25G J. Beames —Notes on the History of Orissa. [No. 3, 
The Amil of Bhadrakh was one Mohan Lai, the name of the Amil of 
Soroh is not given, and during' this year it would seem that Sorok and 
Balasore were incorporated into one Amilship under Tripati Raj. 
From the circumstance of our not having Captain Morgan’s letters 
of this period, I am unable to give more than a fragmentary history of the 
transactions that took place. Notices from time to time occur of parties of 
Marathas having been seen or heard of here and there, and there is a great 
search to find the “ Ongole or Ungool Pass nobody seems to have known 
where it was. 
Sambhalpur capitulated to Major Broughton on the 12th Janu¬ 
ary 1804, and all further fear from the Marathas was thus at an end. On 
the 9th of the same month came also the news of a peace having been 
concluded with the Raja of Berar. 
The light thrown upon the events of the following sixty-eight 
years by the tolerably complete series of English letters in the Balasore 
office will be duly made use of in the succeeding chapters, but I conceive 
it unnecessary to do more in this chapter than to record the few events of 
importance that have occurred in the period in question. Captain Morgan 
remained at Balasore till 19th November 1804 when he made over charge 
to Mr. Ker, Collector and Magistrate, Northern Division of Cuttack. Dnr- 
ing his tenure of office he had been first simply “ Commanding at Balasore ” 
but during 1804 he had gradually grown into Collector, Magistrate, Salt 
and Customs Agent and general factotum. 
Mr. Ker made the first settlement, which was very summary and 
simple. It included all the country now lying within the Jajpore Sub¬ 
division of Cuttack, and the statements referring to it are, in part at least, 
still extant. To the north this settlement did not go beyond Bastah, as 
Jellasore was under Midnapore, and the country east of that place came 
under a separate arrangement. This tract of country between Jellasore 
and the sea was called the “ Mahratta Mehals ” and consisted of the Par- 
ganas of Pattaspur, Kamardachaur and Bhograi, together with the smaller 
mehals of Shahbandar, Napochaur and Kismat Katsahi. 
There is one volume of letters sent and one of letters received 
for the year of Mr. Ker’s incumbency 1804-5 but they contain very little 
of historical importance. In the early part of the year the Raja of Kani- 
ka, always a turbulent and refractory person, made an attack with, it is 
said, GOO armed paiks on the outpost of “Rigagurh,” the place where his 
principal fort and residence was situated, on the lower Brahmini just above 
the point where it unites with the Baitarni, which was held by a native 
officer and a few sepoys. Captain McCarthy in command of the Honorable 
Company’s brig “ Scourge” who was at the time lying off Dhamrah sent 
an express to the Commissioners of Cuttack, who deputed a force of 400 
