PORTUGUESE. 1500-1670.

In 1498, when the whole coast line from Goa to Bassein had lately passed to Bijapur and Gujarat, the Portuguese rounded the Cape of Good Hope and appeared on the Kalikat coast. Their object was to treat all Indian ships as friends and all Indian rulers as allies. [The early Portuguese showed Hindus much forbearance. Dom Manuel often wrote, ' Strive to keep on good terms with Hindus.' Commentaries of Albuquerque, III. 247.] Their only rivals were the Moors of Mecca, and the Arab and Egyptian merchants who had then the monopoly of the trade between Europe and Asia. The first Gujarat ships that were taken by the Portuguese were restored unharmed and with a friendly message. [In 1502 Vasco da Gama's orders were that the ships of Cambay were to be let pass as friends. 'Da Gama's Voyages, 376.] After Goa was ceded (1511), in spite of constant quarrels, the Portuguese are honourably mentioned by Musalman historians as keeping their agreement with the Bijapur kings. [Briggs' Ferishta, III. 34. Ferishta says, ' The Portuguese, observing their treaty, have made no further encroachment on the Adil Shahi territory.'] With the Nizam Shah or Ahmadnagar dynasty the Portuguese continued faithful allies, never attacking them except on three occasions and on each occasion in self-defence. [In 1530 when the Gujarat kings forced Ahmadnagar to break with the Portuguese (Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 237, and Faria in Kerr, VI. 231); in 1572 when the Bijapur Ahmadnagar and Kalikat kings joined against the Portuguese (Briggs' Ferishta, III. 251); and in 1534 when the Ahmadnagar kings attempted to fortify Korle hill at the mouth of the Chaul river. (Da Cunha's Chaul, 60).] Mahmud Begada, the Gujarat king, was too staunch a Musalman to be on friendly terms with a Christian power, and he was too successful a sea captain to admit the Portuguese claim to rule the sea. He entered into an alliance with the Mameluke Soldan of Egypt [Faria in Kerr, VI. 111. Kausu-al-Gauri, known as Campson Gauri (1500-1516), who was killed near Aleppo by Selim, emperor of the Turks.] and the Zamorin of Kalikat to unite in driving the Portuguese from the Indian seas. Timber was sent from Bassein to Mecca to help the Egyptians to build a fleet, [Part of the Egyptian fleet was made at Suez from timber brought from Dalmatia, Faria in Kerr, VI. III; Mickle's Lusiad, I. cxx.] and, in 1507, an Egyptian fleet of twelve sail and 1500 men under Amir Husain arrived in the Cambay gulf. On their arrival Mahmud sent his fleet along with the Egyptian vessels down the coast, and himself led an army by land to help the fleets, should tho Portuguese be found in any of the Gujarat ports. [Forbes' Ras Mala, 291; Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 215.] The result was the defeat of the Portuguese at Chaul, a loss that was soon after (2nd February 1509) redeemed by the destruction off Diu of the joint Gujarat, Kalikat, and Egyptian fleets. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 119. Among the spoil were many Latin, Italian, and Portuguese books, probably the property of Christian galley slaves.] In 1507 the Portuguese seem to have tried to raise the Hindu chiefs on the Thana coast against Mahmud Begada, as Mahmud is described as settling disturbances at Bassein and effecting his designs against Bassein and Bombay. [Briggs' Ferishta, IV. 74, 75. According to the Ras Mala the Europeans were anxious to occupy part of the Gujarat coast, Ras Mala, 290, 291.] In January 1509, on their way to Diu, the Portuguese took a ship in Bombay harbour and got supplies from the fort of Mahim, from which the garrison tied. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 117.] On the return of the victorious Portuguese fleet the governor of Chaul agreed to pay a yearly tribute. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 120. In 1510 some Portuguese were shipwrecked at Nabanda and taken to Champaner. The Gujarat and Bassein minister wrote a friendly letter to Albuquerque (Commentaries, II. 212). In 1512 a Gujarat ambassador visited Goa. Albuquerque made three demands, that they were to employ no Turks, that their ships were to trade only with Goa, and that the Portuguese were to be allowed to build ft fort at Diu. Commentaries, III. 245.] A few years later (1514) the southern boundary of Gujarat had shrunk from Chaul to Bombay. [About 1514 Barbosa (Stanley's Barbosa, 68, 69) describes Chaul as eight leagues south from the borders of Gujarat or Cambay.]

At this time the Thana ports seem to have been places of little trade. The commerce between the Deccan and the sea either centred in Chaul and Dabhol; or passed by land to Surat and Rander, which were great places of trade in all classes of merchandise. [Stanley's Barbosa, 66, 67. Surat was a city of vary great trade in all classes of merchandise, a very important seaport whose customs-house yielded a large revenue to the king of Gujarat Ravel or Rander was a rich and agreeable place, trading with Bengal, Pegu, Sumatra, and Malacca, with large fine ships and the beat supply of Chinese foods. Chaul was a place of great commerce and Dabhol a place of very great trade. Ditto 69, 72.] Bassein was a good seaport where much merchandise changed hands, but all apparently came from the Malabar coast. Bombay, Mahim, and Thana were mixed into one, Tanamayambn, a sea-port at the end of Cambay or Gujarat. It had a fortress and a pleasant Moorish town with many rich gardens, great Moorish mosques, and Gentile temples. It had little trade and was pestered with pirates, who went out to sea, and if they met with any ships less strong than themselves, captured and plundered them sometimes killing the crews. [Stanley's Barbosa, 68-69. According to Faria, Chaul belonged to Nizam Shah in 1508. Kerr, VI. 111.]

In 1516, Dom Joao de Monoy entered the Bandra creek and defeated the commandant of Mahim fort, and, in the same year, a Portuguese factory was established at Chaul. In 1521 an order came from Portugal to build forts at Chaul and at Diu. A fleet started for Diu, but their request to be allowed to build a fort was refused, and the place was so strongly fortified that the fleet sailed to Ormuz without attacking it. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 180.] The Portuguese were more successful at Chaul, where, on the promise that he would be allowed to import horses, Burhan I., king of Ahmadnagar, gave them leave to build a fort. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 191, 192.] Malik Eiaz sent the Gujarat fleet from Diu to blockade the Chaul river, and stop the building of the fort. In this he was helped by the Musalman governor of Chaul. But though the Portuguese fleet suffered severely, the building was pushed on, and, in 1522, Malik Eiaz was forced to withdraw. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 36-37.] The fort was finished in 1524, and, after that, the Portuguese fleet was able to sail freely in the Bombay harbour. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 39.] In 1526 a Portuguese factory was established at Bassein. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 171.] In February 1528 the Gujarat fleet of eighty barks, under a brave Moor named Alishah (Alexiath), appeared at the mouth of the Chaul river and did much damage to the Ahmadnagar territory and to Portuguese trade. Against the Gujarat fleet, Sampayo the Portuguese viceroy, sailed with forty vessels, carrying 1000 Portuguese soldiers and a large force of armed natives. The viceroy took command of the sailing ships and placed Heitor de Sylveira in charge of the row-boats. On reaching Chaul, one Juao de Avelar, with eighty Portuguese, was sent to help the Ahmadnagar king. A thousand natives were given him, and with their help he scaled a fort belonging to the king of Cambay, which till then had been thought impregnable. He slew the garrison and delivered the fort to the Nizam.

On leaving Chaul for Diu, 'on the day after Shrove Tuesday,' Sampayo came unexpectedly on the Cambay fleet in Bombay harbour. After a furious cannonade the Portuguese boarded the enemy and Alishah fled hoping to escape by the Mahim creek. But the Portuguese had stationed boats at Bandra, and all Alishah's vessels but seven were taken. Of the seventy-three prizes thirty-three were fit for work and were kept; the rest were burned. Besides the vessels many prisoners were made, and much artillery and abundance of ammunition were taken. [Feria in Kerr's Voyages, VI. 209, 210. This summary of Faria's account of the battle of Bombay seems to differ in some particulars from the account in De Barros.' Asia (Decada, IV. Part I. 208-210,Lisbon Ed. of 1777). According to De Barros the Portuguese caught sight of the Gujarat fleet off a promontory. As Sylyeira drew near, the Gujrat fleet retired behind the promontory, and he sent some ships to guard the mouth of the river. When Sylveira drew near, the Gujarat ships set sail and ran into the river, and when they found that the mouth of the river was occupied, they tried to reach Mahim fort, but, before they reached Mahim, they were surrounded and captured by the Portuguese boats which had been sent to, guard the mouth of the creek. This account is not altogether clear. Apparently what happened was that when the Gujrat boats saw the Portuguese, they drew back from the Prongs Point into the Bombay harbour, and when the Portuguese fleet attacked them, they fled up the harbour to the mouth of the river (that is the Bombay harbour or east mouth of the Mahim creek) not daring to try their fortune is the open sea.' The Portuguese captain learned from his local pilots that the Gujarat fleet probably meant to retreat through the Bandra creek, and accordingly sent boats to guard its mouth. The Gujarat fleet entered the creek by Sion, and, on nearing Mahim, saw the Portuguese boats blocking the entrance of the creek. To avoid them they made for the Musalman fort of Mahim, at the south end of the present Bandra causeway, but the Portuguese saw their object and coming up the creek cut them off, De Barros' account has been supposed ('Lateen' in Times of India, 21st April 1882) to favour the view that the fight was not in the harbour, but in the open sea off Malabar point. To this view the objection are, that when the Gujarat fleet retired behind Colaba point on catching sight of the Portuguese, they must have gone into Back Bay a dangerous and unlikely movement. That if they came out again to fight, they must have seen the Portuguese boats being sent on to Bandra, and that when, in their flight, the Gujarat fleet found the mouth of the Bandra creek blocked, they could not have attempted to take shelter in Mahim. The attempt to take shelter in Mahim, when the mouth of the creek was found to be blocked, shows that the Gujarat fleet was leaving not entering the Bandra or Mahim river.] After the victory Sampayo went back to Goa leaving Heitor de Sylveira with twenty-two row-boats to harass the Guiarat coasts. Sylveira remained some time on the pleasantly-wooded island of Bombay or Mahim. It had much game and plenty of meat and rice, and proved so agreeable a resting-place that his men gave it the name of Boa Vida or the Island of Good Life. [Dom Joao de Castro Primeiro Roteiro, 70.] After resting his men in Bombay, Sylveira went up the river Nagothna, landed, and burnt six Gujarat towns. On his way back to his boats he was attacked by the commandant of Nagothna but beat him off with loss. Sylveira next went to Bassein, which he found well fortified and defended with cannon. He entered the river at night and stormed the fortifications. Next day he was met by Alishah at the head of 3500 men. But he drove them off with great slaughter, and plundered and burnt the city of Bassein. [This capture of Bassein was deemed a great exploit, as the entrance to the river was very difficult. Dom Joao de Castro Primeiro Roteiro, 110.] Terrified with these exploits, the lord of the great city of Thana agreed to become tributary to the Portuguese, and Sylveira returned to Chaul. [Faria in Kerr; VI. 209, 211. Da Chinha's Chaul and Bassein, 170. This previous agreement, not the unimportance of Bombay, seems to be the reason why Bombay is not mentioned in the Bassein treaty of 1533. Apparently this lord of Thana was a Hindu chief, not a Musalman governor. In the outlying parts of their territory the Gujarat kings seem to have made free use of Hindu governors, probably tributary Chiefs. In 1503 the governor of Chaul was a Hindu (Badger's Varthema, 114), and in 1514 the governor of Surat was a Hindu. (Stanley's Barbosa, 68).] In 1530 Antonio de Sylveira, on his way back from plundering Surat and Rander, destroyed the towns of Daman and Agashi, at the latter place burning 300 of the enemies' ships. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 221.] In the same year the Portuguese made a successful raid into the Ahmadnagar-Konkan, as Burhan Nizam had been forced by his superior Bahadur Shah of Gujarat to join with him in a campaign against the Portuguese. [Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 237; Brigg's Ferishta, III. 219; Faria in Kerr, VI. 231.]

In 1531 a great Portuguese fleet, collected by Nuno da Cunha for the capture of Diu, was reviewed in Bombay harbour and a parade was held on the Bombay esplanade. From Bombay the fleet of 400 sail with 3600 Portuguese soldiers and 1450 Portuguese seamen, 2000 Kanara and Malabar soldiers, 8000 slaves, and about 5000 native seamen, sailed to Daman. They found it deserted, and, passing north, took the pirate stronghold of Little Bet in the south of Kathiawar, and advanced to Diu, but failed to make any impression on its fortifications. Nuno returned to Goa, leaving Antonio de Saldanha with sixty sail to plunder the Cambay ports. On his way south Antonio destroyed Balsar, Tarapur, Kelva-Mahim, and Agashi. [Faria in Kerr, VL 223.] In 1532 Nuno da Cunha ordered Diogo de Sylveira to plunder the Gujarat coasts, and himself advanced, with 150 vessels manned by 3000 Portuguese soldiers and 200 Kanarese, against Bassein, whose fortifications were being strengthened. Though Bassein was garrisoned by 12,000 men, the Portuguese dashed against the fort, took it by assault, and razed its walls. Thana and Bandra were forced to pay tribute, the coast towns between Bassein and Tarapur were burnt, and an attempt was made to take the fort of Daman.[Faria in Kerr, VI. 225.] Nuno da Cunha again urged the king of Gujarat to let the Portuguese build a fort at Diu. But again the negotiations failed. Soon after this a quarrel between Humayun king of Delhi and Bahadur of Gujarat gave the friendship of the Portuguese a special importance. As Bahadur continued to refuse to allow the Portuguese to build a fort at Diu, Nuno entered into negotiations with Humayun and again pillaged the Gujarat coast and took Daman. After the loss of Daman, to win them from their alliance with Humayun, Bahadur (1533) made a treaty with the Portuguese, ceding Bassein and its dependencies, and agreeing that Gujarat ships bound from Cambay to the Red Sea should touch at Bassein and pay dues; that no Cambay ships should sail without a Portuguese pass; that no war ships should be built in Gujarat; and that no alliance should be made with the Turks. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 227. When Bahadur, in the next year, allowed the Portuguese to build a fort at Diu, several of these humiliating terms were cancelled. Faria gives 1534.] In 1535, defeated by Humayun and apparently ruined, Bahadur, on promise of their active assistance, agreed to let the Portuguese build a fort at Diu. Bahadur had written for help to the Sultan of Turkey. But, as time pressed, he did not wait for his answer, but made a treaty with the Portuguese. Under the new agreement the centre of trade watt Diu not Bassein, and the fort at Diu was to be built on the site which seemed beet to the Portuguese Governor-General [Faria (Kerr, VI. 236) gives 21st September 1536 as the date of the treaty. Apparently it should be 1536, as, according to the Musalman historians, Humayun took Champaner in April 1535. Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 249. In the hope of being the first to carry the news of this treaty to Portugal, one Diogo Botelho of Diu sailed in a boat 16½ feet long, nine feet broad, and 4½ deep, manned by his own slaves with three Portuguese and two others. After a time the slaves mutinied and were all killed. Botelho persevered and reached Lisbon safe. The bark was destroyed that it might not be known that so small a boat could travel to India. Faria in Kerr, VI. 237. There seems to be some doubt about the length of this craft. See Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, Introduction xxii.; and Baldseus (1660) in Churchill, III. 531.] In return for this concession the Portuguese did their best to help Bahadur to regain his kingdom. They repelled a Moghal attack on Bassein, and a body of 500 Portuguese were most useful in helping Bahadur to free Gujarat from the Moghals. In 1535 the Portuguese built a fort at Bassein, and the Din fort was pressed on and finished.

When his affairs were again prosperous Bahadur repented of having allowed the Portuguese to build at Diu, and invited the Sultan of Turkey and the chief of Aden to attack the Portuguese. In 1536 Bahadur came to Diu, and, to tempt Nuuo da Cunha the Portuguese governor to enter the city, paid his ship a visit. Treachery was planned on both sides, and, when Bahadur was landing, a scuffle arose and he and the Portuguese governor of Diu were slain. Two years later, tempted by the great value of a jewelled belt which he had received from Bahadur, the Sultan of Turkey Bent a great expedition to take Diu. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 238.] His admiral Sulaiman besieged the port for two months (September - November 1538). But the heroic defence of the Portuguese garrison, and the well-founded suspicion of the Gujarat Musalmans, that if the Turks took Diu they would keep it, forced him to retire defeated.[ Faria in Kerr, VI. 247, 252. When Sulaiman withdrew only forty of the garrison were able to fight.] After the withdrawal of the Turks a treaty of peace was concluded between the Portuguese and the king of Gujarat. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 255.] In 1540 Mahmud Shah III. of Gujarat besieged Bassein, but failed to take it, and, in the same year, Burhan Nizam of Ahmadnagar took from their Gujarat commandants the forts of Karnala in Panvel and of Sangaza or Sankshi in Pen. The Gujarat commandants applied for help to the Portuguese who retook the forts. They held them for a short time, but, finding them costly, handed them to Ahmadnagar. [ Faria in Kerr, VI. 368.]

In 1546 the Portuguese gained great honour by the second famous defence of Diu. So completely did they defeat the whole strength of Gujarat, that in 1548 Mahmud Shah made overtures for peace and concluded a treaty much in favour of the Portuguese. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 403.] In 1556 the great hill fort of Asheri and the important station of Manor on the Vaitarna river were taken by the Portuguese. [Nairne's Konkan, 44,] In 1560 Changiz Khan, one of the leading Gujarat nobles, in return for help in taking Surat, ceded to the Portuguese the belt of coast from the Vaitarna to, Daman. [Watson's Gujarat, 56.] Sidi Bofeta, the commandant of Daman, refused to surrender the fort. But a Portuguese force took the forts of Daman and Parnera as well as the island of Balsar. Daman was strongly garrisoned and was highly valued as a guard to the district of Bassein. [Faria in Kerr VI 413; Faria gives 1558.] In the same year (1560) a body of 3000 Moghal horse attacked Daman, but were driven off with the loss of their baggage. [Faria, in Kerr, VI. 421.] They seem to have seized Parnera and to have remained there till they were driven out in 1568.[ Faria, in Kerr, VI. 422.] In 1569 the Portuguese attacked the Jawhar Kolis, and passed through their country as far east as the foot of the Sahyadris. [Nairne's Konkan, 45.] In 1570 the kings of Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Kalikat, and Achin in Sumatra formed a great league against the Portuguese. Mortaza of Ahmadnagar, who was stirred to great exertions by the hope of securing Chaul, Bassein, and Daman, led a mighty army against Chaul. The siege was pressed with vigour and with great loss of life, but, such was the courage and skill of the defence, that after wasting several months Mortaza was forced to retire. The Bijapur attack on Goa was equally unsuccessful and the Portuguese gained much honour and respect. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 423, 437. According to Ferishta (Briggs, III. 254) the siege of Chaul failed because the Ahmadnagar officers were bribed by presents of wine.] From Chaul, Mortaza sent a body of 5000 horse to ravage the Portuguese territories in Thana, but the Portuguese drove them off and invaded Ahmadnagar territory, attacking Kalyan and burning its suburbs. In 1581 Portugal was conquered by Spain and its eastern possessions passed to the Spaniards without a struggle. In 1583, on his final conquest of Gujarat, the Emperor Akbar attempted to win back Bassein and Daman. But the Portuguese met the Moghals with so vigorous a defence that they were forced to retire. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 442.] A favourable treaty was afterwards concluded, partly by the good offices of a Portuguese lady who was an inmate of Akbar's household. In the same year the Portuguese ravaged the Koli country, but suffered considerable loss from the activity of the enemy who, they said, jumped from tree to tree like monkeys. [Nairne's Konkan, 45.] In 1594 the Ahmadnagar king attacked Chaul or Revdanda, and detached a body of horse to ravage Bassein. [Briggs' Ferishta, III. 284. Ferishta gives 1592, the Portuguese 1594. Da Cunha's Bassein, 59, 61.]

Though, for fifty years more, they lost none of their Thana possessions, the power of the Portuguese began to wane at the close of the sixteenth century. In 1597 the Dutch, 'the scourge of Portuguese pride' appeared in Indian seas. [Faria in Kerr, VI. 475.] In 1609 the governor of Musalman Chaul attacked and harassed the Portuguese at sea. [Nairne's Konkan, 47.] Two years later Malik Ambar, the Ahmadnagar minister, sent an army to take Bassein and Salsette but failed. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 64.] In 1612, in consequence of an injury done to their fleet at Surat the Moghals besieged Daman, Bassein, and Chaul, desolated the country, and had to be bought off. [Nairne's Konkan, 36.] In the same year the naval fame of the Portuguese received a serious blow by the defeat of a great Portuguese fleet by four English ships at the mouth of the Tapti. [Faria in Kerr, VI 499. Of the English ships one was of 200 tons one of 300 one of 500 and one of 650. The Portuguese had sixty small war boats a pinnace of 120 tons two ships of 200 tons, and six great ships of from 400 to 800 tons. Kerr's Voyages IX 204. Details of the fight are given in the Surat Statistical Account Bombay Gazetter. II 76-77.] In 1614 the Portuguese concluded a favourable treaty with the Emperor Jahangir. And for the next thirty-fire years, though they suffered serious loss in other places, the Portuguese continued to hold their Thana possessions without loss in area and apparently with an increase of wealth. [The revenue of Bassein is said to have risen form Xeraphins 172,920 in 1686 to Xs. 194,748 in 1709 Xs, 310,770 in 1718, and Xs 914,125 in 1729. F.N. Xavier's Diccionario 1848 p. 10. The Xeraphim is pribably the silver Xeraphim about equal to half a rupee, Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 87. ] In 1640 Portugal made itself independent of Spain, and, for a few years, fresh interest was shown in its eastern possessions.

During the sixteenth century hardly any references have been traced to the inland parts of south and east Thana. Except the forts of Karnala and Sankshi, which remained under Gujarat till the middle of the century, south and east Thana were under the Ahmadnagar kings, several of the hill-forts being held by local tributary chiefs. These districts, of which Kalyan was the head, passed to the Moghals when Ahmadnagar was taken in 1600. They were soon after recovered by Malik Ambar, the Ahmadnagar minister, who held them till his death in 1626, and is said to have surveyed the land and improved the revenue system. After Malik Ambar's death the south of Thana or Kalyan was kept by the Moghals for ten years and then made over to Bijapur. During all this time the wild north-east, apparently as far south as about Bhiwndi and the hill fort of Mahuli, was held by the Raja of Jawhar and other Koli chiefs. The Kolis had three leading towns, Tavar to the north of Daman, Vazen perhaps Vasind, and Darila apparently Dheri near Umbargaon, a considerable town of groat stone and tiled houses [Nairne's Konkan, 45.]

In 1534, when Bassein and Salsette were ceded to the Portuguese, they found the land guarded by stockades and fortified posts. Besides the land revenue which was taken in kind, [Colleccao de Monumentos Ineditos, V] there was a miscellaneous cash revenue from casses on cocoanut oil, opium, cotton, palm spirits, vegetables, fish, sugarcane, and betel-leaf, and on butchers, dyers, fishermen and sheplerds. [Autborities in Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein 158] In 1538, four years after it came under Portugese management, Bassein is described as a difficult river with an excellent, beacg for small boats in the stormy season, The town was large, the resort of many people and nations. The land was level, and the soil rich and strong. In the rains it was under water and walking was impossible. These were great groves of trees and many reservoirs and lakes notable for their flights of steps and for their buildings and carvings [Dom Jpao de Castro Primeiro Roteiro, 112.After its formal cession in 1533, Bombay was rented in perpentuity to Garcia d'Orta a Lisbon physician known for his Dialogues on Indian Simples and Drugs. He paid a yearly quitrent of about ?71 12s. (1432½ pardaos. He mentions his island as Bombay and Mombaim in his Dialogues, and notices a mango tree that yielded two crops a year. He lived in India from 1534 to 1572 Dr. G. Da Cunha.] Salsette was famous for the ruins of the great and beautiful city of Thana, and the mighty cave temple of Kanheri. The island was very, rich and well provided with food, and with poultry and small and big game. In the hills was plenty of timber for ships and galleys. [Dom Joao de Castro "Primeiro Eoteiro, 70, 72.] Though terribly ruined by the ravages of the Portuguese and of the Gujarat kings, Thana was a great city, with. 900 gold-lace looms and 1200 white-cloth looms. The low pleasantly-wooded island of Bombay had much game and plenty of meat and rice ; its crops were never known to fail. [Dom Joao de Castro Primeiro Roteiro, 70.]

Whatever damage they may have done when they first conquered the country, the Musalmans seem, long before the Portuguese came, to have ceased to interfere with the religion of the Hindus. The Portuguese found many sacred ponds and fine temples near Bassein, and De Castro is full of the beauty of the buildings at Thana whose stones and bricks were fitted without mortar. [Dom Joao de Castro calls them meskitas or mosques. But the details given below show that many of the buildings were temples. See Da Cunha, 185.]

On their transfer to the Portuguese in 1534, the Thana coast was made a separate charge and placed under a General of the North, the second layman in India whose head-quarters were at Ba3sein. Lands were granted in estates of a varying number of villages to Portuguese officers and soldiers, who paid a quit-rent originally in cash, but afterwards partly in cash and partly in grain. Many of the villages near Bassein and Sopara were originally granted by the Viceroy Dom Joao de Castro about 1538. About twelve years later, it was found that the produce of some of the villages had been fraudulently under-estimated and a slight increase in the rents was made. The state revenue seems to have been a very small share of the produce. The receipts are returned as varying from £676 (Rs. 6760) and 2482 mudas of rice in 1539 to £4897 (Rs. 48,970) in 1547. [The figures are compiled from the Colleccao de Moaumentos Ineditos, V. 139-153. The returns have been reduced from fedeas into rupees, on the basis of thirty fedzas to Apardao and two pardaos to a rupee. The mudas varied so greatly, that it is impossible to ascertain what quantity of rice they represent. The details are given in Appendix C.]

From 1560, when they had gained the whole coast from Daman to Karanja, the Portuguese divided their Thana territories into two parts, Daman and Bassein. Under Daman were four districts, Sanjan, Dahanu, Tarapur, and Mahim; under Bassein were seven districts, Asheri, Manor, Bassein proper or Saivan, Salsette, Bombay, Belapur or Shabaz, and Karanja. These divisions included thanadaris or village groups under an officer styled thanadar, towns or kasbes, custom-houses or mandvis, villages or aldeas, hamlets or sarredores the Maratha sadetors meaning cut off or divided, and wards of towns or large villages called pacarias the Marathi pakhadis meaning a dividing lane. There were also lands or terras, and gardens or hortas, the modern oarts. Of the seven divisions of the Bassein territory, Asheri had thirty-eight villages and six part-villages or pakhadis. [Da Cnnha'a Chaul and Baaaein, 806. Intonating details of the settlement of the land revenue at Goa in 1510 are given in the Commentaries of Albuquerque, II 127. Thanadar is there (p 126) explained by the Arab Portuguese word Almoxarufe. Both words closely correspond to the English Collector or Superintendent.] Manor had forty-two villages and a hamlet, or sadetor. Saivan or Saibana, on the left or south bank of the Tansa about fifteen miles north-east of Bassein, was the head-quarters of six petty divisions. These were the town of Bassein with sixteen wards or pakhadis and eight gardens, the town of Agashi, apparently, known as the Kasbe, with twenty wards or pakhadis and ten gardens; the sub-division or pargana of Saiga with eighteen villages and three lands or terras ; the division of Hera or Virar with twenty villages; the division of Kaman, six miles east of Bassein, with twenty-five villages and two hamlets or sadetors; and the division of Anjar or Anjore, on the Bassein creek near the mouth of the Kamvadi, with eighteen villages and seven hamlets or sadetora. Salsette had two divisions, the isle of Salsette with one pargana and ninety-nine villages, and the town of Thana with eight wards or pakhadis. The island of Belapur, or Shabaz or Sabayo, had three sub-divisions, Panechan or Panchnad to the east of the Persik hills with thirty villages, Kairana the coast strip from opposite Thana to opposite Trombay with seventeen villages, and Sabayo or Shabaz, now called Belapur, with seventeen villages. [Da Cunha'a Chaul and Baaaein, 806.] The island of Karanja or Uran included the town or kasbe of Karanja, the land of Bendolae or Bhendkula, and the three islands of Nave or Hog Island, Sheve, and Elephants. [Da Cunha, 201.]

Though subject to occasional inroads from Gujarat, the Koli chiefs of Jawhar, the Moghals, and Ahmadnagar, the Portuguese territory was fairly free from attacks by land or sea. Internal order was well preserved. The only notice of riot or rebellion was in 1613 (13th April), when fighting went on in Karanja and other towns for several days and many Portuguese were killed. [Da Cunha, 206. The Karanja riot m soon quelled by the brave Captain Fernao de Sampayo da Cunha. Mickle'a Lusiad, I cciii., mentions turnults among the Portuguese in Chaul, Bassein, Tarapur, and Thana.

There are one or two references to local Hindu chiefs in alliance with the Portuguese In 1617 the friendship of the Jaeda (Yadar) chief of Sereeta, apparently Savta six miles east of Dahanu, was so important that the Portuguese allowed him to perform hit own ritas when he came to Daman. O. Chron. de TIS. IV. 22. There was also Vergi and his Bagulos, apparently Bohrji and his Baglanis. O, Chron. de Tis IV 22.]

On the cession of Salsette and Bassein, in 1533, the Portuguese built places of special strength at Bassein, Asheri, Tarapur, Mahim, Daman, and Chaul; they raised royal fortifications at the headquarters of each sub-division; they guarded the entrances to their territories with forts and stockades; they armed several of their colleges and monasteries; and, in each village, the proprietor built a watch-tower or moated grange. [O. Chron. de Tis. I,89, 35.] The hill of Asheri, which wanted little help from art, was strongly guarded from the time of its capture in 1656. The present fortifications of Bassein belong to about the close of the sixteenth century, [There was a fort at Bassein from the time of its conquest in 1534; but the present fortification are not older than about the close of the sixteenth century. Nairne's Konkan, 46. Gemelli Careri (1695) noticed that they were still unfinished. Churchill's Voyages, IV. 191.] and the beautiful fort of Thana was not begun till about 1730, and was unfinished when Salsette was taken by the Marathas in 1739. [Salsette was never well defended. There were coast forts at Dharavi and Versova, a small watch-tower at Bandra, and at Thana three small fortlets, one to the north of the city a square fort with two bastions named Reis Magos, and two round towers to the south, St. Pedro and St. Jeronimo. la 1728 complaints were made of the defenceless state of the island, and the present beautiful fort was begun. But, according to an English writer (Grose, I 48-51), from the greed of the Jesuits, it was never finished. See Da Cunha's Bassein, 200.] Of creek-bank defences the most notable were four wooden stockades at Sopara made by General Luis de Mello Pereira, soon after the cession of Bassein (1534). [ Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 150. See Places of Interest, Sopara.] Of fortified custom-houses or factories the chief was, at Manor, [In 1728 Manor is described as not worthy to be called a fort. O. Chron. de Tis. I.58.] and fortified religious houses are mentioned at Yorangal near Versova, and at Bandra in Salsette. [Nairne's Konkan, 60. In 1673 the Jesuit college at Bandra had seven guns mounted in front sad a good store of small arms. Fryer's New Account, 71.]

In the north-east, south of Asheri and Manor, a line of forts, along the east or left bank of the Vaitarna, guarded Kelva-Mahim from the raids of the Koli chiefs of Jawhar. Of this line of forts traces remain in the villages of Haloli, Sakda, Dhaisar, and Pargaon.

South of the Tansa river, the fort of Mandvi about fifteen miles north-east of Bassein and the stockaded post at the sub-divisional town of Saivan, five miles east of Mandvi, guarded the rich lands of Sopara and Bassein from attacks along the left or south bank of the Tansa valley. The Tungar and Kamandurg range, running south from Mandvi, protected the eastern frontier as far as the valley of the Kamvadi or Bhiwndi river and the Bassein creek. The entrance to Bassein along the right or north bank of this creek was blocked by a line of forts, Kambe about two miles west of Bhiwndi, then Ju-Nandikna, Gava (Gaunna of the maps), Phiringpada, Paigaon, Navgad or Sassu-Navghar, and the striking fortified hillock near the sub-divisional town of Kaman. Further south there was a fortlet named Santa Cruz, on the river bank opposite Kalyan, and in the mainland across from Thana are remains of mansions or granges which seem to have been fortified. Another row of watch-towers guarded the coast from Shirgaon, fifty miles south to Dantivra at the mouth of the Vaitarna. [Two miles south of Shirgaon fort ia Mahim fort, half a mile further the Phadke tower, a mile mora the Madia tower, another mile the Alibag fort and Pan tower, farther south is the Danda fort, and near Danda the Tankicha tower. South of this, almost every Tillage, Usarai, Mathana, Yedran, Kori, and Dantivra has its fort. A little inland are forts at Chatalo and Virathan. Mr. W. B, Mulock, C.S.]

Army.

Under the General of the North, these forts were commanded by officers, of whom the chief were the captains of Bassein, Daman, Chaul, and Salsette. Besides them, between the Vaitarna and Karanja, were fourteen commandants of forts and stockaded posts. [Nairne's Konkan, 50.] The captains and commandants were chosen from certain noble families who had a right to the posts. The commands were usually held for a term of three years; but this was not always the case, as the captain of Karanja is mentioned as holding the command for life. [Da Cunha'a Chaul and Bassein, 203. Of the post of captain, Fryer (1673) says: 'The Beveral capitaneos ars triennial, which are the alternate governments entailed on the families of the conquerors, and therefore made circular. Every one in his course has his turn to make in some place or other for three years, and upon these they can borrow or take up money as certain as upon their hereditary estates the next incumbent being security for the payment. New Account, 73.] Under the captain in all important places, the garrison consisted of a certain number of Portuguese soldiers, some native troops, and some slaves. [In Asheri, in the sixteenth century, there is said to have been a garrison of about 700 including women and children, The Europeans were chiefly pardoned criminals. In 1720 there were 150 men and three corporals. (Details are given under Asheri in Places of Interest). In 1634 the Bassein garrison was 2400 strong, of whom 400 were Europeans, 200 Native Christians, and 1800 slavea. O. Chron. de Tis. III. 243. The Thana garrison, in 1634, was a captain, eight soldiers, and four guns. Da Cunha'a Chaul and Bassein, 181. The Karanja garrison, in 1634, included a captain, six soldiers, one borrtbardier, and live messengers. Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 202. Native soldiers, or pies, are mentioned as early as 1534. Do Couto, IV. 96, in Nairne's Konkan, 51. The Saivan stockade had a captain, twenty-nine Europeans, and 630 natives and slaves. Da Cunha, 158.] To guard the open country nine flying companies, or volantes, were enlisted, and afterwards, as the Moghals and Marathas grew more troublesome, fresh companies of sepoys were formed. There were also two troops of horse, one at Bassein the other at Daman. [O. Chron. de Tis. I. 29-35.] Finally, there was a militia, the owners of every village supplying a few men. [In Karanja the owners of villages and others interested in the defence of the island kept up a force of 100 armed men. Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 203. In every village the proprietor was bound to have a body of twenty or thirty men trained in the use of arms. O. Chron. de Tis. I. 29-35.] At sea the Portuguese early established their supremacy and forced Indian traders to take their passes. The coast was guarded by a line of forts, and companies were named from the Goa army-corps to man country boats. [ O Chron. de Tis. I. 29-35.]

Navy.

To keep the rule of the sea was no easy task. In 1570 there were two centres of hostile shipping, one on the Malabar coast the other in the Persian gulf. Some writers describe these rivals of the Portuguese as peaceful traders. A few may have been driven from trade by Portuguese exactions. But the bulk of them were pirates and rovers, who not only seized Portuguese ships and ships carrying Portuguese passes, but landed and pillaged the Portuguese coasts. [Fryer (New Account, 63) describes the Malabars (1673) as not only seizing cattle, but depopulating whole villages by their, outrages, either destroying them by fire and sword or compelling to a worse fate, eternal and untolerable slavery.] So dangerous were they that (1570) the Portuguese had to keep two fleets to act against them, the fleet of the north and the fleet of the south. [Nairne's Konkan, 56. In 1728 there were twenty-one armed boats at Baasein, carrying from sixteen to eighteen pieces of ordnance. Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 209.] In the beginning of the seventeenth century after the arrival of the Dutch (1587) and the English (1609), the Portuguese ceased to be the first naval power. Till 1624 they continued strong enough to force native craft to carry their passes. But with the English capture of Ormuz in 1623 and the Dutch capture of Kochin in 1663, the claim of supremacy at sea was given up. [Nairne's Konkan, 58. In 1638 Mandelslo noticed that the Portuguese came out from Bassein to the English ship in which he was sailing, and asked the captain to take a bark to Goa as they feared the Dutch who were roaming about. Da Cunha's Bassein and Chaul, 229. The English granted passes to native shipping at least as early as 1734 (ee below, p. 497), and perhaps as far back as 1690 (Hamilton's New Account, I. 216).]

Administration.

At Bassein, besides the General of the North the captain and the garrison, there was a factor, a collector or thanadar, a magistrate or ouvidor, a police superintendent or meirinho, a sea bailiff, a commissary of ordnance almoxanfe dos almazens, a king s solicitor, an administrator of intestates, a chief of the night-watch, and a master-builder. [The Bassein details were, the captain £128 15s. (reis 600,000), his staff, a naik, fifteen peons, and two servants £3 2s. (reis 14,400), four torch "bearers and oil £12 7s (reis 57,600), three water-beares and one umbrella-carrier £3 2s. (reis 14,400); the factor £43 (reis 200,000), his staff, two clerks £21 10s. (reis 100,000), two torch bearers and oil £6 4s. (reis 28,800)," and 20 peons 19s. (tangas 60); the collector or thanadar £43 (ries 200,000), his staff, 20 peons £18 15s. (tangas 1200), 4 musketeers £5 (tangas 336), a naik 18s. (pardaos 24), a private 7s. (vintens 84), a clerk £6 8s. (reis 30,000), and guard of live £2 12s. (reis 12,072); a translator £3 2s. (reis 14,400), a writer £2 68. (reis 10,800), and a cooper £3 12s. (reis 16,800); the magistrate or ouvidor £21 10s. (reis 100,000), his five messengers 5s. (tangas 15); the police superintendent £21 10s. (rise 100,000), and his ten constables 9s. (tangas 30); the sea bailiff on £2 11s. (reis 12,000); the commissary of ordnance, almoxarife dos almazens, £6 8s. (rets 30,000), and his clerk £2 11s. (reis 12,000); the king's solicitor £4 6s. (reis 20,000); the administrator of intestates £3 17s. (reis 13,000), and his clerk £3 17s. (reis 18,000); the chief of the night-watch £5 lis. (reis 25,200); and the master-builder £3 18s. (reis 18,000). Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 218, 221, 222. The Thana details were, a manager or thanadar £6, 8s. (reis 30,000), and five peons; a magistrate or ouvidor £21 10s. (reis 100,000) and five. peons; a police superintendent or neirinho on £3 18s. (reis 18,000) and eight peons; a jail-keeper on £2 11s. (reis 12,000) and two peons, and a customs-clerk on £4 6s. (rets 20.000). Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 181-182.] Besides at Bassein, there were collectors, or thanadars, at Thana, Agashi, Bandra, and Karanja. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 222. In a letter to the king of Portugal in 1548 Simao Botelho complains of the thanadars as costly, useless, and oppressive. In his opinion there should only be two at Thana and Karanja, with a third at Agashi in war time. Col. de Man. Ined. V. 7-8.] There was also occasionally at Bassein a special appeal judge, called a veador or overseer, who heard appeals from all the magistrates or ouvidors of the north coast. In Bassein and Chaul criminal and civil cases were settled by magistrates, who were subordinate to the captain of the fort and were often forced to decide as the captain pleased. [Nairne's Konkan, 48.] From the decision of the magistrate in early times an appeal lay to the Supreme Court or Relacao at Goa. Afterwards, about 1587, one of the bench of six or eight judges, or desembargadores, was appointed to Bassein. These judges, besides appeals, heard important civil and criminal suits. The cases were conducted by native pleaders, who are said not to have had much knowledge of law. [Nairne's Konkan, 48. According to Gemelli Careri, who was himself a lawyer, there were no doctors of civil law in the Portuguese territory. The few native lawyers were bad advocates. Churchill, IV. 192.]

Land System.

Of the Portuguese land system the available details are given in the Land Administration Chapter. The chief peculiarity was the grant of large areas of land, at from four to ten per cent of the regular rental, to landlords or fazendeiros. These landlords were generally soldiers or other Portuguese who deserved well of the state. The grant was nominally for three lives. But, at least in later times, the holder seems to have generally succeeded in having the grant renewed. [Gemelli Careri in Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 200, 201. Land-grants to the church were permanent. Ditto, 201.]

No-right in the land was conceded to the husbandmen or tenants. They seem to have been treated as part of the estate and not allowed to leave it. [In 1664, the articles under which Bombay was ceded to the English, stipulate that Kurambis, Bhandaris, and other people of Portuguese villages were not to be allowed to settle in Bombay, but were to be forthwith given to their masters. Bom. Geog. Soc. Trans. III. 69. In 1675 Fryer (New Account, 71) speaks of the gentry as like petty monarch, holding the people in a state of village. In 1695 Gemelli Careri (Churchill, IV. 197) speaks of the owners of villages as to all intents and purposes like the feudal lords, of medieval times.] Besides the villages tilled by their tenants, large landholders generally set apart some of their land as a home farm, and worked it by slaves most of them Africans. [Great numbers of house slaves were brought from Africa and spread at low prices all over the Portuguese territories. Gemelli Careri in Churchill, IV. 203. Hamilton (1680-1720) notices that a good store of Mozambique negroes was brought to India. They were held in high esteem by the Indian Portuguese, who made them Christians and sometimes raised them to be priests (New Account, I. 10). Hamilton also notices (Ditto, 1.24) the import of slaves from Ethiopia. In driving off the Maskat Arabs from Diu in 1670 African slaves are noted (Ditto, 140) as behaving with great gallantry. At the fall of Bassein (1739) negroes are mentioned in the stipulations about the release of prisoners. Jervis' Konkan, 130.] Lands not granted on quit-rents were let from year to year, by the heads of villages, or maktaras, to husbandmen who paid partly by a share of the crop and partly by money cesses. [Gemelli Careri says, Peasants that hold in fee pay an imposition according to what they are worth every four months to the king's factors or treasurers.' Churchill, IV. 198.] These lands were under the supervision of state factors or vendors. Towards the close of the seventeenth century (1688), about one-half of the revenue of the province of Bassein was drawn from quit-rents. [MS. Records in Nairne's Konkan, 49.] The rest was partly land revenue collected from peasant-holders, partly the proceeds of cesses. [The chief cesses were on stone, salt-pans, fishers, liquor, and shops. A list is given in Reg. I. of 1808, and a summary in the Land Administration Chapter. One cess was a money commutation for supplying a certain number of horses. The commutation for an Arab horse was Rs. 132, and for a country horse Rs. 89. MS. Records in Nairne's Konkan, 49.]

Religion.

From the beginning to the close of their rule in Thana, with ebbs and flows of zeal and of success, the conversion of the people to Christianity continued one of the chief objects on which the Portuguese spent their energy and their wealth. In 1534 Goa was made the see of a bishop, and, about the same time, when the Gujarat king ceded Bassein and Salsette, the great Franciscan Antonio do Porto devoted himself to the spread of Christianity. [Except two monks of the order of the Blessed Trinity who came with Vasco da Gama in 1498 but were killed before making any converts the Franciscans were the first monks to come to India. Eight of them came in 1500. The Dominicans were next, arriving in 1518, but they were never so powerful or so successful as the Franciscans. The rise of the Jesuits dates from the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in 1542. A fourth religious body, the Hospitallers, eame to India about 1681, but never rose to power. Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 99, 227. "Gemelli Careri mentions a fifth body the Recolets at Tarapur: these were a branch of Franciscans. Churchill IV. 198.] Between 1534 and 1552 he destroyed 200 temples, made over 10,000 converts, built twelve churches, and, by founding orphanages and monasteries, secured a supply of native priests. [Among the temples destroyed by Antonio do Porto some were at Agashi, some at Bassein, and some at Thana. At most- of the old places of pilgrimage, especially at the sacred pools or tirths, temples were thrown down. Some of the pools were filled with earth. At others, as at one famous pool between Bassein and Agashi, the pool was converted, a chapel built to Our Lady of Healing, and the pilgrimage and cure-working continued. Among Antonio do Porto's reforms was the conversion of the Great Cave (III.) at Kanheri into a church of St. Michael, and the Brahman caves at Mandapeshvar into a church of Our Lady of the Conception. Da Cunha's Chanl and Bassein, 163,185,191. Among the churches built were several by Antonio do Porto at Thana and Bassein, and there were three on Karanja. Of his orphanages one was at Agashi, one of 130 boys at Thana, one of 300 boys at Vehar, and one at Mandapeshvar with 100 orphans (Ditto 159, 188,192, 202). Of asylums or muericordias there was one in almost every settlement (Ditto 93, 102, 226). Among the converts the two most interesting were the heads of the Hindu monastery at Kanheri. They seem to have been Buddhists. After conversion one was called Paulo Bapozo and the other Pnncisoo de Santa Maria. They were treated with much respect, and Francisco converted several of the other monks to Christianity. Paulo Raposo was presented with three villages which he left to the college of Mountpezier or Mandapeshvar. Ditto 191.] Up to 1542 the work of conversion was almost solely earned on by the Franciscans. In 1542 the great St. Francis Xavier landed at Goa, and, with the help of a large body of Jesuits who arrived in the following year, Christianity spread rapidly. St. Xavier took much interest in Bassein. He established a Jesuit seminary in 1548, sent missionaries to Thana and Chaul in 1552, and thrice visited Bassein in 1544, 1548, and 1552. [Nairne's Konkan, 62.] Between 1570 and 1590 the Jesuits were most successful in Bassein. They took pains to make Brahman and other high-caste converts, knowing that if the Brahmans became Christians, many of the lower classes would follow their example, and they made the baptism of converts an occasion of great splendour and rejoicing. With these encouragements the number of converts rose from 1600 in 1573 to 9400 in 1588. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 234.] At Thana, about 1560, Gonsala Rodrigues, the superior of the Jesuit monastery, did much to spread Christianity by buying young children and collecting orphans. In three years he baptised from 5000 to 6000 souls. [Orieate Conquistado, 2nd Ed. p. 85. The lower Hindus sold their children to Musalmans and Christians. A child at the breast cost as much as a goat in Portugal; two sick childres were bought for 1s. (8ans.). Ditto, p, 50.] From a special grant this Father founded a Christian village in the waste and wooded but well-watered valley of Yehar. Ground was bought and divided into holdings, and, in a few years, there was a population of 3000. They had 100 bullocks and ploughs, and an ample store of field tools all held in common. The villagers had religions teaching every day, and, in the evening, joined in singing the Christian doctrines. Close to the village was a famous shrine to a three-headed god, which pilgrims from Gujarat and from Kanara used to visit. This temple came into the possession of the Christians, the idol was broken, and the temple enlarged and dedicated to the Christian Trinity. The devil, jealous of the Christians, did what be could to mar their success. He appeared and frightened the people, and possessed some of them. The evil spirits would not be exorcised till they were whipped out with scourges. The place was unhealthy and the village had to be moved to a higher site. [Oriente Conquistado, 2nd Ed. p. 32.] While the Jesuits were so successful in Bassein and in Thana Manuel Gomes a Franciscan made (1575-1590) so many converts in Salsette, about 6000 in Bandra alone, that he gained the name of the Apostle of Salsette, and won for his order the high post of Christian Fathers in all the villages of Salsette and Karanja. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 196. The duties of the Christian Father, or Pater Christianorum, were to farther Christianity, to foster Christians, and to gather others to Christ. (Ditto 102). The Jesuits held this office in Goa and Kochin, and the Dominicans in Chaul and Diu. Ditto.]

During the seventeenth century the conversion of Hindus, and the building of churches and monasteries was continued, and the church, especially the Jesuits, grew in wealth and power. [Among seventeenth century churches were three in Thana built in 1605, the Jesuit college of St. Anne's in Bandra begun in 1620, and the chapel of Mount Mary, also at Bandra, probably about 1640.] In 1634 there were sixty-three friars at Bassein, thirty of them Franciscans, fifteen Jesuits, ten Domiuicans, and eight Augustines. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 241] The parts about Bassein were thickly peopled with Christians and the city was studded with Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit chapels. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 101.] At Thana there was a cathedral and many churches. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 182.] In 1664 the Jesuits suffered by the transfer of Bombay to the English. But the church was richer and more powerful than ever. In 1673 there were, in Thana, seven churches and colleges, and in Bassein six churches, four colleges, and two convents. [Nairne's Konkan, 54.] All the people in Salsette were Christians, [Fryer's New Account, 73.] and the Bandra Jesuits lived sumptuously, most of Salsette being theirs. [Fryer's New Account, 70.]

Persuasion seems to have been the chief means of conversion. Two hundred years earlier, in 1320, three or four Latin friars, in spite of Musalman persecution, found the Hindus and Parsis ready to listen and be converted. The zeal of the early Portuguese friars, their generous gifts of alms, and their kind care of orphans, made many believe that the new faith was better than the old faith, and, in later times, other converts were won by the splendour of the Christian churches and the pomp of the Christian ceremonies. Converts, especially high caste converts, were treated with honour and distinction, and, for the first fifteen years after conversion, the poorer class of Christians were freed from the payment of tithes and first fruits. [Nairne's Konkan, 53.] The fact that the people of Bandra remained Hindus till about 1580, seems to show that the earlier conversions were the result of persuasion and encouragement, not of force. At the same time, from before the middle of the sixteenth century, the persuasion and encouragement to become Christians were accompanied by rules discouraging and suppressing Hinduism. In 1546 the king of Portugal ordered idols to be broken, idol-makers and performers of Hindu rites to be punished, and mosques to pay tribute. [Nairne's Konkan, 55.] These orders were not enforced and were renewed in 1555. Feasts and ceremonies, and Brahman preachings washings and burnings were forbidden; [Nairne's Konkan 55.] any one found with idols was to be sent to the galleys and his property forfeited. These orders were for a time evaded by the grant of licenses, but they seem to have been enforced in 1581. [Nairne's Konkan 55. The view that during the sixteenth century there was practical freedom form religious persecution in Portuguese territory is supported by Fulke Grevile's remark in 1599 that at Goa people of all nations were allowed to live after their own manners and religion only in matters of justice they were ruled by Portuguese law. Bruces Annals I, 126. This tolerance seems to have laseted till much later times as Baldaeus about 1662 (Churchills Vaoyages III 545) notices that Kamarins Moors and Pagansof all nations and Hamilton about 1700 (New Account I. 251), notices that many Gentoos lived in Goa Careri (Churchill's Voyages IV. 203) about the same time states that most of the mechants in Goa were idolators and Muhammandans who lived by themselves and had no public use of their religion.]

In 1560 the Inquisition was established in Goa, and by 1580 agents of the Inquisition, called commissaries, were at work in Chaul, Bassein, and Daman, collecting offenders and sending them for trial and punishment to Goa. [Dellon in 1683 gives account of the cruelties practised as the Goa Inqursition. Compare Hough's Christianity in India I.212-237. The Goa Inquisition was closed in 1774 it was again opened in 1779 and was finally suppressed in 1812 Da cunha's Chaul Bassein 235 ] During the seventeenth century the power and wealth of the church increased. In 1673 they are said to have held most of Salsette. [Fryer's New account 70 Fryer (1673) is one the few English writers who takes the side of the priests. All had now bowed to the cross had they not been prevented by unhappy pretenders who preferred merchandise and private piques to the welfare of religion. It is morally probably had not the Dutch and we interfered all might have been Christians in these parts of the word; New Account 75 ] In 1695 the revenue of the church was said to be greater than the revenue of the king, [Gemelli Careri in Churchill Iv. 198] and in 1720 the power of the church was so greet that they supervised the General of the North and made his government both uneasy and precarious. [Hamilton's New Account I. 180] The wealth of the church came partly from fines, tithes, first fruits, and state grants of money, but chiefly horn gifts of land made both by the King and by private persons. [Half of the property of a man fount with idols went to the church. Nairne's Konkan 55. Of money grants the year of Karanja got 9 (ries 4200) orphanges and monasteries got cash grants the Christian Fathers were paid by the state an old mosque fund was made over to the church. There were grants of lands, and unlike land grants to private persons lands given to the church belonged to it for ever. Da Cunha's and Bassein 102, 187, 201, 230, 235.]

On the whole Portuguese rule did good to the country. Till the middle of the seventeenth century order was well kept and life and property were fairly safe, large areas of salt waste and salt marsh were reclaimed, tillage was spread, and better and richer crops were grown. The country was covered with fine buildings; the church was rich and bountiful; the nobles and landlords were "vealthy and prosperous, and the tenants, though they had little freedom, seem to have been well off. In 1630, Goez wrote that the persecution of the Protuguese had driven the people into the neighbouring territories and that between Bassein and Daman the greater part of the land was untitled. [Calcutta Review, V. 271, in Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 143. ' Tarapur was very rich, the best and most prosperous of the Daman districts.' Do Couto, VIII. 28, 208 in Nairne's Konkan, 44.] If this account is correct the districts soon recovered their prosperity. In 1634 the island of Karanja was so well managed that its surplus revenue was used to help to spread religion in and out of India. [Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 203.]

Inland Thana.

During the sixteenth and the first part of the seventeenth centuries, the wild north-east of Thana remained under the Koli chiefs of Jawhar, and, except for a year or two at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the south-east or Kalyan district remained under Ahmadnagar. [Musalman writers include the north-east of Thana in Baglan, which, according to their accounts, stretched to the sea. See Elliot and Dowson, VII. 66.] On Malik Ambar's death, in 1626, Kalyan passed to the Moghals. In 1632 Shahji, Shivaji's father, in the name of a child of the Ahmadnagar family, seized Nasik, Trimbak, Sangamner, Junnar, and Kalyan. In 1635 a Moghal officer was sent to recover the Konkan from Shahji, and forced him to take refuge in the hill-fort of Mahuli, and at last to surrender. [Elliot and Dowson, VII. 59.] In 1636, as Adil Khan of Bijapur agreed to pay tribute, the Konkan was made over to him, and in the following year (1637) Shahji entered the service of Bijapur. [Elliot and Dowson, VII, 35, 52, and 57.] For ten years the province of Kalyan, which is represented as stretching from the Vaitarna to the Nagothna river, remained under Bijapur. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 63. A line from Bhiwndi to Mahuli is perhaps nearer the actual limit. Baldaseus (1666) puts the north boundary of Bijapur at Dauno (Dahanu), thirty miles a from Daman where the Bijapur and Moghal territories divided Malabar and Coromandel coast. Churchill's Voyages, III. 540.] The places specially noticed as ceded to Bijapur are Jival or Chaul, Babal or Pabal perhaps the port of Panvel, Danda-Rajpuri, and Chakan in west Poona. [Elliot and Dowson, VII. 256, 271.] In 1648, by the capture of Kalyan, Shivaji began the series of aggressions, which, after a century of disorder, ended in the Marathas gaining the whole of Thana, except the island of Bombay and some tracts in the wild north-east. [Nairne's Konkan, 62.] Kalyan town was retaken by the Moghals about 1661; [Grant Duffs Marathas, 86.] but Shivaji seems to have continued to hold part of the Kalyan district; as in 1663 he collected a force near Kalyan, and, in 1666, seems to have had an officer whom he styled governor of Kalyan. [Jervis' Konkan, 92.]

Trade.

In the North Konkan ports, the sixteenth and the first half of the seventeenth centuries, between the arrival of the Portuguese and the establishment of the English at Bombay, was on the whole a time of declining trade. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, Chaul and Thana, especially Chaul, were great centres of foreign trade, having direct dealings westwards with the Persian Gulf, the Arabian coast, Egypt, and the African coast; south with Ceylon; and east with Chittagong, Achin in Sumatra, and Malacca. [Albuquerque (1500) mentions Chaul vessels trading to Malacca. Commentaries, III. 200. The crew were Moors, the lading from Malacca was pepper, silk, sandalwood, and wood aloes. Ditto 200. The chief export to Malacca was cloth. Ditto 69.] In the latter part of the sixteenth century their old share of the commerce with Europe left the North Konkan ports for Goa and for Diu in Booth Kathiawar. Still Bassein Mahim, Thana, and Chaul maintained a large coasting traffic with the Malabar, Gujarat, and Sindh ports, and a considerable foreign trade with the Persian Gulf, the Arabian and African coasts, and, to some extent, with Ceylon and the east. In the seventeenth century the direct European trade, centering in Surat in the hands of the British and the Dutch, passed more completely from the Konkan ports, and in the decay of Portuguese power the foreign trade with Persia, Arabia, Africa, and the east declined. [The Portuguese lost Ormuz in the Persian Gulf in 1622, Maskat in 1650; and the east African, ports between 1624 and 1698. Hamilton's New Account, I. 60, 103; Badger's Varthema, ex.] There remained little but a coasting traffic, chiefly north with Surat and south with Goa.

Under the Portuguese, foreign trade was a monopoly of the king. Most of the local sea trade was in the hands of free traders or interlopers, whom the Portuguese government tried to put down. [Nairne's Konkan, 56.] The Bassein timber trade was chiefly carried on by the captains of forts and other government officers. [In 1581 the king complained of the slackness of officers in their duties, and because they made everything second to the gains of trade. Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 144.]

During this period the chief local marts were Chaul, Thana, Mahim, and Bassein; and among places of leas importance were Panvel, Kalyan, Bhiwndi, Kelva-Mahim, Agashi, Tarapur and Bombay. [Chaul, 1502, a great place of trade, Badger's Varthema, 114, and Linschoten's (1590) Navigation, 20. Thana, 1538, an emporium and chief town in decay (Dom Joao de Castro Primeiro Roteiro, 70-75) exports rice (Frederick (1583) Harris, II. 344), has trade and manufactures (1627, O. Chron. de Tis. III. 258). Mahim, 1514, a place of small trade, Barbosa, Stanley's Edition, 68; 1554, has direct trade with Arabia, Mohit Jour. Ben. As. Soc. V-2, 461; Bassein, 1500, Gujarat port, Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 129; 1514, a great place of trade, Barbosa, 68; 1526, a Portuguese factory; 1534, a Portuguese capital; 1583, a chief place of trade, Fitch in Harris, I. 207; 1590, a great place of trade, Linschoten's Navigation, 20; 1607, a great place of trade, Pyrard de Laval (Portuguese Edition), II. 226; 1654, the English Company beg Cromwell to grant them Bassein. Bruce's Annals; I. 488. Of the smaller places, Panvel, Kalyan, and Bhiwndi are mentioned as Gujarat trade centres about 1500. Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 129. Kelva-Mahim was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1530; Agashi, also twice destroyed, was a great ship-building centre in 1530, and was flourishing in 1540; Do Couto, IV. 99; Tarapur was destroyed in 1530, and was rich in food supplies in 1627. 0 Chron. de Tis. III 258; Bombay is mentioned by Linschoten (1590) and by Baldasus (1660) in Churchill, III. 540.] The chief marts with which the Thana ports were connected were, in India, Cambay Diu and Surat in Gujarat, and Diul-Sindhi in Sindh; Goa, Kalikat, Kochin, and Kulam on the Malabar coast; and Chittagong on the Bay of Bengal. Of foreign marts there were Ormuz and Maskat in the Persian Gulf, and Shehr Julfar and Kalat on the Arabian coast; Socotra and Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea; Mocha Jidda and the Abyssinian coast on the Red Sea; Zaila, Quiloa, Brava, Mombaza, Melinda, Megadozo, and Sofala in East Africa; Colombo in the south; and, in the east, Malacca and Achin. [Badger's Varthema, 1500, Commentaries of Albuquerque, 1500, Stanley's Barbosa, 1514, Mohit (1554) Jour. Ben. As. Soc. V-2; Davis Voyage (1598) Kerr's Voyages, II. and VI. Baldieus (1660) Churchill's Voyages, III. 513-516.] The articles of trade between the Konkan coast and these different marts were, of Food, rice, pulse, vegetables, cocoanuts, and betelnuts,. which were sent from the Thana ports to Gujarat, Malabar, Persia, Arabia, and Africa; cocoanuts, betelnuts, and palm-sugar, which were brought to the Konkan ports from the Malabar coast; [1500, immense quantities of grain barley and vegetables grown in the Konkan, Badger's Varthema, 114; 1500, rice sent to the Malabar coast, Kerr's Voyages, II 419; 1500, wheat to Africa, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 129; 1514, arecas and cocoas sent to and from the Malabar coast, wheat rice millet and sesamum sent to Gujarat and Sindh, rice and cocoanuts to Ormuz, rice to Dhafar and Shehr in Arabia, rice and cocoanuts to Aden, rice millet and wheat to Africa, Stanley's Barbosa, 13, 30, 42, 68; 1583, corn and rice grown in the Konkan, Fitch in Harris, I. 207; 1585, rice grown in the Konkan, Csesar Frederick Hakluyt, II. 344; 1590, rice peas and vegetables grown in the Konkan, Linsehoten, 20; 1627, provisions sent to Surat, O. Chron. de Tis. III. 258. 1510, Stanley's Barbosa,41-42, mentions that much rock-salt was sent from Ormuz to India, Salt is not likely to have been in demand on the Thana coast.] dates and raisins which came from the Persian Gulf and the Arabian coast; [1514, dates and raisins brought from Ormuz, Shehr, and Aden: Stanley's Barboaa, 28, 31, 33, 42.] and Spanish wines and cases of strong waters which were brought from Europe. [Brucc's Annals, I. 308, Pyrard (1607). All the churches and sumptuous palaces in Goa are built of Bassein stone. Da Cunha's Chaul and Bassein, 140. The early. Portuguese were greatly struck with the basalt columns of Dharavi in west Salsette. In 1538 Dom Joao do Castro wrote; Opposite Bassein is a mine of obelisks, a wonderful display of the power of nature. There is an infinite number of them arranged with such order and agreement that they seem to be organ pipes. Some of the pillars are four-sided, some five-sided, and some eight-sided. Each is so polished and perfect that it seems wrought by the hand of Phidias or other excellent workman. All stand very straight. Some touch, but each is self-contained, none springing out of on resting on mother. They are about six feet broad. How long they are, it is impossible to say, for the only interest people take in them is in breaking not in measure, them. They stand from thirteen to sixteen cubits out of the ground, and apparently run underground as deep as the sea. If so the smallest obelisks would be ninety feat high. Had the hill held a mine of ore it would have been levelled with the plain; had the obelisks been pearls, at great danger to life the bottom of the sea would have been secured for them. But because they are simply wonderful, men are too timid, too lazy to find out about them. Primeiro Roteiro, 112.] Of Building Materials, large basalt columns and pillars ' as fine and hard as granite' were sent from Bassein to Goa; [Pyrard do Laval, Portuguese Edition, II. 226; French Edition, 165.] and great quantities of the finest teak were sent to Goa, Gujarat, Sindh, and occasionally to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.[1514, planks and bamboos sent to Sindh, Stanley's Barbosa, 49, 50; 1510-1530, timber sent from Bassein to help the Egyptians sad Turks to build fleete Nirae's Konkan, 31; 1583, great export of timber from Bassein, Caesar Frederick Hakluyt, II. 344; 1607, ditto Pyrard de Laval, II. 226; 1634, commandants of forts do graet trade in timber, O. Chron, de Tis. I. 33.] Of articles of Dress, cotton cloth made in the district, coloured cloth, gauze, and muslins embroidered with silver and gold, brought by land from Burhanpur and Masulipatam, were sent to the Malabar coast, Diu, Persia, Arabia, and Africa. [Local Trade, 1500, cotton stuffs in, great abundance, Badger's Varthema, 114 sent to Kochin, Three Voyages, 364, and to Africa ditto 287; 1514,cotton stuffs coarse and fine sent to Diu, to Ormuz. to Shehr and Dhafar in Arabia, to Aden, and to the African ports, Barbosa, 11-18, 28, 30-31, 2-60; , 1538, gold cloth and plain cloth, Primeiro Roteiro, 70-75; 1585, black and ed cloth, Frederick in Hakluyt, II. 344; 1590, Linschoten's Navigation, 20; 1627 cotton cloth, O. Chron. de Tis. III. 258. Inland Trade, 1554, muslins from Kandbar (in the Deccan), Dauhytabad, Burhanpur, and Paithan same to Mahim and were sent to Arabia, Mohit in Jour. Ben. As. Soc. V-2 461: 1660, obtionz was brought from Maeulipatam through, Golkonda, Chandor and Nasik, and sent to Goa for Europe and to Persia and Arabia, Thevenot in Harris II. 362. Very fine cloth from Khandesh, some painted, others with a mixture of silver and gold, used for veils, scarves, and handkerchiefs, ditto 373, 384. Apparently fine muslins came by sea from Bengal, Barbosa, 179.] There was a considerable local manufacture of silks and velvets, [1580, Thana the seat of a great velvet manufacture, Yule's Marco Polo, II. 330, 331; 1533, a great traffic in silk and silk cloths, Fitch in Badger's Varthema, 113 ; 1620, silk, O. Chron. de Tis. III. 258.] and silk- stuffs, brocades, and coloured silks were brought through the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and round the Cape of Good Hope.[1502, coloured silks from Europe by the Cape, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 344; 1514, through Ormuz, and from Europe through Mecca and Aden, Barbosa, 27, 42; 1614, rich velvets and satins from Europe, Stevenson's Sketch of Discovery, 402-403; 1631, silk stockings and ribbons, Bruce's Annals, I 308.] Of Woollens, blankets were made in Thana, [1585, blankets made in Thana, Caesar Frederick in Hakluyt, II. 344.] and rugs, scarlet woollens, coarse camlets, and Norwich stuffs were brought from Europe round the Cape, and by the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf [1500, by the Cape, rugs and scarlet cloth, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 344; 1510, from Europe through Mecca, woollens and camlets, Stanley's Barbosa, 28; and from the West, through Ormuz, scarlet woollens and coarse camlets, ditto 42; 1614, by the Cape, Norwich stuffs, Stevenson, 402.] There was an export of sandals and an import of Spanish shoes, [Sandals exported, 1585, Fitch in Badger's Varthema, 113. Spanish shoes imported 1631, Stevenson, 406.] Among miscellaneous articles of dress brought, from Europe were gloves, belts, girdles, beaver hats, and plumes of feathers. [1614 and 1631, Stevenson, 402-406; Brace's Annals, I. 308.] Of Personal Ornaments, jewels, pearls, and strings of agate beads went from Chaul to the Arabian coast, [1510, Stanley's Barbosa, 28-31.] and turquoises, pearls, and lapis lazuli came to the Konkan from the Persian Gulf; [Stanley's Barbosa, 42.] ivory came from Abyssinia and was a great article of trade at Chaul; [ Stanley's Barbosa, 18; Fitch in Badger's Varthema, 113.] and cut and branch coral came from Europe. [Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 344. Emeralds and other precious stones set its enamel are also mentioned as coming from Europe, 1614. Stevenson, 402-403.] Of Spices, in which there was a great trade, [1585, Fitch in Badger's Varthema, 113.] pepper came from the Malabar coast and Sumatra, cinnamon from Ceylon, camphor from Borneo, and cloves from the Moluccas, partly direct partly through, the Malabar ports. These spices were used locally, sent inland, or re-exported to Persia and Arabia. [1500, Badger's Varthema, 124; Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 364; 1514, Stanley's Barbosa, 31, 42, 68, 203; 1512, Kerr's Voyages, VI. 66.] Of Drugs, opium is mentioned as brought from Burhanpur in Khandesh and from Aden. [Burhanpur, 1660, Thevenot in Harris, II. 373-384; Aden, 1510, Stanley's Barbosa, 28, and Kerr's Voyages, II. 524.] Of dyes, indigo was brought from Burhanpur, [Thevenot in Harris, II. 373-384.] madder from Arabia, [Badger's Varthema, 85.] dragon's blood from Socotra, [Stanley's Barbosa, 30.] vermilion from Ormuz, Aden, and Europe, [Stanley's Barbosa, 28, 42; Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 344.] and pigeon's dung from Africa. [Stanley's Barbosa, 79.] Of Perfumes, rose-water was brought from Ormuz and Aden. [Badger's Varthema, 11, 181; Stanley's Barbosa, 28, 42.] Of Metals, gold was brought from Sofala and Abyssinia in Africa, and in ingots and coined from Europe; [Stanley's Barbosa, 5, 11; 1628, Kerr's Voyages, II. 402, 516; Terry (1618) in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 392.] silver, copper, brass, and lead came from Europe; [Silver, Terry in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 392; copper, Stanley's Barbosa, 27, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 344; brass and lead, Kerr, II. 617. Great quantities of cooper were sent inland and worked into cooking pots. Barbosa, 70. Lead was one of the first articles imported by the English, Brace's Annals, I. 129] and quicksilver from Ormuz and Aden, and round the Cape from Europe. [Ormuz, Stanley's Barbosa, 42; Aden, ditto 28; the Cape, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages. 344; much of the quicksilver went inland, Stanley's Barbosa, 70.] Of articles of Furniture and Hardware, desks and blackwood tables inlaid with, ivory were made in Thana, [1627, O. Chron. de Tis. III. 258.] and arras hangings, large looking-glasses, figures in brass and stone, cabinets, pictures, fine basins and ewers, drinking and perspective glasses, swords with inlaid hilts, saddles, fowling pieces, toys, and knives were brought from Europe. [1614, Stevenson, 402-403; Bruee's Annals, I. 308.] Of Animals, dogs were brought from Europe, [1614, Stevenson, 402.] horses from the Persian Gulf and the Arab coast, [1510, Stanley's Barbosa, 25, 42; Commentaries of Albuquerque, I. 63, 83.] and elephants from Ceylon. [Stanley's Barbosa, 167.] Pilgrims were carried to Mecca and slaves were brought from Abyssinia. [1618, Terry in, Kerr's Voyages, IX. 392; 1500, Badger's Varthema, 86'; 1510, Stanley's Barbosa, 18.]

The chief changes in the merchants were the disappearance of the Chinese, and the decrease of Arabs and Turks, and, to some extent, of local Musalmans. Of new comers there were the Portuguese, and, occasionally, though they had few direct dealings with the north Konkan, English, Dutch, French, and Danes. In the beginning of the sixteenth century many Moorish merchants-are noticed at Chad, and trading from Chaul to the Malabar coast. [1500, Badger's Varthema, 114, 151.] Hindus, as in previous periods, are found at long distances from India. A ship with a Hindu captain is met in the Red Sea; [1612, Douuton in Kerr's Voyages, VIII: 426. In the Persian Gulf near Maskat, Albuquerque's Commentaries, I. 100.] and the Portuguese and Dutch found Hindus in the Persian Gulf, in Mocha, in the African ports, in Malacca, and in Achin in Sumatra. [In Africa. Stanley's Barbosa, 13, Castanheda in Kerr's Voyages; II. 378. Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 137, note 1; in Achin, Davis' Voyage (Ed. 1880), 143. Albuquerque (1510) found large numbers of Hindus who seem to have been chiefly southerners 'Quilom and Chitims' in Malacca. They were governed by a Hindu in accordance with Hindu customs (Com. III. 146; compare Barbosa, 193, 194). There were Hindu rulers in Java and Sumatra. (Ditto, III. ,3, 79, 151-161). Four Malabara went with Vasco da Gama (1500) to Portugal and came back to Kalikat; on their return the Zamorin would not see them as they were only fishermen. Kerr's Voyages, II. 406. In 1612 (Kerr's Voyages, VIII. 476) Sarris got a letter from the Shahbandar of Mocha in the Banian language and character; and in 1660 Baldams (Churchill, III. 513-515) mentions Banian temples at Mocha. In 1603 Benedict Goes found Brahmaus at Gialalabath south of the Oxus; the king of Bokhara allowed them to levy a toll. Yule's Cathay, II. 559. In 1637 Olearius (Voyages, 200) found 12,000 Indian merchants in Ispahan in Persia, apparently Hindus.]

Ships.

During this period the Thana coast was famous for its ship-building. Between 1550 and 1600 great ships built at Agashi and Bassein made many voyages to Europe, [Do Couto, IV. 99. Pyrard, French Edition. II. 114. No place had better timber than Bassein, Ditto, 115,] and, in 1634, the English had four pinnaces built for the coast trade, two at Daman and two at Bassein. [Bruee's Annals, I, 334.] The Portuguese historian Gaspar Correa gives a fuller description than any previous writer of the craft which were built at this time in the Konkan ports. The local boats in ordinary use were of two kinds, one which had the planking joined and sewn together with coir thread, the other whose planks were fastened with thin nails with broad heads which were rivetted inside with other broad heads fitted on. The ships sewn with coir had keels, those fastened with nails were fiat-bottomed; in other respects they were alike. The planks of the ship-sides went as high as the cargo, and above the planks were cloths thicker than bed-sacking and pitched with bitumen mixed with fish and-cocoanut oil. Above the cloths were cane mats of he length of the ship, woven and very strong, a defence against  the sea which let no water pass through. Inside, instead of decks, were chambers for the cargo covered with dried and woven palm-leaves, forming a shelving roof off which the rain ran and left the goods dry and unhurt. Above the palm-leaves cane mats, were stretched, and on these the seamen walked without doing any harm. The crew were lodged above; no one had quarters below where the merchandise was stored. There was one large mast and two ropes on the sides, and one rope at the prow like a stay, and two halliards Which came down to the stern and helped to hold the mast. The yard had two-thirds of its length abaft and one-third before the mast, and the sail Avas longer abaft than forward by one-third. They had only a single sheet, and the tack of the sail at the bow was made fast to the end of a sprit, almost as large as the mast with which they brought the sail very forward, so that they steered very close to the wind and set the sails very flat. They had no top-masts and no more than one large sail. The rudder, which was very large and of thin planks, was moved by ropes which ran along the outside of the ship. The anchors were of hard wood, and they fastened stones to the shanks so that they went to the bottom. They carried their drinking water in square and high tanks. [Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 239-242. A full account of the Portuguese shipping about 1600 is given in Pyrard, II. 118.]

Of Gujarat boats the ordinary deep-sea traders were apparently from 100 to 150 tons burden. Besides these, there were in the sixteenth century some great vessels from 600 to 1000 tons burden, [In 1510 Albuquerque found a beautiful fleet at Ormuz rigged out with Hags, Standards, and coloured ensigns. One of them was 600 tons and another 1000 tons, with many guns and fire-arms, and with men in sword-proof dresses. She was so well fitted that she required nothing from the king's magazine. She had three great stone anchors. Corn. I. 105; II. 122.] and in the seventeenth century, in the pilgrim traffic between Surat and Mocha, still larger ships were used, from 1400 to 1600 tons and able to carry 1700 passengers. [1618, Terry in Kerr's Voyages, IX. 391, 392. One reason for building such large ships was that they might put to sea in the stormy months and avoid the Portuguese 'The Gujaratis load their great ships of 900, 1200, and 1,500 tons at. Gogha, and steal out unknown to the Portuguese.' These ships were called Monsoon Junks (Kerr's Voyages, IX. 230). They are described as ill-built like an overgrown lighter broad and short but exceeding big (Terry's Voyage, 130). The scantlings of the Rahimi of 1500 tons were length 153 feet, breadth 42 feet, depth 31 feet. Kerr's Voyages. VIII 487. Part of the crew in these big vessels were often Dutch. Baldaeus in Churchill, III. 513.]

Goa was also a great ship-building place. In 1508 the Portuguese found that the carpenters and calkers of the king of Bijapur had built ships and galleys after the model of the Portuguese, [Com. of Alb. II. 32.] and in 1510 twelve very large ships were built after the model of the Flor de la Mar. [Com, of Alb. II, 87.]

According to Varthema (1500) the Kalikat boats were open and of three or four hundred butts in size. They were built without oakum, as the planks were joined with very great skill. They laid on pitch outside and used an immense quantity of iron nails. The sails were of cotton, and at the foot of each sail was a second sail which they spread to catch the wind. Their anchors were of stone fastened by two large ropes. [Badger's Varthema, 152-154. Of these larger ships the flat-bottomed were called Sambuchis and those with keels Capels. Sambuchis seem to be Sambuks and Capels the same as Caravels, round lateen-rigged boats of 200 tons. (Com. of Alb. I. 4). Of smaller boats there were praus of ten paces, all of one piece with oars and a cane mast; almadias also all of one piece with a mast and oars; and katurs two-prowed, thirteen paces long, and very narrow and swift. These katurs were used by piratea (Ditto). A few years later Barbosa (p. 147) describes the ships of the Moors of Kalikat, as of about 200 tons, with keels but without nails, the planks sewn with mat cords, well pitched, the timber very good. They were without decks, but had divisions for stowing the merchandise separately.] One of these Kalikat vessels is mentioned of 140 tons, with fifty-two of a crew, twenty to bail out water and for other purposes below, eight for the helm, four for the top and yard business, and twenty boys to dress provisions. [1612, Dounton in Kerr's Voyages, VIII. 425.] Very large boats are mentioned as trading to the Coromandel coast. [1500, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 339. They carried more than 1000 measures of Pice of 105 pecks each.]

Many foreign ships visited the Thana ports. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, Maskat was a great ship-building place. In 1510 Albuquerque found two very large ships ready to launch and a fleet of thirty-four ships great and small. [Commentaries, I. 71, 81, 82.] The establishment of Portuguese power in the Persian Gulf seems to have depressed the local seamen, as in the beginning of the seventeenth century the Persian Gulf boats are described as from forty to sixty tons, the planks sewn with date fibre and the tackle of date fibre. The anchor was the only bit of iron. [John Bldredin Kerr's Voyages, VIII. 6.] The Red Sea ships were larger and better built and were managed with great skill. [One is mentioned in 1500 of 600 tons and 300 fighting men and bands of music with seven elephants (Kerr's Voyages, II. 412); another in 1502 had 700 men (Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 315); another in the same year had 300 passengers (Kerr's Voyages, II. 435-436).] In the beginning of the sixteenth century large junks from Java and Malacca came to the Coromandel and Malabar coasts, and may occasionally have visited Chaul. [Stanley's Barbosa, 193; Albuquerque's Commentaries, III. 63. So skilful were the Java boat-builders that Albuquerque (1511) brought sixty of them to Goa, Ditto, III. 168.]

The greatest change in the shipping of this period was the introduction of the square-rigged Portuguese vessels. They caused much astonishment at Anjidiv; the people had never seen any ships like them. [1498, Kerr's Voyages, II. 388. What astonished the people was the number of ropes and the number of sails; it was not the size of the ships. Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 145, 149.] The vessels in Vasco da Gama's first fleet (1497-1500) varied from two hundred to fifty tons. [The details were, the San Gabriel, the San Raphael, the Birrio, and a transport for provisions called a naveta (Lindsay's Merchant Shipping, II. 4). The size of these boats is generally given at from 100 to 209 tons (Kerr's Voyages, II, 521). But Mr. Lindsay thinks they were larger between 250 and 300 tons register. The picture he gives shows the San Gabriel to have been a three-masted vessel with a high narrow poop and a high forecastle. The Gujarat batela and the Arab botel seem from their name (Port, batel a boat) and from the shape of their sterns to have been copied from Portuguese models. See Appendix A.] The size was soon increased to 600 and 700 tons [The 1502 fleet was one 700, one 500, one 450, one 350, one 230, and one 160-ton ships, Kerr's Voyages, II. 521; in the 1503 fleet was one 600-ton ship. Ditto, V. 510.] a change which had the important effect of forcing foreign trade to centre at one or two great ports. Of smaller vessels the Portuguese had caravels and galleys. [In 1524 Vasco da Gama brought out some caravels which were fitted with lateen rigging in Dabhol. Three Voyages, 308. Of galleys Dom Joao de Castro (1540) notices three kinds: bastardos from 20 to 300 tons, 130 soldiers and 140 men decked, with sails and 27 benches of three oars; subtis, 25 benches of three oars, the crew and size the same as bastardos; and fustas, smaller with 17 benches of two oars. Primeiro Roteiro, 275.] Before the close of the sixteenth century the size of the European East Indiamen had greatly increased. As early as 1590, the Portuguese had ships of 1600 tons; in 1609 the Dutch had ships of 1000 tons; and in 1615 there was an English ship of 1293 tons. [In 1592 a Portuguese carack of 1600 tons was caught and taken as a prize to Dartmouth. It was 165 feet long, 46 feet broad, and 31 feet draught. Its main mast was 121 feet long and its main yard 106 feet. ' It had seven stories, one main or lop, three close decks, one forecastle, and a spar deck. Milburn's Oriental Commerce, I. 306. In 1600 Pyrard (Voyage, French ed. II. 114) mentions a Portuguese carack of 2000 tons. In 1616 a Portuguese carack of 1600 tons had a brilliant fight with four English vessels. Low's Indian Navy, I. 25-27. The first English fleet in the east included one ship of 600 tons with 200 men, one of 300 tons with 100 men, one of 260 tons with 80 men, one of 240 tons with 80 men, and one of 100 tons with forty men. Bruce's Annals, I. 129. Up to 1600 there was no English ship over 400 tons. Milburn's Oriental Commerce, I. IX. In 1615 the English East India Navy included one ship of 1293 tons, one of 1100, one of 1060, one of 900, one of 800, and others of 600. Stevenson, 150. The first Dutch fleet in the east (1598) included the Hope 250 tons, the Charity 160 tons, the Faith 160 tons, the Fidelity 100 tons, and the Good News 75 tons. Kerr's Voyages, VIII 65. In 1604 the Dutch had ships of from 600 to 800 tons. Milburn's Oriental Commerce, II. 369. In 1609 they had three ships of 1000 tons each. Middleton in Kerr's Voyages, VIII. 349.] Hindu captains and sailors are mentioned, [1612, Dounton in Kerr's Voyages, VIII. 426. Albuquerque (1508) found the Hindus of old Goa a maritime race and more inured to the hardships of the sea than any other nation. Com. II. 94.] but the favourite seamen were Arabs and Abyssinians. [1590, Linschoten in Vincent, II 261.] A great advance had been made in navigation. The Musalmans of Mozambique (1498) used Genoese compasses, and regulated their voyages by quadrants and sea charts; [Kerr's Voyages, II. 318. According to De Castro (1540, Kerr's Voyages, VI. 310) a good Lascarin must be an Abyssinian.] the Moors were so well instructed in so many arts of navigation that they yielded little to the Portuguese. [Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 138. In 1498 one of the pilots who took Vasco da Gama from Melinda in Africa to Kalikat was a Moor of Gujarat Three Voyages, 137, 138. In 1504 a Moor of Cannanur was so acquainted with his trade, that he took Albuquerque straight from Cannanur to Mozambique. Com. I. 17. In Socotra Albuquerque found a Moor with an elaborate chart of Ormuz. Ditto, 52.] Trade was still harassed by pirates, though they seem to have been less formidable than they had been in the fifteenth century or than they again were in the seventeenth century. Before the pirates were put down by the Portuguese, Bombay harbour, Goa, and Porka on the Kalikat coast were noted centres of piracy. [ Bombay Harbour, 1514, Stanley's Barbosa, 69; Goa, 1500, Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 244; Porka, 1500, Badger's Varthema, 154. 'In 1514,-the Bombay pirate boats were small vessels like watch-boats, which went out to sea plundering and sometimes killing the crew of any weak boat they met. Stanley's Barbosa, 69. In 1498, the Goa pirate craft are described as small brigandines filled with men, ornamented with flags and streamers, beating drums, and sounding trumpets. Kerr's Voyages, II. 387. Some pirate boats caught at Goa, in ±500, had small guns and cannon, javelins, long swords, large wooden bucklers covered with hides, long light bows, and long broad-pointed arrows. Vasco da Gama's Three Voyages, 252. There -was already a European element in the Goa pirates. Ditto, 244.]

Bombay, 1664.

In November 1664, the island of Bombay passed from the Portuguese to the English. The English had for years been anxious to gain a station on the Konkan coast. [In 1625 the Directors proposed that the Company should take Bombay. Accordingly, in 1626, the President at Surat suggested to the Dutch a joint occupation of the island, but the Dutch declined, and the scheme was abandoned (Bruee'a Annals, I. 273). In 1640 the Surat Council brought Bombay to notice as the best place on the west coast of India for a station (Ditto, I. 366), and, in 1652, they suggested that Bombay and Bassein should be bought from the Portuguese (I. 472). In 1654, in an address to Cromwell, the Company mentioned Bassein and Bombay as the meat suitable places for an English settlement in India (I. 488). In 1659 the Surat Council recommended that an application should be made to the King of Portugal to cede someplace on the west coast, Danda-Rajpuri, Bombay, or Versova (Ditto, I. 548). Finally, at the close of 1661 (7th December), in a letter which must have crossed the Directors' letter telling of the cession of Bombay, the President at Surat wrote (Ditto, II. III) that, unless a station could be obtained which would place the Company's servants cut of the reach of the Moghal and Shivaji and render them independent of the overbearing Dutch, it would be more prudent to bring off their property and servants, than to leave them exposed to continual risks and dangers. It was its isolated position rather than its harbour that made the English covet Bombay. Then and till much later, Bombay harbour was by many considered too big. In 1857, in meeting objections urged against Karwar on the ground of its smallness, Captain Taylor wrote (27th July 1857), ' Harbours can be too large as well as too small. The storms of 1837 and 1854 show us that Bombay would be a better port if it was not open to the south-west,, and had not an expanse of eight miles of water to the south-east.' Bom. Gov. Rec. 248,of 1862-64, 29, 30.] In June 1661, as part of the dower of his sister Katherine, the King of Portugal ceded the island and harbour of Bombay, which the English understood to include Salsette and the other harbour islands. [According to Captain Hamilton (1680-1720), 'the royalties appending on Bombay reached as far as Versovt. in Silsette.' (New Account, 1. 185). This does not agree with other writers and is probably inaccurate.] In March 1662 a fleet of five men-of-war, under the command of the Earl of Marlborough, with Sir Abraham Shipman and 400 men accompanied by a new Portuguese Viceroy, left England for Bombay. Part of the fleet reached Bombay in September 1662 and the rest in October 1662. On being asked to make over Bombay and Salsette to the English, the governor contended that the island of Bombay had alone been ceded, and on the ground of some alleged irregularity in the form of the letters or patent, he refused to give up even Bombay. The Portuguese Viceroy declined to interfere, and Sir Abraham Shipman was forced to retire first to Suvali at the mouth of the Tapti, and then to the small island of Anjidiv off the Karwar coast. Here, cooped up and with no proper supplies, the English force remained for more than two years, losing their general and three hundred of the four hundred men. In November 1664, Sir Abraham Shipman's successor Mr. Humfrey Cooke, to preserve the remnant of his troops, agreed to accept Bombay without its dependencies, and to grant special privileges to its Portuguese residents. [ Cooke renounced all claims to the neighbouring islands, promised to exempt the Portuguese from customs, to restore deserters, runaway slaves, husbandmen, and craftsmen, and not to interfere with the Roman Catholic religion. Trans. Bom, Geog. Soc. III. 68-71. These terms were never ratified either by the English or by the Portuguese, Anderson's English in Western India, 53. According to Mr. James Douglas, Kolaba Point or Old Woman's Island was at first refused as not being part of Bombay. It and 'Putachos,' apparently Butcher's Island, seem to have been taken in 1666. Fryer's New Account, 64.] In February 1665, when the island was handed over, only 119 Englishmen landed in Bombay.[ The details were, the Governor, one ensign, four Serjeants, six corporals, four drummers, one surgeon, one surgeon's mate, two gunners, one gunner's mate; one gunsmithy and ninety-seven privates, Bruce's Annals, II. 157.] At the time of the transfer the island is said to have had 10,000 Inhabitants and to have yielded a revenue of about £2800 (Rs.28,000). [Fryer's New Account, 68; Warden in Bom. Geog. Soc. Trans. III: 45, 46.]

The cession of Bombay and its dependencies was part of a scheme under which England and Portugal were to join in resisting the growing power of the Dutch. A close alliance between the English and the Portuguese seemed their only chance of safety. In 1656 the Dutch had driven the Portuguese from Ceylon. They were besieging the English at Bantam and blockading the Portuguese at Goa; ' If the Dutch took Goa, Diu must follow, and if Diu fell, the English Company might wind up their affairs.' [Bruce's Annals, I. 522;Baldaeas in Churchill, III. 545.] The scheme was ruined by the looseness of the connection between the Portuguese in Europe and the Portuguese in India. The local Portuguese feeling against the cession of territory was strong, and the expression of the King's surprise and grief at their disobedience failed to overcome it. [The King of Portugal to the Viceroy, 16th August 1663. Trans. Bom. Geog. Soc. III.67] Bitter hatred, instead of friendship, took the place of the old rivalry between the Portuguese and the English. [ Besides soreness at being ' choused by the Portugels' (Pepya' Diary, Chandos Ed. 155) the English were embittered by the efforts of the Jesuits to stir up disaffection in Bombay, and by the attempt of the Portuguese authorities to starve them out of the island by the levy of heavy dues on all provision-boats passing Thana or Karanja on their way to Bombay. Bruce, II. 175, 214. Of the relations between the Portuguese in India and the Portuguese in Europe, Fryer writes (New Account, 62), ' The Portuguese in East India will talk big of their King and how nearly allied to them, as if they were all cousm-germans at least. But for his commands, if contrary to their factions, they value them no more than if they were merely titular.] Without the dependencies which were to have furnished supplies and a revenue, the island was costly, and, whatever its value as a place of trade, it was no addition of strength in a struggle with the Dutch. The King determined to grant the prayer of the Company and to hand them Bombay as a trading station. On the first of September 1668, the ship Constantinople arrived at Surat, bringing the copy of a Royal Charter bestowing Bombay on the Honourable Company. The island was granted ' in as ample a manner as it came to the crown,' and was to be held on the payment of a yearly quit-rent of £10 in gold. With the island were granted all stores arms and ammunition, together with such political powers as were necessary for its defence and government. [Bruce's Annals, II. 199. The troops which formed the Company's first military establishment in Bombay numbered 198, of whom five were commissioned officers, 139 non-commissioned officers and privates, and Sixty-four hat-wearing half-castes or topazes. There were twenty-one pieces of cannon and proportionate stores. Ditto, 240.] In these three years of English management the revenue of the island had risen from about £3000 to about £6500. [The details are given in Warden's Landed Tenures of Bombay, 8]

The factors at first thought so poorly of their new possession, that, in 1668, they proposed to the Surat Council that Bombay should be given up, and the factory moved to Janjira rock. [Grant Duff, 99.] But soon after, they began to esteem it a place of more consequence than they had formerly thought.' [Anderson, 56; Low's Indian Navy, I.61.] Under the able management of Gerald Aungier (1660-1677) the revenue rose from £6500 to £9260 and the population from ten thousand to sixty thousand, while the military force was increased to four hundred Europeans and 1500 Portuguese native militia. [Of the £6500 of revenue in 1667, £2000 were from the land. The Portuguese quit-rents were supposed to represent one-fourth of the crop. Brace's Annals, III. 106.]

In 1674 the traveller Fryer found the weak Government house, which under the Portuguese had been famous chiefly for its beautiful garden, loaded with cannon and strengthened by carefully guarded ramparts. Outside the fortified house, were the English burying-place and fields where cows and buffaloes grazed. At a short distance from the fort lay the town, in which confusedly lived the English, Portuguese, Topazes, Gentoos, Moors, and Koli Christians mostly fishermen. The town was about a mile in length with low houses, roofed with palm-leaves, all but a few left by the Portuguese and some built by the Company. There was a ' reasonable handsome' bazar, and at the end next the fort, a pretty house and church of the Portugals with orchards of Indian fruit.

A mile further up the harbour was a great fishing town, with a Portuguese church and religious house.; then Parel with another church and estates belonging to the Jesuits. At Mahim the Portuguese had a complete church and house, the English a pretty customs-house and guard-house, and the Moors a tomb. The north and north-west were covered with cocoas, jacks, and mangoes. In the middle was Varli with an English watch. Malabar hill was a rocky wooded mountain, with, oh its seaward slops, the remains of a stupendous pagoda [Fryer's New Account, 61-70. Stones of this old temple are still preserved near the Valukeshvar reservoir.] Of the rest of the island; 40,000 acres of what might have been good land was salt marsh. In Kamathipura there was water enough for boats, and at high tides the waves flooded the present Bhendi Bazar and flowed in a salt stream near the temple of Mumbadevi. Once a day Bombay was a group of islets, and the spring-tides destroyed all but the barren hills. [Brace's Annals, II. 215; Anderson, 53,54; Hamilton's Description of Hindustan, II. 154.]

Ten years more of fair prosperity were followed by about twenty years of deep depression (1688-1710). Then, after the union of the London and the English Companies, there came a steady, though at first slow, advance. But for fifty years more the English gained no fresh territory, and, except at sea, took no part in the struggles between the Moghals, Marathas, Sidis, Angrias, and Portuguese. [Of the position of the English in Bombay, Fryer wrote in 1673: ' Our present concern is with the Portugals, Shivaji, and the Moghal. From the first is desired no more than a mutual friendship, from the second an appearance only, from the last a nearer commerce. The first and second become necessary for provisions for the belly and building, the third for the gross of onr trade. Wherefore offices of civility must be performed to each of these: but they, sometimes interfering, are the occasion of jealousies, these three being so diametrically opposite one to another. For, while the Moghal brings his fleet either to winter or to recruit in this bay, Sevatakes offence: on the other hand, the Moghal would soon put a stop to all business should he be denied. The Portugals, in league with neither, think it a mean compliance in us to allow either of them countenance, especially to furnish them with guns and weapons to turn upon Christians which they wisely make an Inquisition crime. New Account, 70. What the King gave was the 'port, island, and premises, including all rights, territories, appurtenances, royalties, revenues, rents, customs, castles, forts, buildings, fortifications, privileges, franchises, and hereditaments.' Russel's Statutes of the East India Company, Appendix VIII. ix. The English, says Baldseus (1666), thought they' had obtained an all-powerful treasure, though, indeed, Bombay has brought them nothing but trouble and loss. Malabar and Coromandel Coast. Churchill, III. 540.]