Chittagong

Chittagong, or ISLAMABAD, a port of Bengal, 220 miles E. of Calcutta, on the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal, and on the Karnaphuli River, about 12 miles from its mouth. The town is very scattered, built entirely on a number of small, steep hills, and is notorious for the prevalence of malaria. A great centre of trade under the Portuguese, it has regained much of the commerce it lost with the rise of Calcutta. The principal imports are salt and European goods; the chief exports rice, tea, and jute. Pop. (1891) 24,069.—The district is a long narrow strip of country lying between the Bay of Bengal and the hill tracts of Chittagong and Arakan, with an area of 2563 sq. m., and a pop. of 1,290,167, two-thirds Mohammedans.—Chittagong also gives name to a division—area, 12,118 sq. m.; pop. 4,190,081—and to the hill district to the east—area, 5519 sq. m.; pop. 107,286, three-fourths Buddhists—from whose forests a large proportion of the government elephants are obtained.