422 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [June, 1907. 



through. They built a strong fort, and left a large fleet to 

 guard it. Gaining composure of mind from the strength of the 

 place, they turned to Bengal, and began to plunder it. IS'one of 

 the Viceroys of Bengal [before Shaista Khan] undertook to put 

 down this trouble and punish them. Only Ibrahim Khan Fatih 

 Jang, in the Emperor Jahangir's reign, resolved to conquer 

 Chatgaon and destroy the wicked Maghs. [The failure of this 

 expedition described, 165, a]. 



Doings of the Pirates of Chatgaon. 



[122, b.] From the reign of the Emperor Akbar, when 

 Bengal was annexed to the Mughal empire, to the time of the 

 conquest of Chatgaon during the viceroyalty of Shaista Khan, 

 Arracan pirates, both Magh and Feringi, used constantly to 

 {come] by the water-route and plunder Bengal. They carried 

 off the Hindus and Muslims, male and female, great and small, 

 few and many, that they could seize, pierced the palms of their 

 hands, passed thin canes through the lioles, and [123, a] threw 

 them one above another under the deck of their ships. In the 

 same manner as grain is flung to fowl, every morn and evening 

 they threw down from above uncooked rice to the captives as 

 food. On their return to their homes, they employed the few 

 hard-lived captives that survived [this treatment], with great 

 disgrace and insult in tillage and other hard tasks, according 

 to their power. Others were sold to the Datch, English, and 

 French merchants at the ports of the Deccan. 



Sometimes they brought the captives for sale at a high pi-ice 

 to Tamluk, and the port of Baleswar, which is a part of the 

 Imperial dominions and a dependency of the province of Orissa. 

 The manner of the sale was this :— The wretches used to bring 

 the prisoners in their ships, anchor at a short distance from the 

 shore off Tamluk or Baleswar, and send a man ashore with the 

 news. The local officers, fearing lest the pirates should commit 

 any depredation or kidnapping there, stood on the shore with a 

 number of followers, and sent a man with a sum of money to the 

 pirates. If the terms were satisfactory [123, 6] the pirates took 

 the money and sent the prisoners with the man. Only the 

 Fermgi pirates sold their prisoners. But the Maghs employed 

 all then- captives in agriculture and other kinds of service. Many 

 high-born persons and Sayyads, many pure and Sayyad-born 

 women, were compelled to undergo the disgrace of the slavery 

 service or concubinage {farash wa suhahat) of these wicked men. 

 Muslims underwent such oppression in this region of war 

 {^dar-ul-harh) as they had not to suffer in Europe. It was less in 

 some (governors' time and more in others'. 



As they for a long time continually practised piracy, their 

 country prospered, and their number increased, while Bengal daily 

 became more and more desolate, less and less able to resist and 

 r^ers nwl. ^"^ ^ householder was left on both' sides of the 

 rivers on their track from Dacca to Chatgaon. The district of 



