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78
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1984
312. Of Dilawar Khan, the Editor of the Statistical Account of Noakhali, says (p. 240) :"The last pirate of note was one Dilal, Raja of Sandwip, who kept a small army in bis pay. It is related of him that he used to pay great attention to the intermarriage of his subjects, with a view to producing a high physical type. He considered that the Hindu unbroken descent within the same individual caste was as deleterious to the race as intermarrying in the same family, and it is said to be from the measures he adopted that the castes of Sandwip have become oonfused and mixed." He was eventually captured by the Nawab of Bengal (Shaista Khan) and ended his days in an iron cage at Murshidabad.
818. Though the power of these pirates was now broken, they did not cease to be very troublesome. An entry in the Diary of Streynsham Master (I. 322) shows that in 1876 there was a fort at Great Thana in the Hugli River for defence against the river pirates, Maghs or Arakanese. No one dared live below this fort for fear of being carried off and sold as slaves at Pipli. Nor did these wretches limit their outrages to the rivers. Fryer (Hak. Soc., II. 152-3) writes :-"No part of these seas are without these vermin [i.e., pirates), the Bay of Bengal being infested [in 1676) as much as the coast of Coromandel by outlawed Portugals and a mixture of that race, the most accursedly base of all mankind, who are known for their bastard brood, lurking in the mouths of the Ganges by the name of Racanners [i.e., Arakaners)."
314. A letter from Daoca, dated 24th December 1678, says that the Maghs had taken 14 boats near Chittagong, and another letter from Hugli, dated 11 May 1679, says that the English Council objected to lend the Company's sloops" on all occasions to fight against the Arakanners till they are conquered, which according to all likelihood will never be." On the other hand, the Company, in a letter to Bengal, dated 28th September 1687, expressed the opinion that the threat of letting loose these pirates upon the Moors in all parts of the Genges was a protection for the English against the Mughal Government (Bowrey, Hak. Soc., S. 2.. XII. p. 212, n. 2).
815. In the year 1737 it is said that a very large number of the inhabitants of the Sandarbans (Sunderbunds) deserted their homes out of fear of the Magh raids. In the time of Aliverdi Khan (1740-56) the Naib Subah of Southern Bengal, Sadakat Muhammad Khan, planned an expedition against Arakan in reprisal for the piratioal attacks of Magh or Arakan fleets. One of these, consisting of 50 or 60 boats, apparently en route for Luckipore, he had surprised and destroyed. The expedition was however recalled before it crossed the frontier. (A8. Ann. Reg., 1799, Misc. Tracts, p. 165).
316. On the 27th September 1760 the District was ceded by Mir Kasim to the British and was surveyed. James Rennell's Map of 1772 shows a large tract marked as desolated by tha Maghs. Mr. Beveridge and many other authorities doubt the statement that the Sand. arbans were ever largely peopled (Campos, p. 25).
317. Even British control did not immediately put an end to this nuisance, for în June 1777 Major R. E. Roberto wrote from Chittagong that, in the preceding February, Maghs or Arakaners had carried off 1800 men, women and children from the south of Bengal as slaves to Arakan. The best of these, viz., the artisans and artificers, were appropriated by the Raja. the rest were sold in the market at prices varying from 20 to 70 rupees. It was reported that about three-fourths of the inhabitants of Arakan were either natives or descendants of nativos of Bengal, who had been carried away and who constantly prayed for the arrival of the Eng. lish to free them from their slavery (Asiatic Annual Register, 1799; Misc. Tracts, p. 160). A little later, Mr. Francis Law, Chief at Chittagong, reported on the 23rd November 1777, that having sent some persons to make enquiries as to the forces of the Raja of Arakan, they
