coast; and from 1793 onwards, save for a short period in 1802-03, was in the occupation of the English till the treaties of 1815 restored it to its former owners. It was then finally handed back in 1817. In 1839 the town was laid waste by a hurricane which was accompanied by an inundation of the sea.
Subject to the control of the Governor of the French Possessions at Pondicherry, Yanam is administered by an official called the Administrateur who is assisted by a local elective Council of six members. The Administrateur is the head of the magistracy and police and president of the criminal court. Local affairs are managed by a communal council, also elective, of twelve members. Two free schools, one for boys and the other for girls, having an attendance of 202 and 248 respectively, are maintained in the town. The area of cultivated land in the Settlement in 1903 was 664 hectares or about 1,000 acres. Land is held in absolute ownership subject to the payment of an assessment of Rs. 37-8 per candy (about 4½ acres) for cultivated land, and Rs. 5 for pasture land. Water is supplied free of cost from the British canal which passes through Yanam. Little trade is now carried on at the place, and in 1903 the exports were valued at only Rs. 22,300 and the imports at Rs. 53,625. The sea-borne trade is carried northwards down the Coringa river into the Cocanada bay, as the mouth of the Gautami Gódávari is much silted up.
The special arrangements connected with customs and salt which are necessitated by the existence of the Settlement are referred to in Chapter XII above.
