Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/344

 278 APPENDIX 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 course of time, a considerable place thus 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 trade was established there, while the markets of Satganw declined and lost their prosperity. The villages and districts of Hugli were on both sides of the river and the Europeans got possession of them at a low rent, and converting some of the inhabitants to their own faith, sent them off afterwards in ships to Europe. 1 These practices were not confined to the lands they occupied, but they seized and carried off every one they could lay their hands upon along both sides of the river. These proceedings had come under the notice of the emperor before his accession, and he resolved to put an end to them if ever he ascended the throne. After he became Sultan, therefore, he appointed Kasim Khan to the government of Bengal and impressed upon him the duty of overthrowing these mischievous people, ordering him, as soon as he had attended to the neces- 1 The original is strongly Mohammedan in tone and reads as follows : " 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 con- soled themselves with the profits of their trade for the loss of rent which arose from the removal of these cultivators."