NOAKHALI. 343 The Batavian general consented, and despatched two vessels of war to Bengal in order to assist in the transport of the Mughal troops. Meanwhile Shaistá Khán, having prepared a large transport fleet, threatened the pirates with annihilation, telling them of the designs of Aurangzeb on Arakan, and adding that a powerful army of Dutch was close at hand. By such threats, and the most liberal promises of land and pay, if they would leave the service of the Arakan Rajá and enter that of Aurangzeb, he cajoled them into landing in Bengal with their wives and children. The Nawab received them with open arms, overwhelmed them with favours, and placed their families in Dacca. Then, without giving them time to cool, he made them join his army in the attack and capture of the island of Sandwin, then in the hands of the Rájá of Arakan. From Sandwip he passed with all his forces to Chittagong, which was taken in 1666. His purpose being accomplished, and having in his power the families of the Portuguese, he ridiculed all his previous liberal promises; taunted the pirates with having abandoned the Arakan Rájá, their master; and treated them with great severity. They never recovered their independence; and their descendants have gradually sunk to the level of the natives, whose dress and custonıs they have for the most part adopted. They are still Christians, and retain their old Portuguese names. About 1756, the East India Company established factories in Noák háli and Tipperah, ruins of some of which still remain. In 1790, a Salt Agent was appointed at Sudhárám to superintend the manufacture of salt on the islands. Much of the salt thus made was exported to Chittagong, and thence to Calcutta. In 1827, the Salt Agent was invested with the powers of a Collector. The District, so far as its revenue jurisdiction went, was then known as Zila Bhuluá. Afterwards, in consequence of the prevalence of robbery and dakáiti in this part of the country, a joint-magistrate was invested with the criminal administration of the District, and the name of Noảkháli was adopted to designate the new jurisdiction. The local name of the head-quarters station is, however, neither Bhuluá nor Noakhalí, but Sudhárán, after the name of a prominent landholder. Population.- Previous to 1872, several attempts were made to ascertain approximately the population of Noakhálí. In 1850, it was estimated at 352,975 souls; in 1856, at 438,456 ; and in 1865, at 293,540. According to an estimate based on an enumeration of the houses in 1868, the population was returned at 348,250. All these estimates were, in 1872, found to be much below the truth, the Census of that year disclosing a population, on the District as at present constituted, of 840,376, or of 713,934, exclusive of the Mirkásarai and Chhágalnaiya thánás, which have been added to Noakhali from Chittagong and Tipperah Districts since 1872. At the last enumeration in
