Dacca

Dacca, a city of Bengal Proper, 150 miles NE. of Calcutta, on the north bank of the Buriganga, occupies an area of 8 sq. m., and consists of a dull esplanade and one long street meeting at right angles, with a complementary network of narrow, crooked lanes. Its position commands the principal waterways of the delta, and it thus enjoys singular facilities in the way of inland navigation. On this account it was chosen, about 1610, as the seat of the Mohammedan government of Bengal, which rank it retained, except during an interval of twenty years, until 1704. The suburbs extended 15 miles northward, where mosques and brick buildings are still found buried in thick jungle. In the 18th century it became widely celebrated for the delicate texture of its muslins, and in connection with this manufacture the French and the Dutch, as well as the English, had extensive establishments in the place. After 1817, however, the annual value of the trade declined, under the competition of Manchester piece-goods, and the aspect of the city changed with the disastrous decay of its staple industry. Its busy marts were deserted; in many quarters the streets, with their desolate, abandoned houses, were overgrown with jungle; and the population fell from 200,000 in 1800 to 69,212 in 1872. Since then the fortunes of Dacca have somewhat brightened; the general development of trade throughout the presidency has brought back a share of its former prosperity, and the opening of the Dacca and Maimansingh State Railway in 1886 has notably increased the transit trade. A small colony of muslin-weavers still survives, and other manufactures are coarse cotton cloth, embroidery, silver-work, shell-carving, and pottery. Besides the Dacca College (1835), with about 300 students, there are many good schools, and a fine hospital; in 1878 a system of water-works was opened, and the sanitary condition has since improved. Pop. (1891) 82,321.—DACCA DISTRICT has an area of 2797 sq. m., and consists of a level plain, intersected by a network of rivers and artificial watercourses. Two-thirds of the district is under cultivation; food-crops, oil-seeds, jute, cotton, safflower, and sugar-cane are grown. Trade is carried on chiefly by water, and the rivers are crowded at all seasons with steamers and native craft; the adventurous boatmen of the district have a name throughout Bengal. Floods, blight, or drought never seriously affect the district, but earthquakes are of common occurrence. Outside Dacca city sanitation is unthought of; fevers, dysentery, and goitre are among the endemic diseases, and epidemics of cholera and smallpox are not infrequent. Pop. (1872) 1,852,993; (1881) 2,116,350; (1891) 2,420,656—over 60 per cent. Mohammedans.