56 
DECEMBER 1765. 
the distance is 71 miles, & the Courses various. Between Baggoa & Rangamatty the 
Course of the River is in general S 3i°-3o' Wh 36^ miles ; the Countrey within this 
space is quite flat & destitute of Trees, & the Soil sandy & barren near the River ; 
there are very few Villages & no Bazars or Haats. 1 
12 The Rangamatty Countrey begins about 10 miles above Baggoa, & continues to 
the Frontiers of Boutan & Assam. Ten miles below Rangamatty the Sunecoss 2 
River from Boutan falls into the Baramputrey at Dubarye. 3 The Sunecoss River is 
about 200 yards broad & 12 or 14 Cubits deep for upwards of 40 miles above the 
Conflux. 
Rangamatty is at present a small illbuilt Village situated on a Range of small 
Hills which form the Western Bank of the Sunecoss River, & about 2|- miles NW 
from the Baramputrey, with which it has a communication by means of the Sunecoss. 
It has a small mud Fort with some few Guns mounted in it, & I observed about 50 
Guns from 2 to 4 pounders lying without. 4 The Fatitude of this Place is 26°-6 / 
North & Fongitude from Dacca o°-20 / West. 
The Course of the Baramputrey between Rangamatty & Gwalpara is from FBN 
to WBS 35 miles, the breadth irregular, & a great number of Islands in it. Between 
these Places four Rivers from Boutan empty themselves into the Baramputrey on the 
North side ; Three of them (vh) the Gowrong, Champomattey, & Haarypaany are 
fordable ; but however serve to float down Timbers from Boutan & the Forests of 
13 Bisnee. 6 The fourth of these Rivers is named the Bonaash, 6 whose Course is from 
the Boutan Mountains, to the SW, first separating the Fow Countries of Assam & 
Boutan, & afterwards those of Bengali & Assam ; emptying itself into the Baram- 
(lerived from that of a Garo princess, Jnge Silche, who was hidden by her people in a cave here to protect her from a 
rapacious chief of Assam (Playfair, The Garos, p. 9). 
1 Hind. Hat, a market held on certain days. 
2 The Sankos, formerly the boundary between Bengal and Assam. 
3 Dhubri, for many years the terminus of the Railway on the Brahmaputra, and the head-quarters station of 
Goalpara district. 
+ Rangamati, signifying ‘ Red earth,’ is a common village name in Bengal and Assam, such villages being built 
on patches of the older alluvium, which is usually of a red colour. This particular village is not shown in 
the Atlas of India, but is marked conspicuously on Rennell’s maps (Bengal Atlas Nos. V and XVIII) on the 
bank of the Sunecoss (Sankos) near the Brahmaputra. It is also marked in the same position, on the north bank 
of the Brahmaputra, not far beyond Dhubri, in the map attached to M r . Gait’s History of Assam. But in Hunter’s 
Imp. Gazetteer of India (Vol. XI, p. 470) and in the latest edition of the same work the position is given as in Lat. 
26°-i9' N.,Rong. 90°-48' E.; that is to say, the site of a small village of the same name on the Manas, 38 miles further to 
the east. It is also stated that the village was an important outpost of the Muhammadans at the beginning of the i8tb 
century. As, however, the Rangamati of the Gazetteer lies on the eastern bank of the Manas, which was then the 
boundary, and therefore within the dominions of the king of Assam, it is not likely to have been in Muhammadan hands. 
Moreover Rennell’s description shows that his Rangamati had not long before been a fort of importance, and it is much 
more likely therefore to have been the Muhammadan outpost in that direction. It was one of the places visited by 
Bishop Laynez in 1714, as recorded in the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses (Tom. XIII, p. 288), and was considered to be 
very unhealthy, as Pere Barbier says: — “Ou nous faisoit apprehender ce voyage, car c’est un proverbe commun a 
Bengale, que de deux personnes qui vont a Rangamati, il y en a touiours une qui y reste. Mais le courage de notre 
Pr61at 6toit a toute epreuve.” 
6 Bijni, an estate in the Goalpara district. 
n The Manas R., called the Banas in the Muhammadan records (Gait, Plistory of Assam, p. 113 note). It . joins 
the Brahmaputra opposite Goalpara. 
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