1876.] H. Beveridge — Were the Smidarlans inhabited in ancient times? 75 



faithfulness of Fonseca's description seems indicated by his modestly admit- 

 ting that he had never seen a rhinoceros, while stating (quite truly) that 

 there were such animals in the forest. Had he come upon any town on his 

 route, it is reasonable to suppose that he would have mentioned it. Fonseca 

 arrived at Ciandecan on the 20th November, and then he found Fernandez's 

 companion Dominic de Josa, who must either have been left there by Fer- 

 nandez in 1598, or had returned some time afterwards. The king received 

 Fonseca with great kindness — so much so, that he says he does not think a 

 Christian prince could have behaved better. A church was built at Ciande- 

 can, and this was the first ever erected in Bengal and was as such dedicated 

 to Jesus Christ. Chittagong was the second, and then came the church at 

 Bandel, which was erected by a Portuguese named Villalobos. 



The fair prospects of the mission as described by Fernandez and Fon- 

 seca were soon overclouded. Fernandez died in November 1602 in prison 

 at Chittagong, after he had been shamefully ill-used and deprived of 

 the sight of an eye ; the king of Ciandecan proved a traitor, and killed 

 Carvalho the Portuguese Commander, and drove out the Jesuit priests. 

 Leaving these matters, however, for the present, let us first answer the ques- 

 tion, Where was Ciandecan ? I reply that it is identical with Pratapaditya's 

 capital of Dhumghat, and that it was situated in the 24-Parganahs and 

 near the modern Kaliganj. My reasons for this view are first that 

 Chandecan or Ciandecan is evidently the same as Chand Khan, and we 

 know from the history of Baja Pratapaditya by Bam Bam Bosu (modernised 

 by Harish Tarkalankar) that this was the old name of the property in the 

 Sundarbans, which Pratapaditya's father Vikramaditya got from king Daiid. 

 Chand Khan, we are told, had died without heirs, and so Vikramaditya got 

 the property. And there is nothing in this contradictory to the fact that 

 Jessore formerly belonged to Khanja 'Ali [Khan Jahan] ; for Khanja 'Ali 

 died in 1459, or about 120 years before Vikramaditya came to Jessore, 

 so that the latter must have succeeded to some descendant of Khanja 'Ali, 

 and he may very well have borne the name of Chand Khan. When the 

 Jesuit priests visited Ciandecan, Pratapaditya cannot have been very long 

 on the throne, and therefore the old name of the locality (Chand Khan) 

 may still have clung to it. 



But besides this, Du Jarric tells us that after Fernandez had been kill- 

 ed at Chittagong in 1602, the Jesuit priests went to Sondip, but they soon 

 left it and went with Carvalho the Portuguese Commander to Ciandecan. 

 The king of Ciandecan promised to befriend them, but in fact he was 

 determined to kill Carvalho, and thereby make friends with the king of 

 Arakan, who was then very powerful, and had already taken possession of 

 the kingdom of Bakla. The king therefore sent for Carvalho to " Jasor ", 

 and there had him murdered. The news reached Ciandecan, says Du Jarric, 



