Chittagong

Chittagong, the name of a division, a district, and a port in British India, under the jurisdiction of the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. The division has an area of 12,118 square miles, and comprises the districts of Chittagong, Noakhali, Tipperah, Chittagong Hill Tracts, and Independent Hill Tipperah. The district occupies a strip of low-lying land on the coast of the Bay of Bengal beyond the Brahmaputra river. It is 165 miles long, and has an average breadth of 50 miles, being bounded by Tipperah N., Burmah E. (separated by lofty mountains), Arakan S., and the sea W. Flat near the coast the land rises in the interior to the height of 8,000 feet. It is generally fertile, but is to a large extent covered with forests abounding in tigers, elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards, and deer. The climate is not excessively hot, but a long rainy season and heavy dews render it very unhealthy. The chief river is the Karaphuli, navigable by large vessels up to the town of Chittagong, the Haida and the Sangu being also accessible to boats. Rice, cotton, bamboos, sugar, betel-nuts, tobacco, hemp, and mustard are the principal products. The territory was ceded to Great Britain in 1760 by Nawab Mir Kasim. The half-caste descendants of early Portuguese settlers form an element in the Christian population, but the bulk of the natives are Mussulmans. The town or port of Chittagong, also known as Islamabad, stands on the right bank of the Karaphuli, at a distance of twelve miles from its mouth. It consists of an agglomeration of villages, extending over nine square miles. The trade, still considerable, has declined somewhat of late. Shipbuilding is actively carried on, but the climate is a great bar to the growth of its commercial prosperity.