municipal council in Chapter XIV. The salt factories in the suburb of Jagannáthapuram and Penugudúru are mentioned in Chapter XII. The town is situated in the Pithápuram zamindari.
Jagannáthapuram, which lies south of the harbour, is the only part of the place which possesses any historical interest.
It was the site of a Dutch Factory which, with Bimlipatam in Vizagapatam and Pálakollu in Kistna, were 'represented to be held under Fermans granted by the Nizam and confirmed by the Mogul or Emperor of Delhi, bearing various dates from A.D. 1628 to A.D. 1713 and by a Cowle granted by Hajee Houssun in A.D. 1734 and A.D. 1752 by Jaffur Ally Khan. The two last mentioned persons were Naibs or deputies of the Nizam in the Circars. The Dutch are stated to have first occupied these factories about the year A.D. 1628.'1[1] Their factory included the dependent villages of Gollapálem and Gundavaram and they had a mint, at which were made the coins issued from Bimlipatam.2[2]
In 1781 war broke out between the English and the Dutch, and the settlements of the latter on the Coromandel coast were seized. Jagannáthapuram was in that year 'a place of some consequence. The factory house, fortified I believe,3[3] and all the public buildings were demolished in that year.'4[4]
In 1784 peace was declared, and their factories were handed back to the Dutch in the following year. During the wars of the French Revolution (1789-95) the settlements were again captured by the English, but were once more handed back in 1818 by a convention of 1814. They were finally made over to the English Company in 1825, with the other Dutch possessions in India, under the operation of a treaty of 1824 between Holland and England.
The Dutch factory played a small part in the campaign of 1758-59 by which the Northern Circars were taken by the English from the French. French officers wounded at the battle of Condore were permitted to go to Jagannáthapuram on parole. In 1759 a small force of Frenchmen landed at Cocanada to intrigue with Jagapati Rázu at Samalkot; but, as has been mentioned in Chapter II, they were driven by the English to take refuge, in the Dutch fort, and their surrender was enforced under protest from the Dutch.
