Among the Portuguese adventurers who served the king of Chandradwip for a long time and helped to expand the kingdom, the name of Jean Garie comes first. He served both king Ramchandra and his son kirtinarayan. At that time, many Portuguese settled in Bengal and entered the service of local kings as mercenaries. They were responsible for slave trade and often act as pirates. The Magh and Portuguese pirates started to disturb the local population so much that even Maharaja Pratapaditya had to take action against them. It was a time when the Portuguese enjoyed the monopoly in slave trade, spice trade, and other trades and their only rival was the Spaniards. The Dutch, the Danes, the French, and the English, were yet to enter the Bay of Bengal as competitors and the Spaniards were least interested here. So the Portuguese were the only European power who truly dominated the Bay of Bengal, before the coming of other powers like Dutch, French and English. Later the Mughals had to fight these Portuguese adventurers but the Mughal was not so powerful. Chattagram, Howrah-Hoogly, Sundarbans, and other important regions with ports were once dominated by the Portuguese. Only the Maghs from Arakan successfully resisted the Portuguese in Chattagram, as well as the Hindu kings of East Bengal. Most of the islands of Sundarbans became deserted due to Portuguese pirates. Later the Dutch settled at Chinsurah, the French at Chandernagor, the Danes at Sreerampore and the English at Calcutta. The Portuguese power waned during 18th Century.
During the time of Mughal Emperor Akbar, King Paramananda Basu of Chandradwip gave Portuguese the permission to trade within his kingdom and allowed some of them to settle. His grandson Kandarpanarayan Basu didn't give them much advantage, but it was kandarpanarayan's son and successor Ramchandra who recruited Portuguese as Generals. Ramchandra increased his army and navy by recruiting the Buxaris from Bihar, Rajputs from West, hilly tribes and the Portuguese. His total force was nearly 1 lakh army. Two of the most trusted generals of King Ramchandra were Nana Fernandes and Jean Garie. The latter joined him with a force of 10,000 men and served him till death. When Ramchandra attacked Bhulua, Garie helped him. He also trained his army in the use of cannons and guns, which the Bengalees learnt long before ( King Kandarpanarayan was famous for his cannons and loved to use guns ).
"A large no of Portuguese dwell in freedom at the ports on this coast
of Bengal. They are also very free in their lives...They do only
traffic, without any fort, order or police and live like natives of
the country. They dare not return to India, for certain misdeeds they
have committed and they have no clergy among them. There is one of
them named Jean Garie, who is greatly obeyed by the rest. He commands
more than ten thousand men for the king of Bengal."--THE VOYAGE OF
PYRARD DE LEVAL ( PAGE 334, VOL I )
But problem started with King Kirtinarayan, son of Ramchandra, who dismissed Garie for some reasons. Garie revolted and started to disturb the common people. King had to march against him, with his generals Rammohan Mal, Rameshwar Dutta and Madan Singha. On the banks of River Meghna, near Mehendiganj station, king's army fought with the Portuguese for three days on the riverbanks of Sultani, Larua and Ballavpur. The Portuguese were completely defeated and compelled to sign a treaty on the condition that they would leave Chandradwip and would not disturb king's subject anymore. The battlefield came to be known as Sangrampur and a fort built by Chandradwip king was still there during the early 20th Century. Henceforth, the Portuguese ceased to convert people into Christianity in Chandradwip and their slave trade came to an end in that region.
During the time of Mughal Emperor Akbar, King Paramananda Basu of Chandradwip gave Portuguese the permission to trade within his kingdom and allowed some of them to settle. His grandson Kandarpanarayan Basu didn't give them much advantage, but it was kandarpanarayan's son and successor Ramchandra who recruited Portuguese as Generals. Ramchandra increased his army and navy by recruiting the Buxaris from Bihar, Rajputs from West, hilly tribes and the Portuguese. His total force was nearly 1 lakh army. Two of the most trusted generals of King Ramchandra were Nana Fernandes and Jean Garie. The latter joined him with a force of 10,000 men and served him till death. When Ramchandra attacked Bhulua, Garie helped him. He also trained his army in the use of cannons and guns, which the Bengalees learnt long before ( King Kandarpanarayan was famous for his cannons and loved to use guns ).
"A large no of Portuguese dwell in freedom at the ports on this coast
of Bengal. They are also very free in their lives...They do only
traffic, without any fort, order or police and live like natives of
the country. They dare not return to India, for certain misdeeds they
have committed and they have no clergy among them. There is one of
them named Jean Garie, who is greatly obeyed by the rest. He commands
more than ten thousand men for the king of Bengal."--THE VOYAGE OF
PYRARD DE LEVAL ( PAGE 334, VOL I )
But problem started with King Kirtinarayan, son of Ramchandra, who dismissed Garie for some reasons. Garie revolted and started to disturb the common people. King had to march against him, with his generals Rammohan Mal, Rameshwar Dutta and Madan Singha. On the banks of River Meghna, near Mehendiganj station, king's army fought with the Portuguese for three days on the riverbanks of Sultani, Larua and Ballavpur. The Portuguese were completely defeated and compelled to sign a treaty on the condition that they would leave Chandradwip and would not disturb king's subject anymore. The battlefield came to be known as Sangrampur and a fort built by Chandradwip king was still there during the early 20th Century. Henceforth, the Portuguese ceased to convert people into Christianity in Chandradwip and their slave trade came to an end in that region.
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