Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/221

Rh river that washes its banks being so commodious that the place was later on declared a port in the hope that the largest steamers might visit it. For themselves the Morrels constructed a fine house with large gardens close by the river bank, while a splendid avenue was opened out parallel with the river, and leading to the bazaar which quickly sprang up with a thriving mart, as the limits of cultivation extended. Within ten years no less than four thousand bighas had been cleared and as rumours of the extraordinary fertility of the newly cleared soil reached the neighbouring districts, hundreds of ryots hastened to the spot and eagerly took up land to clear and cultivate. It was not long before practically the whole of the four lots was reclaimed, a large portion of them by the Morrels themselves, the remainder by Talukdars to whom they had given leases. With the success of his enterprise apparently assured, Robert Morrel took settlement of other adjoining lands from government until his estate reached to the sea extended over an immense area. Far away from the magisterial head-quarters at Khulna, which was then a subdivision of Jessore, and cut off from easy access by a network of rivers and impenetrable jungle, the Morrels were wellnigh independent of outside interference in their control of the large and flourishing tract which they had brought into existence.