Latest / The Hidden History of Bengal: Kingdoms, Empires, and Revolution — Fexingo History / The Portuguese Pirates of Bengal: The Lost Mercenary Kingdom of Sandwip
Transcript
- Lucas: We've talked a lot about the European trading companies in Bengal — the Portuguese, Dutch, French, English. But there's a wilder story that often gets forgotten: the Portuguese pirates who set up their own little kingdom on the island of Sandwip, right in the Bay of Bengal. Luna: Wait — a Portuguese pirate kingdom? In Bengal? Lucas: Exactly. Sandwip is a small island off the coast of Chittagong, in what's now Bangladesh. In the early 1600s, it became a base for Portuguese renegades — men who'd broken away from the official Portuguese settlements like Hooghly. They weren't traders or missionaries; they were mercenaries, pirates, and slave traders. Lucas: The most famous of them was a man named Gonzales — sometimes called Sebastião Gonzales Tibau. He arrived around 1609 and basically took over Sandwip, turning it into a fortified pirate haven. He even minted his own coins, called 'Gonzales rupees', and styled himself a kind of independent prince. Luna: Minting coins — that's a bold move. How did the Mughals react? Lucas: Well, the Mughals were distracted. Emperor Jahangir was more concerned with the Deccan and the Portuguese threat from Hooghly. Sandwip seemed like a minor nuisance. But Gonzales wasn't just raiding Mughal ships — he also allied with the Magh pirates from the Arakan kingdom, in modern Myanmar. Together, they raided the Bengal coast, carrying off thousands of Bengali villagers as slaves. Lucas: The slave trade was a huge part of this. The Portuguese and Magh pirates would sell captives to the Dutch and English in Southeast Asia. Some estimates suggest tens of thousands of Bengalis were enslaved during this period. It was a brutal business. Luna: That's horrifying. But also — how did they keep control of Sandwip for so long? Lucas: Gonzales was a skilled leader. He built forts, trained a small army of Portuguese and local mercenaries, and used the island's geography — marshy, hard to approach. He also played the Mughals and the Arakanese off against each other. For about two decades, Sandwip was essentially an independent pirate state. Lucas: But eventually, the Mughals got serious. In 1665, the governor of Bengal, Shaista Khan — we've talked about him in the Dhaka episode — launched a campaign to crush the pirates. He built a fleet of war boats in Dhaka and sailed down the Meghna River. Lucas: The decisive battle happened near Sandwip. The Mughal navy, commanded by a Bengali admiral named Ibn Hussain, defeated the Portuguese and Magh ships. Gonzales was killed or captured — accounts differ — and Sandwip was brought under Mughal control. Luna: What happened to the Portuguese who survived? Lucas: Some fled to Arakan, others were absorbed into Mughal service. But the legacy lingered. In the Sundarbans, the mangrove forests south of Bengal, there are still local legends about Portuguese pirates burying treasure on the islands. Even today, treasure hunters sometimes dig for 'Gonzales gold'. Lucas: It's a fascinating footnote — but it also shows how fragile the Mughal hold on Bengal really was. The empire couldn't even control its own coastline without a major naval campaign. Luna: It makes you think about all the smaller stories that get lost in the big imperial narratives. Lucas: Exactly. And speaking of stories that deserve attention — if you've been enjoying these deep dives into Bengal's hidden history, you might wonder how we keep this show going ad-free. It's really simple: listeners like you. A couple of dollars a month on buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo genuinely makes a difference. It helps us research episodes like this one — tracking down obscure sources, maps, and sometimes even rare books. Luna: Yeah, it's a small way to keep these stories alive. No pressure, but if you've gotten something out of our conversations, that link is there. Lucas: Anyway — back to the pirates. After Shaista Khan's victory, the Mughals strengthened their naval presence in Bengal. They built more ships and established a dedicated admiralty in Dhaka. But the pirate threat didn't disappear entirely. The Magh continued raiding from Arakan for another century, and the Portuguese were still active as mercenaries. Lucas: One interesting aftermath: some of the Portuguese firangis who surrendered to the Mughals were allowed to settle in Dhaka, in a neighborhood called 'Firangi Bazaar' — it's still a locality in old Dhaka today. Luna: So a whole community of Portuguese descendants lived in Dhaka for generations? Lucas: Yes, they intermarried with locals and became part of Bengali society. There are families in Dhaka today who trace their ancestry back to those 17th-century Portuguese pirates and mercenaries. Their names have been Bengali-ized, but the memory lingers. Lucas: And there's even a church in Old Dhaka — St. Nicholas Church — that was built by the Portuguese community in the 1600s. It's one of the oldest Christian churches in Bengal. Luna: That's incredible. So the pirate kingdom left a lasting mark. Lucas: Absolutely. It's a reminder that history isn't just about empires and companies — it's also about the renegades who built their own little worlds on the margins.