Covelong

Covelong (Kovalam) is a fishing village in Chennai, India, 40 kilometres south of Chennai, on the East Coast Road en route to Mahabalipuram. Covelong (Cabelon in French = Kovalam) was a port town developed in the 1720s by the Ostend Company on a place provided by the Nawab of Carnatic Saadat Ali (the port was then also known as Sa‘adat Pattan, or Sadatpatnam, according to the name of the nawab). The factory was inaugurated in 1719 by Sir Godefroid Gollet de La Merveille (a Frenchman), and the bu...