Tranquebar

TRANQUEBAR, a town of British India, in the Tanjore district of Madras, on the sea-coast, 18 m. N. of Negapatam. Pop. (1901), 13,142. A Danish factory was opened here as early as 1620. It was taken by the British in 1801, but restored in 1814, and finally purchased, with the other Danish settlements in India, in 1845. In Danish times Tranquebar was a busy port, but it lost its importance when the railway was opened to Negapatam. It was the first settlement of Protestant missionaries in India, founded by Ziegenbalg and Plutschau (Lutherans) in 1706; and there is still a Lutheran mission high school and mission press.