and successor, the village of Lungambacca
(Nungumbaukam), now the principal residential district of Europeans in
Madras, was granted to the Company, together with four adjoining
villages, for a total annual rent of 1,500 pagodas (say Rs. 5,250).
The Emperor's officers argued that the rent ought to have been larger,
but the Company, conforming to the spirit of corruption that was in
fashion, were wily enough to send by a Brahman and a Mohammedan
conjointly a sum of Rs. 700 'to be distributed amongst the King's
officers who keep the Records, in order to settle this matter.' The
village of Vepery--variously called in olden documents Ipere, Ypere,
Vipery, and Vapery--lay between Egmore and Pursewaukam; and the
Company, being naturally desirous of consolidating their territory,
proceeded at once to try to obtain a grant of the place; but
successive efforts on the part of Governor Elihu Yale came to naught;
and it was not till much later (1742) when the Nawab of Arcot was lord
of the soil, that Vepery was acquired from the Nawab. The manner of
its acquisition is interesting. The preceding Nawab had just been
murdered, and the Carnatic army disowning the ambitious rival who had
murdered him, proclaimed the dead Nawab's son as his successor. The
new Nawab was but a youth, and he was residing at the time in one of
the big houses in Black Town. The Company were politic enough to
celebrate the lad's accession with grand doings. They escorted him in
a splendid procession to the Company's Gardens, which were situated
along the bank of the river Cooum, where the General Hospital and the
Medical College now stand. In the Gardens there was a fine house,
containing a spacious hall, which the Company had specially designed
for great occasions; and there the lad's accession was formally
announced; and finally he was escorted in procession back to his
dwelling. The Company profited by their politic demonstration; for, in
return for their courtesies to the young Nawab, the lad gratified
their desires by making them a rent-free grant of the village of
Vepery, and also of Perambore and other lands. It may be added that
the boy-king was unfortunate; for he was murdered within two years of
his accession, at the instance of the man who had murdered his father.

San Thome was acquired in 1749; and the story of the acquisition is
not without interest. The names 'San Thome' and 'Mylapore' are often
used as alternative designations for one and the s