Travels in the Mogul Empire (Bernier) 3.11
Travels in the Mogul Empire (Constable) 3.11
- Language
- English
3.11.1
The King of Rakan, who lived in perpetual dread of the Mogol, kept these foreigners, as a species of advanced guard, for the protection of his frontier, permitting them to occupy a seaport called Chatigon, and making them grants of land. As they were unawed and unrestrained by the government, it was not surprising that these renegades pursued no other trade than that of rapine and piracy. They scoured the neighbouring seas in light galleys, called galleasses, entered the numerous arms and branches of the Ganges, ravaged the islands of Lower Bengale, and, often penetrating forty or fifty leagues up the country, surprised and carried away the entire population of villages on market days, and at times when the inhabitants were assembled for the celebration of a marriage, or some other festival. The marauders made slaves of their unhappy captives, and burnt whatever could not be removed. It is owing to these repeated depredations that we see so many fine islands at the mouth of the Ganges, formerly thickly peopled, now entirely deserted by human beings, and become the desolate lairs of tigers and other wild beasts.
3.11.2
Their treatment of the slaves thus obtained was most cruel ; and they had the audacity to offer for sale, in the places which they had but recently ravaged, the aged people whom they could turn to no better account. It was usual to see young persons, who had saved themselves by timely flight, endeavouring to-day to redeem the parent who had been made captive yesterday. Those who were not disabled by age the pirates either kept in their service, training them up to the love of robbery and practice of assassination, or sold to the Portuguese of Goa, Ceylon, San Thomé, and other places. Even the Portuguese of Ogouli, in Bengale, purchased without scruple these wretched captives, and the horrid traffic was transacted in the vicinity of the island of Galles, near Cape das Palmas. The pirates, by a mutual understanding, waited for the arrival of the Portuguese, who bought whole cargoes at a cheap rate; and it is lamentable to reflect that other Europeans, since the decline of the Portuguese power, have pursued the same flagitious commerce with these pirates, who boast, the infamous scoundrels, that they make more Christians in a twelvemonth than all the missionaries of the Indies do in ten years. A strange mode this of propagating our holy religion by the constant violation of its most sacred precepts, and by the open contempt and defiance of its most awful sanctions!
3.11.3
The Portuguese established themselves at Ogouli under the auspices of Jehan-Guyre, the grandfather of Aureng-Zebe. That Prince was free from all prejudice against Christians, and hoped to reap great benefit from their commerce. The new settlers also engaged to keep the Gulf of Bengale clear of pirates. Chah-Jehan, a more rigid Mahometan than his father, visited the Portuguese at Ogouli with a terrible punishment. They provoked his displeasure by the encouragement afforded to the depredators of Rakan, and by their refusal to release the numerous slaves in their service, who had all of them been subjects of the Mogol. He first exacted by threats or persuasion, large sums of money from them, and when they refused to comply with his ultimate demands, he besieged and took possession of the town, and commanded that the whole population should be transferred as slaves to Agra.
3.11.4
The misery of these people is unparalleled in the history of modern times : it nearly resembled the grievous captivity of Babylon ; for even the children, priests, and monks shared the universal doom. The handsome women, as well married as single, became inmates of the seraglio ; those of a more advanced age, or of inferior beauty, were distributed among the Omrahs; little children underwent the rite of circumcision, and were made pages ; and the men of adult age, allured, for the most part, by fair promises, or terrified by the daily threat of throwing them under the feet of elephants, renounced the Christian faith. Some of the monks, however, remained faithful to their creed, and were conveyed to Goa, and other Portuguese settlements, by the kind exertions of the Jesuits and missionaries at Agra, who, notwithstanding all this calamity, continued in their dwelling, and were enabled to accomplish their benevolent purpose by the powerful aid of money, and the warm intercession of their friends. Before the catastrophe at Ogouli, the missionaries had not escaped the resentment of Chah-Jehan: he ordered the large and handsome church at Agra, which, together with one at Lahor, had been erected during the reign of Jehan-Guyre, to be demolished. A high steeple stood upon this church, with a bell whose sound was heard in every part of the city.
3.11.5
Some time before the capture of Ogouli, the pirates made a formal offer to the Viceroy of Goa, to deliver the whole kingdom of Rakan into his hands. Bastian Consalve was then chief of the pirates, and so celebrated and powerful was he, that he married the King of Rakan's daughter. It is said that the Viceroy was too arrogant and envious to listen to this proposal, and felt unwilling that the King of Portugal should be indebted to a man of low origin for so important an acquisition. There was nothing, however, in the proposal to excite surprise; it was quite in keeping with the general conduct of the Portuguese in Japan, Pegu, Ethiopia, and other places. The decay of their power in the Indies is fairly ascribable to their misdeeds, and may be considered, as they candidly allow, a proof of the divine displeasure. Formerly their name was a tower of strength; all the Indian princes courted their friendship, and the Portuguese were distinguished for courage, generosity, zeal for religion, immensity of wealth, and the splendour of their exploits: but they were not then, like the Portuguese of the present day, addicted to every vice, and to every low and grovelling enjoyment.
3.11.6
The pirates, about the time of which I am speaking, made themselves masters of the island of Sondiva, an advantageous post, commanding part of the mouth of the Ganges. On this spot, the notorious Fra-Joan, an Augustine monk, reigned, as a petty Sovereign, during many years; having contrived, God knows how, to rid himself of the Governor of the island. These also are the identical freebooters who, as we have seen, repaired in their galleasses to Daka, for the purpose of conveying Sultan Sujah to Rakan. They found means of opening some of his chests, and robbing him of many precious stones, which were offered secretly for sale in Rakan and disposed of for a mere trifle. The diamonds all got into the hands of the Dutch and others, who easily persuaded the ignorant thieves that the stones were soft, and that they would pay for them only according to their hardness. I have said enough to give an idea of the trouble, vexation and expense, to which the Mogol was for many years exposed by the unjust and violent proceedings of the pirates established in Rakan. He had always been under the necessity of guarding the inlets of the kingdom of Bengale, of keeping large bodies of troops and a fleet of galleasses on the alert. All these precautions, however, did not prevent the ravaging of his territories; the pirates were become so bold and skilful that with four or five galleasses they would attack, and generally capture or destroy, fourteen or fifteen of the Mogol's galleys.
3.11.7
The deliverance of Bengale from the cruel and incessant devastations of these barbarians was the immediate object of the expedition contemplated by Chah-hestkan upon his appointment to the government of that Kingdom. But he had an ulterior design,—that of attacking the King of Rakan, and punishing him for his cruelty to Sultan Sujah and his family, Aureng-Zebe having determined to avenge the murder of those illustrious personages, and, by a signal example, to teach his neighbours, that Princes of the Blood Royal in all situations and under all circumstances must be treated with humanity and reverence. Chah-hestkan has accomplished his first plan with consummate address. It was scarcely practicable to march an army from Bengale into the kingdom of Rakan owing to the great number of rivers and channels that intersect the frontiers ; and the naval superiority of the pirates rendered it still more difficult to transport an invading force by sea. It therefore occurred to him to apply to the Dutch for their co-operation, and with this view he sent an envoy to Batavia, with power to negotiate, on certain conditions, with the general commandant of that colony, for the joint occupation of the kingdom of Rakan ; in the same manner as Chah-Abas treated formerly with the English in regard to Ormuz.
3.11.8
The Governor of Batavia was easily persuaded to enter into a scheme that offered an opportunity of still further depressing the Portuguese influence in the Indies, and from the success of which the Dutch company would derive important advantages. He despatched two ships of war to Bengale for the purpose of facilitating the conveyance of the Mogol's troops to Chatigon ; but Chah-hest, in the meantime, had collected a large number of galleasses and other vessels of considerable tonnage, and threatened to overwhelm the pirates in irremediable ruin if they did not immediately submit to the Mogol's authority. 'Aureng-Zebe is fixed in the resolution,' said he to them, 'of chastising the King of Rakan, and a Dutch fleet, too powerful to be resisted, is near at hand. If you are wise, your personal safety and the care of your families will now engross all your attention ; you will quit the service of the King of Rakan, and enter into that of Aureng-Zebe. In Bengale you shall have as much land allotted as you may deem necessary, and your pay shall be double that which you at present receive.'