A History of Assam c21.2

c21.2

The condition of the Brahmaputra valley at the time of the expulsion of the Burmese was most deplorable. No less than thirty thousand Assamese had been taken away as slaves, and a well-known native authority was of opinion that the invaders, by their barbarous and inhuman conduct, had "destroyed more than one-half of the population, which had already been thinned by intestine commotions and repeated civil wars."* Those who survived had been so harassed by the long-continued wars and repeated acts of oppression that they had almost given up cultivation, and lived chiefly on jungle roots and plants; and famine and pestilence carried off thousands that had escaped the sword and captivity. The Ahom nobles and the great Gosāins, with few exceptions, had retired to Goālpāra, after losing the whole, or the bulk of, their property; and they were followed by large numbers of the common people. The former eventually returned to their homes, but the poorer refugees did not, and their descendants still form a large proportion of the inhabitants of the eastern part of Goālpāra.