PONDICHERRI, chief settlement of the French possessions in the East Indies, situated on the Coromandel coast, in ll 0 56' N. lat. and 79° 53' E. long.; it is 86 miles south of Madras, and is connected with the South Indian Railway system. The territory consists of three districts—Pondicherri, Villianur, and Bahur—comprising an area of 112 square miles, with a population in 1881 of 139,210. The town is divided into a European and a native quarter, separated from one another by a canal. The French first settled at Pondicherri in 1674; it was besieged four times by the British, the last time in 1.793; but it was finally restored in 1816. On the whole the town is considered very salubrious; the purity of its water-supply is said to be unrivalled in any other town in southern India.