Indian High Sea

The sea southwest of Malabar lies on the approaches to Kollam, an old port beside Ashtamudi Lake. Ships from Arabia and China visited the harbour, and the traveller Ibn Battuta counted Kollam among the Indian ports he saw in the fourteenth century. Portuguese merchants later established themselves at Tangasseri, followed by the Dutch, who took the town in 1661. These waters carried vessels towards a coast long engaged in overseas commerce.