NEGAPATAM  , a seaport of

British India, in the Tanjore district of Madras, forming one municipality with Nagore, a port 3 M . N. at the mouth of the Vettar river . Pop . (1901) 57,190 . It carries on a brisk trade with the Straits Settlements and Ceylon, steamers running once a week to Colombo . The chief export is rice . Negapatam is the terminus of a branch of the South Indian railway, and contains large railway workshops . It is also a depot for coolie emigration . Negapatam was one of the earliest settlements of the Protuguese on the Coromandel coast . It was taken by the Dutch in 166o, becoming their chief possession in India, and by the English in 1781 . From 1799 to 1845 it was the headquarters of Tanjore district . There is a large population of Labbais, Mahommedans of mixed Arab descent, who are keen traders .

Jesuit and Wesleyan

missions are carried on .