Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/87

 ;

BANKIPUR—BANKO T Bankipur.

— Ancient

and

the map,

site

its

military transactions

period.

on the

Hugh

river,

near the modern

of this village has disappeared from

can only be identified from the records of the the last century, and from a chart of that

in

formed the principal settlement of the

It

Company

village

The name

Palta above Barrackpur.

77

The Emperor of

in India.

ill-fated

Ostend

Austria, desirous of procuring a

Company

share of the East Indian trade, incorporated the Ostend

In

722-23, its factors being chiefly persons who had served in the Dutch and English companies. This was the one great effort made by Germany r

to secure a foothold in India.

twenty millions of

livres (less

The Ostend Company,

with a capital of

than a million sterling), founded two

settle-

ments one at ‘Coblom’ (Covelong) between the English Madras and the Dutch Sadras on the south-eastern coast, the other between the English Calcutta and the Dutch Chinsura on the Hugh' in Bengal. Both of these German settlements were regarded with animosity by the an animosity felt also by the French, whose English and the Dutch adjacent settlements at Pondicherri on the Madras coast, and Chandarnagar on the Hugh', were also threatened by the new company. The result was, that in order to obtain the European guarantee for the pragmatic sanction in 1727, the Court of Vienna resolved to sacrifice the Ostend Company. To save its honour, the sacrifice took the form of a suspension of the Company’s charter for seven years. But the Company was practically doomed by the maritime powers After a miserable existence it became bankrupt in of Europe. Meanwhile, the Dutch 1784, and was formally abolished in 1793. and English in Bengal had taken the law into their own hands. stirred up the Muhammadan general {Faujddr) at In 1733 Hugh to pick a quarrel, in the name of the Delhi Emperor, with the little German Settlement at Banki'pur, which lay about eight miles below Hugh town on the opposite side of the river. The Muham;

—

)

madan

troops

besieged Banki'pur 7 .and

the

garrison,

consisting

of

only 14 persons, after a despairing resistance against overwhelming numbers, abandoned the place, and set sail for Europe. The

Ostend agent lost his right arm by a cannon ball during the engagement and the Ostend Company, together with the German interests which it represented, became thenceforth merely a name in Bengal

—a

name

which, as already mentioned, soon disappeared from the

maps.

Bankomundl. height,

2080

Bankoti. District,

— Mountain peak

— Seaport

Bombay

in the north

of Bod State, Orissa

Lat. 20° 42' 24" n., long. 84° 20' 18"

feet.

on the creek of the same name

Presidency.

Lat.

e.

in

Ratnagiri

17° 58' 30" n., long. 73° 5' 10" e.

Situated on the Savitri river, 10 miles north-north-west from Savaradnig fort.

The channel

is

on the south-east

side of the river entrance,

and