Nidadavólu, and for some time kept up a desultory resistance against the forces sent to suppress them. When attacked, they dispersed, only to reassemble in difficult passes and ravines, and it was with difficulty that tranquillity was restored. A standing militia appears to have been maintained; but its efforts to keep order were not always successful, and its exactions from the inhabitants increased the miseries of the country.
It was during the Golconda rule that the earliest English settlements on this coast were made. Masulipatam was first visited in 1611 and the factory at Madapollam near Narasapur (also in Kistna) was founded about 1678. Of the settlements in this district, that at Injaram near Yanam was established in 1708, and that at Bendamúrlanka in 1751. The Dutch had several important outposts in the neighbourhood, but the only one in this district was Jagannáthapuram, now a part of Cocanada. The French started a factory at Yanam about 1750. None of these outposts had at this time any influence worth mentioning on the history of the district, and it is sufficient for the present to chronicle the fact of their existence.
Meanwhile, in 1686, Aurangzeb, emperor of Delhi, marched to reduce the south of India to his authority. In the next year he overthrew (among others) the kingdom of Golconda, and the country passed under the direct rule of Delhi. He appointed to rule his new territories a viceroy who was known as the Subadar of the Deccan (and later as the Nizam of Hyderabad) and resided first at Aurangabad and afterwards at Hyderabad. The subadari consisted of 22 provinces, of which Rajahmundry and Chicacole were two. With the provinces of Kondapalle, Ellore and Guntúr they formed what were known as 'the Northern Circars,' a name which still survives. The system (or want of system) of administration remained unchanged, and disorders continued as freely as before.
In 1724 the Subadar of the Deccan (Nizam), who had long been virtually independent of Delhi, became so in fact, and appointed his own nominees as Nawábs of the provinces under him. Rustum Khán was appointed to Rajahmundry and is still known to local tradition as Háji Hussain.
The country was in great disorder. Zamindars, or farmers of the revenue, had generally availed themselves of the late political disturbances to usurp the rights and feeble authority of their Muhammadan superintendents. They defrauded the public treasury and squeezed with an iron hand the husband-man and manufacturer. The new ruler set himself to suppress
