A LITTLE KNOWN PROVINCE OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE. 129 



it was considered desirable to concentrate the English forces in 

 one place. Balasore can now only be reached by small vessels, 

 owinsr to a bar having been formed at the mouth of the river, 

 but it was then easy of access for the largest vessels in use, and 

 there were Dutch, French and Danish factories besides the 

 English Settlement. The earliest tombstone, of which the 

 inscription is still decipheral)le, is in memory of one Bugraf 

 Huison, who died on the 23rd of Xovember, 1G9G. To this day 

 about a square mile of land is Erench territory, but there are 

 no Erench residents. Proposals have, from time to time, been 

 made to induce the Erench Government to cede this piece of 

 land, in exchange for an equivalent portion in proximity to the 

 larger Erench settlements, but with no result, and there does not 

 appear to be any sutticient reason to make any great sacrifice to 

 terminate a condition of things which has a historic basis, a 

 sentimental value, and which neither leads nor is likely to lead 

 to complications. 



In all the turbulence of which I have spoken, the two places 

 in Orissa, where life and property were secure, were the two 

 English factories round which colonies of weavers and other 

 -artizans and traders had settled. English merchants were safe 

 within the reach of the guns of the English ships, though 

 during the last years of Mahratta misrule, scarcely beyond the 

 factory walls. 1 may here remark, that Calcutta was not founded 

 until 1697, and that the English factories at Hnghli and Patna 

 were subject to such oppression that, in 1677, it was proposed 

 to withdraw the East India Company's servants from Bengal 

 altogether. In 1680 an Imperial order was obtained permitting 

 English ships to enter the Plughli, and from that date theOrisaa 

 ports ceased to be the only harbours open to British ships on 

 the east coast of India. 



On the 4th September, 180o, a force of 2,400 native and 600 

 European troops marched out of Ganjam and passing along the 

 sea coast encamped at Puri, where the priests begged that the 

 Jaganath temple might be taken under the protection of the 

 British, a request which was acceded to. The possession 

 of the Jaganath temple usually carried with it the government 

 of the country, and so it did in this case, for on the 14th 

 October the Cuttack fort was stormed with little loss, and the 

 province of Orissa passed under British rule. The only serious 

 trouble which has since arisen was a rebellion in Kurdha in 

 1804, which was subdued without much trouble ; since that 

 time peace has reigned in Orissa save occasional disturbances, in 

 the native states, between the people and their chiefs. 1 



