270 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



country as in a flourishing condition. In the 15th century, Nicoli 

 Conti sailed up the Ganges and passed by a city named Cernove, which 

 was on the river. This city, he mentions, was then in a flourishing 

 state. He stayed for some time at Buffetania (Burdowan ?). He 

 visited Racha, a city on the banks of a river of the same name. On 

 his way to the city, he crossed the Delta, where he found many good 

 cities. Racha is evidently a misspelling of the Persian name Raklid- 

 nak (Arrakan). 



Up to this time, we see, the jungles of the Sundarban did not exist. 

 The earlier Portuguese writers unanimously assert that the Delta of 

 the Ganges was much populated. Several cities are marked in De 

 Barro's Da Asia, and two mighty rivers, flowing on the west by Satigam, 

 (Saptagram, Satganw), and on the east near the city of Chatigam, 

 (Chittagong), bounded the fertile Delta of the Ganges. In his map, 

 he distinctly lays down three cities as situated within a few miles of 

 the sea. 



Manuel de Faria de Souza in his " Portuguese Asia" says — "The 

 Ganges falls into the sea between the cities of Arigola and Pisalta in 

 about latitude 22°". At another place he says, " The Ganges enters the 

 bay about the Lat. 23°, between Chatigam and Satigam, 100 leagues 

 distant." He describes the intervening country as much populated and 

 in a flourishing state. 



Dr. Fryer (1674), speaking of deserts in his ' Special Chorography 

 and History of East India,' says : " Here are sandy deserts near the 

 gulph of Combaya (Cambay), and beyond Bengala towards Botan and 

 Cochin China, whence they fetch musk." 



It is very difficult to state who first applied the name Sundar- 

 ban to the jungle in the Delta. No early writer uses the name. 

 The name literally means " the good forest ;" but as some write 

 it Sunderland, it means the good embankment." Some are of 

 opinion that the plant sundri (Heriteira littoralis), which grows 

 in great abundance in the Delta of the Ganges, has given the 

 name of the forest. This appears probable, as a whole district 

 is named Hogla from the occurrence of a reed (Typha elephan- 

 tina) of the same name. I would propose another etymology. 

 There lived in this part of Bengal a semi barbarous tribe named 

 Chandabhanda, very similar to the Malangi (salt manufacturers) of the 



