Portuguese population of Húghly were stripped of CHAPTER IX. all they possessed, and carried away to Agra as slaves. The younger and more beautiful women were transferred to the imperial seraglio. The remainder were distributed amongst the nobles of the court. The children were forcibly converted to Islam. The men were daily threatened with being trampled to death by elephants unless they became Mussulmans; and at the same time were so tempted by promises of promotion or reward, that they nearly all became renegades. But it is unnecessary to dwell upon their misery. It was compared at the time to the Babylonian captivity of the Jews.

Shah Shayah in

Arakan.

The destruction of the Portuguese of Húghly Mistah in was not, however, followed by the suppression of piracy. Indeed in that revolutionary age the Portuguese of Chittagong had every inducement to continue their depredations, excepting that there was little left to plunder, and but few remaining to carry away as slaves. During the latter years of the reign of Shah Jehan, the whole of Hindustan was convulsed by the rebellion of his sons. At length prince Shujah was utterly defeated by the forces of his elder brother Aurangzíb, and compelled to fly to Dacca; whence he escaped to Arakan with his family and treasures on board the galleys of the outlaw Portuguese. The subsequent misfortunes of this prince form one of the most melancholy episodes in Indian history. The king of Arakan demanded one of his daughters in marriage; and the Mussulman prince naturally refused to give a princess of the house of Timour to a Buddhist sovereign, whom he regarded as an idolater and barbarian. The king of Arakan was in

CHAPTER IX. furiated by the refusal, but would not be gainsaid. The Mogul princess was forced to become his wife. A conspiracy was formed by prince Shujah amongst the Mussulman residents in Arakan for effecting his escape from that inhospitable shore; but the plot was discovered by the king of Arakan. The prince and all his family were put to a miserable death, and the unfortunate princess who had married the king, was brutally murdered when she was about to become a mother.

Revenge of
Aurangzib.

Destruction of the Portuguese pirates by

Although the emperor Aurangzíb was thus delivered from a dangerous rival, he was determined to be revenged upon the king of Arakan, and prove to all the neighbouring princes that under no circumstances should any member of the imperial family be treated otherwise than with respect and reverence. Accordingly as soon as he was established on the imperial throne of Hindustan, he appointed his uncle Shaista Khan to be Viceroy of Bengal, with instructions to inflict a fitting punishment upon the king of Arakan, and to suppress at once and for ever the piracies and kidnapping practices of the Portuguese outlaws.

Shaista Khan carried out this work somewhat Shaista Khan. insidiously after Asiatic fashion, but otherwise thoroughly and well. He sent messengers to the Portuguese at Chittagong informing them that the emperor had resolved on the destruction of the king of Arakan; that a Dutch fleet was already on the way to fulfil his vengeance with an overwhelming force which it would be useless to resist; that if they would save themselves from impending ruin, they must at once desert the cause of the king of Arakan; and that if they came to Dacca, and entered the

service of the emperor, they would be well enter- CHAPTER IX. tained, and receive double the pay they had ever obtained from their Arakan master. The messengers arrived at Chittagong at a favourable moment. The outlaws had just murdered some officers of the king, and were fearful of condign punishment. Whilst stricken with a panic they received the invitation of Shaista Khan, and at once hastened to Dacca in their galleys with their respective families, and such goods as they could carry away. With the assistance of their fleet Shaista Khan carried a large force to Arakan, and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the king, and took possession of Chittagong; and then, having no longer occasion for the services of the Portuguese outlaws, and having also got them completely into his power, he treated them as traitors, and declined to fulfil any one of his promises. From that time the Portuguese lingered out a wretched existence, and ultimately died out of the land; but the desolation of the Sunderbunds remains to this day as a terrible memorial of the old piratical times, which, it is hoped, have now passed away for ever from the Eastern seas.38

38 The foregoing account of the destruction of the Portuguese pirates is based on the authority of Berniers and Faria y Sousa.

APPENDIX I.

EDICTS OF ASOKA (PRIYADARSI).

[THE translations of the edicts of Asoka are here arranged for easy reference in parallel columns. The translations originally executed by Mr James Prinsep are printed in the right column, and the revised translation by Professor H. H. Wilson are printed in the left column. They are extracted from the Asiatic Society's Journal, vols. viii. and xii. The conclusions stated in chap. iv. of the present volume are based entirely upon the revised translation of Professor Wilson, unless the contrary is stated.']

TABLET I.

Prof. Wilson's Translation. This is the edict of the beloved of the gods, Raja Priyadasi; the putting to death of animals is to be entirely discontinued, and no convivial meeting is to be held, for the beloved of the gods, the Raja Priyadasi, remarks many faults in such assemblies. There is but one assembly, indeed, which is approved of by the Raja Priyadasi, the beloved of the gods, which is that of the great kitchen of Raja Priyadasi, the

Mr Prinsep's Translation.

"The following edict of religion is promulgated by the heaven-beloved king PIYADASI. In this place the putting to death of anything whatever that hath life, either for the benefit of the puja, or in convivial meetings, shall not be done. Much cruelty of this nature. occurs in such assemblies. The heaven-beloved king PIYADASI is (as it were) a father (to his people). Uniformity of worship is wise and proper for the con

1 The Sanskrit form Priyadarsi is adhered to in the history for the sake of uniformity. It is variously spelt Priyadasi and Piyadasi in the inscriptions, and consequently is not altered in the translations.

TABLET II.