The changing nature of the seventeenth century slave trade in Arakan and Eastern Bengal

When during the first half of the fifteenth century the Venetian merchant Nicolo di Conti travelled from Bengal to Burma he most probably passed through the Arakanese capital Mrauk-U. At that time Mrauk-U apparently did not stand out amongst the many cities and countries he visited. Nicolo di Conti at least did not have much to report about Arakan. The most that he found could be said of the Arakanese capital that it lay on the bank of a river and that it was surrounded by a tract of uninhabited mountains. For Nicolo di Conti the city of Arakan was just another harbour en route to his next destination, the magnificent city of Ava.