248 J. Beames —Notes on the History of Orissa. [No. 3, 
their fathers tell of the terrible punishments inflicted by the Maratha 
rulers. All cases were tried verbally, no record of any kind being kept, 
and culprits were sentenced to be tied to the heels of a horse which was 
then flogged through the streets. Others were bound, smeared with 
sugar and exposed to the ants and other insects. Others again had their 
fingers tied together and wedges of iron inserted between-them. 
The trade of the port was even then considerable. Madras ships 
came for rice and paddy, and the Laccadive and Maidive islanders then as 
now visited the port. It was from these latter that the cowries, so 
much used as currency, were obtained. 
A seer of rice was sold for 15 gandas or about 70 seers to the 
rupee. (It was G5 seers in 1805, and now in favourable seasons sells 
at 30 or 32.) Opium cost a pan of cowries per masha, salt 14 karas per 
seer. The advantages of low prices were, however, much counterbalanced 
by the capricious exactions of the rulers. Although they seem to have 
had the sense not to drive away the trade by oppressing foreigners, yet 
upon the natives of the province itself they had no mercy. It was 
dangerous to be rich, or at least to display any amount of wealth, lest the 
attention of the Marathas should be called to the fact, and plunder and 
extortion follow as a matter of course. It is not surprising therefore that 
when the English appeared on the scene, the Marathas were left to fight 
their own battles, quite unsupported by the people. Indeed, they seem to 
have been so conscious of their unpopularity as never to have attempted to 
enlist the sympathies of the Oriyas on their behalf. Had they done so, 
the turbulent Rajas of the hills and the sea-coast might have given us a 
great deal of trouble and enabled the Marathas to hold out for some 
time. 
The English Period. The English as traders. 
To Balasore belongs the honour of containing the first settlement 
made by our countrymen in any part of the Bengal Presidency. By a 
firman, dated February 2nd, 1634 the Emperor Shah Jahan granted them 
permission to establish a factory at Pipli on the Subanrekha.* They were 
prohibited from settling on the Ganges or any of its branches, in conse¬ 
quence of the disturbances caused by the Portuguese in the Sundarbans 
and other places shortly before. In 1640 through the intervention of Mi\ 
Boughton, a Surgeon who had obtained great influence over several mem¬ 
bers of the Boyal Family by curing them of various diseases, the English 
obtained permission to establish factories at Balasore and Hughli. In 
consequence of this permission they applied to the Nawab who granted 
them 12 batis (a bati is 20 bighas) of land near the village of Balasore 
which was then rising into some importance as a port. The settlement 
* Stewart’s History of Bengal, page 244. 
