The Aravidu Dynasty of Vijayanagara, Vol. I v1.c27.143

v1.c27.143

The place selected by the Dutch traders in the Chingleput District, 25 miles North of Madras, was admirably suited to their commercial purposes 2. Being situated on the southern extremity of an island which separates the sea from the Pulicat Lake, it had been a trading port before the Dutch knew the route to India and the eastern seas. Ludovico de Barthema, who travelled through India from 1505 to 1507, describes Paleachate as a "place of immence trade" 3, which, it seems, was conducted by the natives mainly with the Straits Settlements 4. The Portuguese had been at Pulicat several times after their first settlement in India 5. Pulicat was to become the chief settlement of the Dutch East India Company on the coast of Coromandel, and a continual thorn in the side of the Portuguese, who in the possession of that spot by the Dutch foresaw the ruin of their own trade.