Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/297

 EUROPEANS AT HUGLI 243 them out. On a petition to the throne " that some European idolaters, who had been allowed to establish factories in Hugli, had mounted their fort with cannon, and had grown insolent and oppressive/ f he took the city by storm in 1632; slew one thousand of the Portu- guese (according to the native tradition), and carried off four thousand prisoners to his capital in Northern India, where the most beautiful of the girls were dis- DIAMOND HARBOUR, AT THE MOUTH OP THE HUGLI RIVER. tributed among the harems of his nobility. It is said that of sixty-four Portuguese ships and 257 smaller craft anchored opposite the town, only three small ves- sels escaped to sea. A remnant lingered around their old monastery at Bandel, a mile higher up the Hugli, while the Dutch had a factory at Chinsurah, a little way down. The Dutch site was well chosen, for it marked the most inland point of the Ganges delta then accessible to sea-going ships. The ancient royal port of Bengal, on a creek which entered the river not far above Hugli