Vol. ril, No. 6.] The Fenngi Pirates of Chataaon. 421 



so dense, that it is impossible to traverse them even in imagina- 

 tion. Witliin the fort two springs flow, the water of which runs 

 into the Karufuli river in the monsoons, when the channel of the 

 springs becomes so broad that B^jalba boat can easily pass through 

 it. [163, fc.] As the people of the fort use all the water [that 

 issues] in seasons other than the rainy, they dam the springs and 

 block the outlet to the Karnfuli river. On a height within the 

 fort is a tomb, known as the astanG- of Pir Badar ; the attendants 

 of the shrine perform prayer and fast. The Magh infidels ' . . . . 

 have settled some villages in waqf on this tomb; they mnke pil- 

 grimage to the holy dead and offer presents. It is said that if 

 one could perform the impossible feat of dragging a large gun to 

 the top of the hill at the western angle [of the fort] — which 

 adjoins Tipperah — its balls would fall within the fort. On the 

 other side of the Karnfuli there is a lofty and strong fort, opposite 

 the fort of Chatgaon ; it is full of defence-materials. 



Every year the Rajah of Arracan sends to Chatgaon a 

 hundred ships full of soldiers and artillery munitions, with a new 

 Karamkari^ (commandant, superintendent), when the former 

 Karamkarif with the ships of last year, returns to Arracan. 

 There is always some trustworthy relative or faithful clansman 

 of the Rajah in charge of the government of Chatgaon. He 

 issues gold coins stamped with his own name at this place and 



its dependencies. 



[J64, a.] In bygone times, one of the Sultans of Bengal 

 named Fakhruddin fully conquered Chatgaon, and built an 

 embankment {al) from Chandpur, opposite the outpost of Sripur 

 across the river, to Chatgaon. The mosques and tombs which 

 are situated in Chato^aon were built in Fakhruddin's time. The 



■1 



Chatgaon in Magh Hands. 



When Bengal was annexed to the Mughal empire, and included 

 in the records of the qanunyo department, in the papers of Bengal 

 Chatgaon was entered as one of the defaulting unsettled [districts]. 

 Wlien the mutasaddis of Bengal did not really wish to pay any 

 man whose salary was due, they gave him an assignment on 

 the revenue of Chatgaon! Towards the end of the rule of the 

 Bengal Kings and the early years of the conquest of Bengal by 

 the Mughals, when great confusion prevailed in the country, 

 Chatgaon again fell into the hands of the Maghs, who [164, 6] 

 did not leave a bird in the air or a beast on the land [from 

 Chatgaon] to Jagdia, the frontier of Bengal, increased the 

 desolation, thickened the juugles, destroyed the al, and closed the 

 road so well that even the snake and the wind could not pass 



1 The text is donbbful here tijj 9i^j5 *U^ i^J*>xLi ^ aXc ^Uk 



2 The 'Alamgirndmah, p. 947, gives Karamkahri, 



