by the English government, to which was to be transferred the management of all his external political concerns.

COCHIN (Charles Nicholas), an excellent artist, and a man of considerable literary abilities, was born in 1715. He was made keeper of the designs in the Louvre, chevalier of the order of St. Michael, and secretary to the academy of painting. He published Letters on the Pictures of Herculaneum; Dissertation on the Effect of Light and Shade; Travels in Italy, or a Collection of Observations on Works of Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting; Letters on the Lives of Slodz and Ceshays, &c. He died in 1790. COCHIN (Henry), an eminent French lawyer, born at Paris in 1687. At twenty years of age he was admitted advocate, and two years after pleaded his first cause before the great council. It is said that at the bar, he equalled Bourdaloue in the pulpit. He died in 1747; and his works, consisting of memorials, pleadings, &c. were published at Paris in six volumes quarto, in 1751. COCHIN-CHINA, or WESTERN CHINA, a name given to this country by the early Portuguese navigators, who discovered it. According to the most accurate calculations, it lies between 8° 40′ and 17° N. lat., and between 106° 40′ and 109° 10′ E. long. It is very narrow in proportion to its length, extending along the coast not less than 500 miles; and being bounded on the north by Tunquin, on the west by Siam, Cambodia, and Siampa, and on the other sides by the China Sea. These were its original limits, but by conquest they have been much extended, as they now include Tunquin, Cambodia, and Siampa. It is mostly a long narrow plain, enclosed within the sea on one side, and on the other by a long range of mountains separating it from the countries on the west, in few places being more than seventy miles broad, and in some not more than twenty. The breezes, that regularly blow from the sea, so temper the extreme heat of the summer, that the climate is very salubrious. During the months of September, October, and November, the rains set in, and the low grounds are overflowed by torrents that come down from the mountains, and for three or four days every fortnight, deluge the country. Cold northerly winds, followed by rain, prevail during December, January, and February, and distinguish the winters of this country from that of all other eastern regions. The inundations experienced here render the soil remarkably fruitful; in many parts, the land yields three harvests in the year, but generally two, one of which is reaped in April, the other in October. Every tropical production is found here, particularly rice and sugar; the fruits of India, and many of those of China, arrive at the greatest state of perfection. Besides the rice that commonly grows in the plain, there is a particular sort that flourishes on the mountains, called mountain rice. Vast woods of mulberry trees are found here, which grow amazingly fast. There are also many forests of remarkably fine timber, particularly the incorruptible tree, which never rots, and is hard enough for anchors; besides a great quantity of aromatic woods. On

the coast, the sharks'-fins, an animal suostance of a gelatinous nature, abound; it is often called beech de mer and here, also, are found a kind of birds'-nests, which are much in request in China, where they are counted a great delicacy, and used in seasoning ragouts. Here, likewise, a species of cinnamon is cultivated, which, by the Chinese, is esteemed preferable to that of Ceylon. Agula and Japan wood and ivory furnish articles of advantageous commerce. Gold, 'n great quantities, is brought from the mountains, in dust, and almost pure, or collected in the beds of the rivers among the sand; and silver has lately been abundant. The great men have their arms frequently ornamented with the former article. Among the domestic animals of this country may be enumerated bullocks, goats, swine, horses, buffaloes, elephants, and camels; while the woods abound with the wild boar, tiger, rhinoceros, and large herds of deer: they have also fine poultry, and the fish that is caught in abundance on the coast, is highly delicious. The Cochin-Chinese consider the elephant's flesh a great dainty; but, though they use bullocks for food, they do not attend much to the breeding of them, and, they have not the least idea of milking their cattle. The birds'-nests, mentioned above, are found in four islands near the coast, and in five other smaller ones there are prodigious numbers of turtles, the flesh of which is very delicate.

Cochin-China consists of twelve provinces, all bordering on the coast, and extending to the mountainous ridge on the west. In these mountains numerous rivers take their rise, and disembogue their waters in the Eastern Ocean, and, though they are not sufficiently large for vessels of any magnitude to navigate, their importance as to the fertility of the country and its internal commerce can hardly be overrated. The estuaries formed by their mouths and other inlets on the coast furnish very convenient harbours and ports. Turon, or Hansan Bay, in the northern part, is surpassed by none in the eastern world, for its convenience and security, and the promontory overlooking it, forming a peninsula similar to that of Gibraltar on the south of Spain, is not only impregnable, but forms a shelter for ships at every season of the year; while multitudes of rivulets of clear fresh water fertilise the valleys that border the shore. Faifoo, an ancient mart for foreign commerce, sometimes regarded as the capital of the country, lies on the banks of a river about ten miles up from this bay. Here is also a considerable port on a river navigable for large ships, but it has a sand bank at the entrance. The bay and harbour of Chin-chew, in the middle division of Chang, is spacious and sheltered, but large vessels can only enter it at high water: at the head of the bay is the city of Quim-nong. Saigong, in the south, has been considered by Mr. Barrow, as situated in Cochin-China, but it is more properly in Cambodia; the largest ships soil up to it, and it has an extensive arsenal for the navy. There is no lake mentioned in this country, but a vast sandy desert seems to stretch along the western limit of it towards Cambodia, for about 250 miles, from the twelfth to the sixteenth degree of latitude. There is no country in

the world on which the sea has made more visible and rapid advances than this; it has been calculated that from 1744 to 1749 it had encroached sixty yards. Some parts of the southern shores are perpendicular, and consist of granite rock, close to which no soundings can be obtained; where the sandy beach is found, there is a gradual descent of sand, mud and shells. In some places the shore consists of ridges of round pebbles, and the bottom is rocky. There is a great irregu larity in the tides on the coast; high water continuing in some parts for twelve hours. summer the tides are lowest, and in winter they rise to the highest degree.

In

The Cochin Chinese are short in stature, of an olive complexion, and have similar features with the Chinese, so that there can be no doubt of their being of the same origin; but, in some points, they differ widely as to their manners and customs. They are an intelligent, active, and lively people. In their entertainments, superstitions, and ceremonies, they are much like the Chinese; but, with regard to their treatment of women, they are very different. They consider women best suited to conduct the principal concerns of the family; they are, therefore, entrusted with them; and they are generally as free and unrestrained as the men. The lower classes of them are, however, condemned to the most servile labor, while the men are smoking and chewing opium or betel. Mr. Barrow says, 'we observed them day after day, from morning till night, standing in the midst of pools up to their knees occupied in the transplanting of rice. In fact all the labors of tillage, and the various employments connected with agriculture, seem to fall to the share of the female peasantry; while those in Turon add to these the superintendance of all the details of commerce. They even assist in constructing and keeping in repair their mud cottages, conduct the manufacture of coarse earthen vessels, manage the boats on the rivers, and in the harbours; and do everything in the cotton manufacture from the drawing of the wool from the pod, to the making of it up into dresses for themselves and their families.' Unlike the Chinese females, however, they have full liberty and the use of their limbs; but they are licentious, and far from being generally modest. They conduct almost all the commercial business, and, on the arrival of a stranger, it is not difficult for him to procure a female partner, who will be devoted to his service by night and day. In Cochin China a man is not limited to any number of wives or concubines; but the first wife always has the preference, and the chief part of the domestic management. The breaking of a pair of chopsticks, in the presence of witnesses, is sufficient to divorce them. The women are generally dressed in a loose frock of brown or blue cotton, and a pair of black trowsers. They wear neither shoes nor stockings; the higher classes sometimes use sandals. Their hair is long and lack, hanging down their shoulders, or fixed in a knot on the top of the head. When in full dress, on occasions of ceremony, they have several gowns one over the other; but differing in length so that the lower parts of all are visible. The men are dressed nearly in t':e same manner with a

conquered Tonquin. In 1797 and 1798, by the aid of Adran, who had now returned, he effected a number of improvements, opening roads, encouraging cultivation, introducing European discipline into his army and navy, &c. Adran died

in 1800, and was buried with great pomp. CO'CHINEAL, n. s. Span. cochinilla. A wood-louse An insect gathered upon the opuntia, and dried: from which a beautiful red color is extracted.

COCHINEAL, or COCHENEEL. See Coccus

CACTI.

COCHLEA. See ANATOMY.
COCHLEA, in zoology. See HELIX.

COCHLEARIA, scurvy-grass: a genus of the siliculosa order, and tetradynamia class of plants; natural order thirty-ninth, siliquos. The silicula is emarginated, turgid, and scabrous; with the valves gibbous and obtuse. There are nine species; the most remarkable of which are, 1. C. angelica, or garden scurvy-grass, growing naturally on the sea shore, in the north of England

pro

and in Holland; but cultivated for use in the gardens near London. It has a fibrous root, from which arise many round succulent leaves, hollowed like a spoon; the stalks rise from six inches to a foot high, and are brittle, and garnished with leaves which are oblong and sinuated. The flowers are produced in clusters at the end of the branches, consisting of four small white petals placed in the form of a cross; and succeeded by short, roundish, swelling seed-vessels, having two cells divided by a thin partition. In each of these are lodged four or five roundish seeds. This plant is propagated by seeds, which should be sown in July, in a moist spot of ground, and in spring they will be fit for use: those that are left will run up to seed in May, and perfect their seeds in June. Scurvy-grass is a pungent stimulating medicine; capable of dissolving viscid juices, opening obstructions of the viscera and the more distant glands, and moting the more fluid secretions. It is particularly celebrated in scurvies, being the principal herb employed in these disorders in the northern countries. 2. C. armoracia, or horse-radish, a plant too well known to need any description. It is propagated by cuttings or buds from the sides of old roots. The best season for this is in October or February; the former for the dry lands, the latter for moist. The root has a quick pungent smell, and penetrating acrid taste; it nevertheless sometimes exudes on the surface. By drying it loses all its acrimony, becoming first sweetish and then almost insipid: but if kept in a cool place, in sand, it retains its qualities for a considerable time. Its culinary use as a stimulant needs no description: the medical effects of it are to stimulate the solids, attenuate the juices, and promote the fluid secretions: it seems to extend its action through the whole habit, and to affect the minutest glands. It has frequently been of service in some kinds of scurvies, and other chronic disorders proceeding from a viscidity of the juices, or obstructions of the excretory ducts. Sydenham recommends it likewise in dropsies, particularly those which follow intermittent fevers. Both water and rectified spirit extracts the virtues of this root by infusion,

COCHLEUS (John), a catholic divine who early and most vigorously opposed the Reformation. He was born at Nuremberg, in 1479, and wrote with great acrimony against Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, &c. especially the former, He also had a controversy with the English diin a work entitled De Actis et Scriptis Lutheri. vines on the subject of Henry VIII's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and published a curious history of the Hussites, folio. He died at Breslaw, January 10th, 1552.

COCHRANE, POINT, the west point of a bay in Prince William Sound, on the west coast of North America. The bay is about a league and a half wide, and three miles deep, terminated by a boundary of ice and frozen snow, reaching from a compact body of lofty frozen mountains to the water's edge. Long. 212° 16′ E., lat. 60° 46′. N. COCK, n. s. Ang-Sax. coce; Fr. coq;

COCK-CROWING, Gr. KIKKOS; alluding to the call or crowing of a cock, as Lat. gallus. A male to the hen, or indeed a male of any species of bird. It is also used to designate superiority, courage, and conquest; whatever is first and best. Cock-crowing is rot only the note of the bird,

but the note of time.

Calls all her chirping family around, Fed and defended by the fearless cock. Thomson's Spring. Cock, n. s. Ital. galleto. A weather-cock, gnomen of a dial, &c. from the general figure. Things, says Johnson, that were contrived to turn, seem anciently to have had that form, whatever was the reason.

You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout

Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the
cocks!
Shakspeare.
When every room
Hath blazed with lights, and brayed with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to a wasteful cock,
And set mine eyes at flow.

ld.

It were good there were a little cock made in the belly of the upper glass. Bacon's Natural History. Thus the small jett, which hasty hands unlock, Spirts in the gardener's eyes who turns the cock.

Pope. Cock, n. s. Ital. cocca; Fr. coche; from Lat. caso. The part of a lock of a gun that strikes with a flint; perhaps from the action like that of a cock pecking: but it was, I think, so called, says Dr. Johnson, when it had not its present form. The Ital. cocca signifies the notch of an arrow; and thus cock is sometimes applied in English.

With hasty rage he snatched

His gunshot, that in holsters watched;
And bending cock, he levelled full
Against the outside of Talgol's skull.

Hudibras.

A seven-shot gun carries powder and bullets for seven charges and discharges. Under the breech of the barrel is one box for the powder; a little before the leck another for the bullets; behind the cock a charger, which carries the powder from the box to a funnel at the further end of the lock.

Grew.

Small;

Cock, n. s. Goth. kog; Per. kak. diminutive; hence cock-boat, a little boat. But thou, good man, sith far in seawe bee, And the great waters gin apace to swell, That thou no more we can the mayn-land see, Have care, I pray, to guide the cock-bote well, Least worse on sea then us on land befell. Spenser. This messager adoune him gan to hie, And found Jason and Hercules also, That in a cogge to londe weren i'go, Flim to refreshen and to take the aire. Chaucer. The fishermen that walk upon the beach, Appear like mice; and yon tall anchoring bark Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy, Almost too small for sight. Shakspeare. They take view of all sized cocks, barges, and fisherbeats hovering on the coast.

Carew's Survey of Cornwall. This invincible armada, which having not fired a cottage of ours at land, nor taken a cock-boat of ours at sea, wandered through the wilderness of the northBacon.

era sea.

Did they think it less dishonor to God to be like a brute, or a plant, or a cock-buat, than to be like a man? Stillingfleet.

COCK, N.s. KÓKKоç; Cock, n. s. & v. a. Co'CKADE, n. s. Co ́CKAHOOP, ad.

Lat. coccus. A red color.

The top or head of a thing; a hat set up with pertness or presumption; probably from the appearance of a cock's comb, and his mode of exhibiting it. It is used therefore to express exultation and triumph; hence, too, when the brim of a hat is raised to a point, it is called a cocked hat; and a small heap of hay is for the same reason denominated a cock.

Now I am a frisker, all men on me look; What should I do but set cock on the hoop?

Camden's Remains. You'll make a mutiny among my guests! You will set cock-a-hoop!

Shakspeare.

As soon as the dew is off the ground, spread the hay again, and turn it, that it may wither on the other side: then handle it, and if you find it dry, make it up into cocks.

Mortimer.

Cries out 'gainst cocking, since he cannot bet.

Ben Jonson. Some of them holding up their pistols, cocked, near the door of the house, which they kept open. Dryden's Dedication, Æneid.

Sir Fopling is a fool so nicely writ; The ladies would mistake him for a wit; And when he sings, talks loud, and cocks would cry, I vow, methinks, he's pretty company. Dryden.

This is that muscle which performs the motion so often mentioned by the Latin poets, when they talk of a man's cocking his noise or playing the rhinoceros.