82 Animal Address. [Feb. 



The origin of this city of ours has been the subject of investiga- 

 tion of two members of the Society, Babu Gaur Das Bysnck and Mr. 

 0. R. Wilson. The former published a very interesting paper on tlie 

 subject in 1891, in the Calcutta Review,'^^ and the latter has given us 

 an account of his researches in a separate volume on the Early Annals 

 of the English in Bengal, published in 1895.*^ The results of tbeir 

 investigations may be summarised as follows. 



Down to the commencement of the sixteenth century Satgaon was 

 the centre of commerce in Lower Bengal. Tliat town lay on the river 

 Sarasvati, near its junction with the Hugli, a little to the north of the 

 modern town of Hugli. Early in the sixteenth century the Sarasvati 

 began to silt up ; and in order to better meet the commerce with 

 Europe, which then began to spring up, the native traders began to move 

 down the river Hugli, in consequence of which movement Satgaon was 

 deserted and sank into the obscurity of an insignificant group of huts.*^ 

 Among those who deserted Satgaon were one Sett and four By sack 

 families. They settled on the Hugli at a place which tliey named 

 Govindpur after their tutelary deity Govindji, and which stood on the 

 site of the present Fort William and its Esplanade. At the same tima 

 they established a place of business a little higher up the river, as a 

 mart for the sale of skeins of thread and woven cloth. It was hence 

 called the Sutanuti Hat or " the Cotton-bale Market," or in its English 

 form Chuttanutti.^o This place corresponds to the northern native 

 quarter of the present city. 



The immigration of the Setts and Bysacks occurred not long 

 before 1530, in which year the first Portuguese ship sailed up the river 

 Hugli, and traded with them. The first settlement of the English in 

 these parts took place in 1651, in which year the Company established 

 its headquarters in Hugli, near the now decaying town of Satgaon. 

 In 1686, however, they found themselves obliged to abandon it, and 

 withdrew to the island of Hijili at the mouth of the Hugli. On 

 his way down the Hugli, Job Charnock, who was in command of 

 the Company's servants, halted for a few weeks at the Sett and Bysack 

 settlement at Sutanuti. In the following year, having failed to 

 establish himself in Hijili, he returned to Sutanuti, where he maintained 



47 See Article V, in No. CLXXXIV, p. 305, entitled *• Kalighat and Calcutta." 



48 The " Introductory Account " is based mainly on the late Sir Henry Yule's 

 edition of the Diary of William Hedges, Esq., Vol. II, 1888. 



49 See Blochmann's account of Satgaon in our Journal, Yol. XXXIX, p. 281. 



60 Pronounced Shuttanutti, as in Portugese, whence the transliteration is 

 borrowed. See Wilson's Early Annals, p. 135, note 2. The name is fouud variously 

 spelled: Chuttnauttee, Chuttanattea, Chuttanutty, etc.; also Soota-Natty. 



