842 Memoir of Sylhet, Kachar^ ^ adjacent districts, [No. 104, 



the means of operating a great improvement in the social condition 

 of the people among whom they would spread, and to whom they 

 would oiFer the sort of information which is required to elevate them 

 in the scale of civilization, by the example of superior morality, 

 intelligence, and well directed industry, which they might be expected 

 to exhibit. 



The number of people in all these districts is on the increase, in a 

 country where every thing tends to encourage increase, and where 

 the checks, both positive and moral, are as entirely absent as they 

 appear to be in China. The census* taken in 1820, shewed the in- 

 habitants of S34het had more than doubled since 1801, and if little 

 dependance can be placed on the accuracy of these returns, enough is 

 known from other sources to warrant the belief of an enormous increase. 

 The quantity of land brought into cultivation, and the creation of 

 new estates by the subdivision of the old ones, are among the most un- 

 questionable proofs of this assertion. 



Whatever doubts may be entertained, reasonably or otherwise, of the 

 advantages resulting to India from the rule of Britain, I cannot omit to 

 record my humble testimony to its value in this quarter, or to state my 

 belief that as in no other parts which I have visited, has that rule been 

 more manifestly exerted for the good of the people, so in no other has 

 it called forth more unequivocal marks of loyalty, attachment, and 

 confidence ; and far off may the day be, when these shall abate. In proof 

 of this, I may notice the behaviour of the people during the invasion 

 of Kachar in 1824, by the Burmans, when they advanced to the very 

 frontier of Sylhet without in any way affecting its tranquillity. But in 

 a more trying emergency, when the British troops were withdrawn for 

 the protection of Dacca, the people of Sylhet not only remained loyal, 

 but an offer was actually made by some influential mer^ to raise a levy 

 en masse with which to oppose the enemy, and a small force was actually 

 embodied, the men of which, by their local knowledge and endurance 

 of climate, proved of considerable use. The readiness with which 

 these took service at such a time, must be laid to the account of some 

 deeper feeling than ordinary (for their homes were on the very frontier), 



* In 1801 number of persons, 492,945. In 1820, number of persons 1,083,720. 



