190 THE AGRARIAN SYSTEM OF MOSLEM INDIA 
typical of the province. The story of these villages must 
be told at some little length, because it appears to furnish 
a clue to some of the early difficulties of British adminis- 
tration in other parts of India. As I understand the 
position, Englishmen were first brought into contact with 
agrarian matters in a region where the local terminology 
differed from that which was employed in the North; and 
the subsequent difficulties resulted to some extent from the 
application of this local terminology to regions where it 
was not previously in use. 
The story begins in the sixteenth century with the decay 
of the port of Satgaon, and the consequent migrations of its 
population. Most of the migrants moved to Hugli, which, 
as a centre of foreign trade, came practically into the 
possession of the Portuguese. At this time the country 
near Hiigli was largely unoccupied, and we are told that, 
betore the Mogul annexation, Portuguese individuals had 
obtained farms (ijdra) of portions of it at a low revenue. 
In view of the conditions which prevailed, it is reasonable 
to infer that these farms were in the nature of clearing- 
leases, that is to say, a fixed annual payment was accepted 
for vacant land, which the farmers had to bring under culti- 
vation in order to obtain a profit. These particular farms 
were apparently brought summarily to an end when Shah- 
jahin expelled the Portuguese from Higli; his orders 
specified that the intruders were to be exterminated, while 
in the course of the operations detachments were sent into 
the neighbouring villages “to send the Christians of the 
ijaradars to hell,” meaning, I suppose, the Christian tenants 
whom the Portuguese farmers had settled on the land. 
While, however, most of the migrants from Satgaon had 
moved to Higli, a few Hindu families had gone further 
down the river, and founded two settlements, which were 
named Govindpur and Sutanuti. They, or their successors, 
also obtained possession of an existing village named Deh-i 
Kalkata, and the three places can be spoken of as ‘‘ the three 
Towns.” in the phrase used in the early British records.? 
1 Badshahnama, I, i. 434, 437. 
2 The relevant records are abstracted in Early Annals, and Old Fort 
William. A copy of the sale-deed of the three towns is in the British 
Vinceum. Add. 24.039, No. 30