Padshah-namah 24.1

24.1

Under the rule of the Bengalis (dar 'ahd i Bangaliyan) a party of Frank merchants, who are inhabitants of Sandip, came trading to Satganw. One kos above that place, they occupied some ground on the bank of the estuary. Under the pretence that a building was necessary for their transactions in buying and selling, they erected several houses in the Bengali style. In course of time, through the ignorance and negligence of the rulers of Bengal, these Europeans increased in number, and erected large substantial buildings, which they fortified with cannons, muskets, and other implements of war. In due course, a considerable place grew up, which was known by the name of the Port of Hugli. On one side of it was the river, and on the other three sides was a ditch filled from the river. European ships used to go up to the port, and a trade was established there. The markets of Satganw declined and lost their prosperity. The villages and districts of Hugli were on both sides of the river, and these the Europeans got possession of at a low rent. Some of the inhabitants by force, and more by hopes of gain, they infected with their Nazarene teaching, and sent them off in ships to Europe. In the hope of an everlasting reward, but in reality of an exquisite torture, they consoled themselves with the profits of their trade for the loss of rent which arose from the removal of the cultivators.