. In 1779 he returned
to India as lieutenant-general commanding in chief. Following generally
the policy of Warren Hastings, he nevertheless refused to take sides in
the quarrels of the council, and made a firm stand in all matters
affecting the forces. Hyder Ali's progress in southern India called him
again into the field, but his difficulties were very great and it was
not until the 1st of June 1781 that the crushing and decisive defeat of
Porto Novo struck the first heavy blow at Hyder's schemes. The battle
was won by Coote under most unfavourable conditions against odds of five
to one, and is justly ranked as one of the greatest feats of the British
in India. It was followed up by another hard-fought battle at Pollilur
(the scene of an earlier triumph of Hyder over a British force) on the
27th of August, in which the British won another success, and by the
rout of the Mysore troops at Sholingarh a month later. His last service
was the arduous campaign of 1782, which finally shattered a constitution
already gravely impaired by hardship and exertions. Sir Eyre Coote died
at Madras on the 28th of April 1783. A monument was erected to him in
Westminster Abbey.

For a short biography of Coote see _Twelve British Soldiers_ (ed.
Wilkinson, London, 1899), and for the battles of Wandewash and Porto
Novo, consult Malleson, _Decisive Battles of India_ (London, 1883). An
account of Coote may be found in Wilk's _Historical Sketches of
Mysore_ (1810).

COPAIBA, or COPAIVA (from Brazilian _cupauba_), an oleo-resin--sometimes
termed a balsam--obtained from the trunk of the _Copaifera Lansdorfii_
(natural order Leguminosae) and from other species of _Copaifera_ found
in the West Indies and in the valley of the Amazon. It is a somewhat
viscous transparent liquid, occasionally fluorescent and of a light
yellow to pale golden colour. The odour is aromatic and very
characteristic, the taste acrid and bitter. It is insoluble in water,
but soluble in absolute alcohol, ether and the fixed and volatile oils.
Its approximate composition is more than 50% of a volatile oil and less
than 50% of a resin. The pharmacopoeias contain the oleo-resin itself,
which is given in doses of from a half to one drachm, and the _oleum
copaibae_, which is given in doses of from five to twenty minims, but
which is inferior, as a medicinal agent, to the oleo-resin. Copaiba
shares the pharmacological characters of volatile oils generally. Its
di