CALICUT  , a

city of British India, in the Malabar district of Madras; on the coast, 6 m . N. of Beypur . In 1901 the population was 76,981, showing an increase of 14% in the decade . The weaving of cotton, for which the place was at one time so famous that its name became identified with its calico, is no longer of any importance . Calicut is of considerable antiquity; and about the 7th century it had its population largely increased by the immigration of the Moplahs, a fanatical race of Mahommedans from Arabia, who entered enthusiastically into commercial life . The Portuguese traveller Pero de Covilham (q.v.) visited Calicut in 1487 and described its possibilities for European trade; and in May 1498 Vasco da Gama, the first European navigator to reach India, arrived at Calicut . At that time it was a very flourishing city, and contained several stately buildings, among which was especially mentioned a Brahminical temple, not inferior to the largest monastery in Portugal . Vasco da Gama tried to establish a factory, but he met with persistent hostility from the local chief (zamorin), and a similar attempt made by Cabral two years later ended in the destruction of the factory by the Moplahs . In revenge the Portuguese bombarded the town, but no further attempt was made for some years to establish a trading settlement there . In 1509 the marshal Don Fernando Coutinho made an unsuccessful attack on the city; and in the following year it was. again assailed by Albuquerque with 3000 troops . On this occasion the palace was plundered and the town burnt; but the Portuguese were finally repulsed, and fled to their ships after heavy loss . In the following year they concluded a peace with the zamorin and were allowed to build a fortified factory on the north bank of the Kallayi river, which was however again, and finally, abandoned in 1525 .

In 1615 the town was visited by an

English expedition under Captain Keeling, who concluded a treaty with the zamorin; but it was not until 1664 that an English trading settlement was established by the East India Company . The French settlement, which still exists, was founded in 1698 . The town was taken in 1765 by Hyder Ali, who expelled all the merchants and factors, and destroyed the cocoa-nut trees, sandal-wood and pepper vines, that the country reduced to ruin might present no temptation to the cupidity of Europeans . In 1782 the troops of Hyder were driven from Calicut by the British; but in 1788 it was taken and destroyed by his son Tippoo, who carried off the inhabitants to Beypur and treated them with great cruelty . In the latter part of 1790 the country was occupied by the British; and under the treaty concluded in 1792, whereby Tippoo was deprived of half his dominions, Calicut fell to the British . After this event the 30 20 60 40 10 inhabitants returned and rebuilt the town, which in 1800 consisted of 5000 houses . As the administrative headquarters of the district, Calicut maintains its historical importance . It is served by the Madras railway, and is the chief seaport on the Malabar coast, and the principal exports are coffee, timber and coco-nut products . There are factories for coffee-cleaning, employing several hundred hands; for coir-pressing and timber-cutting . The town has a cotton-mill, a saw-mill, and tile, coffee and oil works . A detachment of European troops is generally stationed here to overawe the fanatical Moplahs .