THE DARDS.
JUNE 7, 1872.]
187
China Ganjam, and stating that as far back as A.D. 1224, some Frangalu or European foreigners, probably Portuguese, carried on considerable traffic with Masulipatam for a time on the coast, and raised a town called Frangalupatnam, the remains of which are still to be seen in certain existing mounds Frangalu dinne. The Dutch were the first European settlers in Masulipatam, but the old Dutch burial ground at Masulipatam is all that remains to tell of their connection with the country. The Dutch Chapel has been converted into a private house, and that
English and the great Mughal, the latter seized the factories at Masulipatam and Vijayapatam. In the following year an imperial Firman permitted the Company to re-settle in the district, and the follow ing year the kowle for the Madras settlement, in cluding the English factories of Masulipatam, Madapalam, Vijayapatam, etc., within the territories of the Golconda country, was granted, which ema nated from Zulfakar Khan, the Mughal General in
in time has been allowed to fall into ruins.
inscription left is one to the memory of John Row land, 1701. The Northern Sarkars were obtained by the French in 1753, and remained in their pos session till 1759, when they were transferred to the East India Company, to whom they were finally ceded in 1765. The fort at Masulipatam was built by the English, but the greater part of the ramparts have, within recent years, been entirely levelled. It was designed by Sir Charles Trevelyan to level the walls, and lay out boule vardes and a people's park, but this idea was frustrated by the cyclone of 1864 that carried off some 30,000 souls and depopulated the fort.
-
The
old Dutch tombs are finely carved with inscriptions and coats of arms in relievo letters. the tombs are from 1649–1725.
The dates of In 1621 the
English factory at Bantam attempted to open a trade with Palikat, but were opposed by the Dutch. In the following year, however, they succeeded in
establishing a trade at Masulipatam. In 1628 the English were driven from Masulipatam by the oppression of the native Governors, but five years subsequently the place was established as a factory through a Firman of the Nizam of Golconda. In 1689, owing to misunderstanding between the
the Dekhan.
There is a French burying ground in the Town
of Masulipatam, but the only tomb that has any
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT, &c., AMONG THE DARDS. By G. W. LEITNER M.A., Ph.D., &c.
CHILAs, which sends a tribute every year to Kash mir for the sake of larger return-presents, rather than as a sign of subjection, is said to be governed
by a council of elders, in which even women are admitted.
When I visited Ghilgit, in 1866, it was
practically without a ruler, the invading troops of Kashmir barely holding their own within a few
yards of the Ghilgit Fort—a remarkable construct ion which was blown up by accident last year.” There is now a Thanadar of Ghilgit, whose rule
is probably not very different from that of his rapacious colleagues in Kashmir. The Ghilgitis are kept quiet by the presence of the Kashmir army, and by the fact that their chiefs are prisoners at Srinagar, where other representatives of once
reigning houses are also under surveillance. Man sur Ali Khan, the supposed rightful Rája of Ghil
git is there ; he is the son of Asghar Ali Khan, son of Rája Khan, son of Gurtam Khan—but legitimate descent has little weight in countries constantly disturbed by violence, except in Hunza, where the
supreme right to rob is hereditary. The Ghilgitis, who are a little more settled than their neighbours to the West, North and South, and who possess the most refined Dardu dialect and traditions, were
constantly exposed to marauding parties, and the
- The only record is the drawing published in the Illus
trated London News of the 12th February 1870.
+ Major Montgomerie remarks “the coins have the word Gujanfar on them, the name, I suppose, of some emblematic
late ruler of Chitral, Gouhar—Amán, who had con quered Ghilgit, made it a practice to sell them into slavery on the pretext that they were Shiahs and infidels. Yassin was ruled by Mír Wali, the supposed murderer of Mr. Hayward, and is now a dependen cy of Chitral which is ruled over by Amān-ul-mulk. The Hunza people are under Ghazan Khan, the son of Ghazanfar,t and seem to delight in plundering their Kirghiz neighbours, although all travellers through that inhospitable region, with the exception of Badakhshan merchants, are impartially attacked by these robbers whose depredations have caused the nearest pass from Central Asia to India to be almost entirely deserted. At Ghilgit I saw the young Rāja of Nagyr, with a servant, also a Nagyr. He was a most amiable and intelligent lad, whose articulation was very much more refined than that of his companion, who prefixed a guttural to every Khajuná word beginning with a vowel. The boy was kept a prisoner in the Ghilgit Fort as a hostage to Kashmir for his father's good behaviour, and it was with some difficulty that he was allowed to see me and answer certain linguis tic questions which I put to him. If he has not been sent back to his country, it would be a good op portunity for our Government to get him to the animal. I was however unable to find out its meaning.” The word is Ghazanfar [which means in Arabic: lion hero] and is the name of the former ruler of Hunza, whose name is on the coins.
