192 ON QILISSA PROPER 



tions of country craft, viz. Maldive vessels, the boats employed in trans- 

 porting the Company's salt to the presidency, and a class of sloops built 

 at Contai and Hidgelly called Holas, which come in great numbers during 

 the cold weather to carry off rice to Calcutta. 



The importance formerly attached to this station, in the infancy of the 

 commerce between the western hemisphere and Bengal, is attested by the re- 

 mains of the factories of four European nations, English, French, Danish, and 

 Dutch. Traces of a Portuguese establishment are also to be observed, in the 

 ruins of a small Roman Catholic Chapel within the town, having a wooden 

 cross over the principal doorway.' The Dutch seem to have been settled 

 here prior to 166*0 A. D. ; at least that date is discoverable on two curious 

 monumental pyramids of masonry, which rise near the factory. We know 

 that the English formed their first Bengal establishment at Pipley on the 

 Subanrekha in 1640 A. D. and the date 1684 A. D. is to be observed on a 

 tomb in the English burying-ground at the place. The magnitude of the 

 Company's establishment here, may be estimated from the number of large 

 obelisks and obituary columns still standing in the burying-ground, erected 

 to the memory of our predecessors who ended their days in this remote 

 corner. The English had likewise a fine country house surrounded with 

 gardens, at a place called Balramgerhi near the sea, the remains of which 

 may still be seen, and will always be viewed with interest from its having 

 afforded a temporary shelter to several of the Company's servants, when 

 Calcutta was captured by the armies of Seraj ud Dowlah in 1756 A. D. 



The trade of the place was important formerly, from the Sannahs and fine 

 Muslins manufactured there, and likewise at Badrak and Soro, the de- 

 mand for which has now almost entirely ceased. The drugs and dies im- 

 ported from the hills, may have constituted also a considerable article of 

 export. Balasore however, doubtless, derived its principal consequence 

 as the site of a factory, from its convenience for carrying on a commerce 

 with Bengal Proper, before permission had been obtained to establish set- 

 tlements within that province itself. 



