The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c19.49

v4.c19.49

One of the tasks with which Mīr Jumla was charged by the emperor was the punishment of the pirates of Chittagong and the recovery of Shujā's family. This work, which he did not live to attempt, fell to his successor in Bengal, Shāyista Khān. The Fenny river was the boundary between the Burmese (Magh) kingdom of Arakan and the Mughul empire, but during the reigns of Jahāngīr and Shāh Jahān the Magh pirates acquired complete domination over the rivers and creeks of East Bengal. Their naval power was strengthened by the settlement of Portuguese and half-caste (Feringi) adventurers in Chittagong, who acted as the agents of the local raja in these raids. "These pirates, both Magh and Feringi, used constantly to come and plunder Bengal, carrying off the Hindus and Muslims that they could seize, and employing some of the captives in degrading tasks and selling others as slaves at the Indian ports." Deltaic Bengal was so long and so thoroughly devastated by them that the riverside parts of the Backergunge and Dacca districts remained desolate and bare of inhabitants even at the time of Rennell's survey (1775).