The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago

CHAPTER I. Rise of European Piracy in the East

RISE OF EUROPEAN PIRACY IN THE EAST

Portuguese pirates--Vincente Sodre--Dutch pirates--Royal filibustering--Endymion Porter's venture--The Courten Association--The Indian Red Sea fleet--John Hand--Odium excited against the English in Surat--The Caesar attacked by French pirates--Danish depredations--West Indian pirates--Ovington's narrative--Interlopers and permission ships--Embargo placed on English trade--Rovers trapped at Mungrole--John Steel--Every seizes the Charles the Second and turns pirate--His letter to English commanders--The Madagascar settlements--Libertatia--Fate of Sawbridge--Capture of the Gunj Suwaie--Immense booty--Danger of the English at Surat--Bombay threatened--Friendly behaviour of the Surat Governor--Embargo on European trade--Every sails for America--His reputed end--Great increase of piracy--Mutiny of the Mocha and Josiah crews--Culliford in the Resolution--The London seized by Imaum of Muscat.

CHAPTER II. Captain Kidd

CAPTAIN KIDD

Measures to suppress piracy--The Adventure fitted out--Warren's squadron meets with Kidd--His suspicious behaviour--He threatens the Sidney--Waylays the Red Sea fleet--Captures the Mary--Visits Carwar and Calicut--His letter to the factory--Chased by Portuguese men-of-war--Chases the Sedgwick--Chivers--Action between Dorrill and Resolution--Kidd captures the Quedah Merchant--Dilemma of European traders at Surat--Their agreements with the authorities--Experience of the Benjamin--News of Kidd's piracies reaches England--Despatch of squadron under Warren--Littleton at Madagascar--Kidd sails for New York--Arrested and tried--His defence and execution--Justice of his sentence--His character--Diminution of piracy--Lowth in the Loyal Merchant--Act for suppression of piracy--Captain Millar ...

CHAPTER III. The Rise of Conajee Angria

THE RISE OF CONAJEE ANGRIA

Native piracy hereditary on the Malabar coast--Marco Polo's account--Fryer's narrative--The Kempsant--Arab and Sanganian pirates--Attack on the President--Loss of the Josiah--Attack on the Phoenix--The Thomas captured--Depredations of the Gulf pirates--Directors' views--Conajee Angria--Attacks English ships--Destroys the Bombay--Fortifies Kennery--Becomes independent--Captures the Governor's yacht--Attacks the Somers and Grantham--Makes peace with Bombay--His navy--Great increase of European and native piracy ...

CHAPTER IV. An Active Governor

AN ACTIVE GOVERNOR

Arrival of Mr. Boone as Governor--He builds ships and improves defences of Bombay--Desperate engagement of Morning Star with Sanganians--Alexander Hamilton--Expedition against Vingorla--Its failure--Hamilton made Commodore--Expedition against Carwar--Landing force defeated--Successful skirmish--Desertion of Goa recruits--Reinforcements--Landing force again defeated--The Rajah makes peace--Hamilton resigns Commodoreship--A noseless company--Angria recommences attacks--Abortive expedition against Gheriah--Downing's account of it--Preparations to attack Kennery ...

CHAPTER V. The Company's Servants

THE COMPANY'S SERVANTS

The Company's civil servants--Their comparison with English who went to America--Their miserable salaries--The Company's military servants--Regarded with distrust--Shaxton's mutiny--Captain Keigwin--Broken pledges and ill-treatment--Directors' vacillating policy--Military grievances--Keigwin seizes the administration of Bombay--His wise rule--Makes his submission to the Crown--Low status of Company's military officers--Lord Egmont's speech--Factors and writers as generals and colonels--Bad quality of the common soldiers--Their bad treatment--Complaint against Midford--Directors' parsimony ...

CHAPTER VI. Expedition Against Kennery

EXPEDITION AGAINST KENNERY

Sivajee's occupation of Kennery--A naval action--Minchin and Keigwin--Bombay threatened--The Seedee intervenes--Conajee Angria occupies Kennery--Boone sails with the expedition--Manuel de Castro--Futile proceedings--Force landed and repulsed--Second landing--Manuel de Castro's treachery--Gideon Russell--Bad behaviour of two captains--Defeat--Attack abandoned--The St. George--The Phram--Manuel de Castro punished--Bombay wall completed--Angria makes overtures for peace--Boone outwitted ...

CHAPTER VII. Expedition Against Gheriah

EXPEDITION AGAINST GHERIAH

Trouble with the Portuguese--Madagascar pirates again--Loss of the Cassandra--Captain Macrae's brave defence--The one-legged pirate--Richard Lazenby--Expedition against Gheriah--Mr. Walter Brown--His incompetency--Gordon's landing--Insubordination and drunkenness--Arrival of the Phram--General attack--Failure--The Kempsant's alliance--Attack on Deoghur--The Madagascar pirates, England and Taylor--Ignominious flight--Fate of the Phram--Brown despatched south again--The pirates at Cochin--They take flight to Madagascar--Their rage against Macrae and England--England marooned--Taylor takes Goa ship--Rich prize--Governor Macrae ...

CHAPTER VIII. Expedition Against Colaba

EXPEDITION AGAINST COLABA

Measures taken in England against pirates--Woodes Rogers at the Bahamas--Edward Teach--Challoner Ogle--Bartholomew Roberts killed--Matthews sent to the East Indies--Naval officers' duels--Portuguese alliance--Expedition against Colaba--Assault--Defeat--A split in the alliance--Plot against Boone--His departure--Matthews' schemes--His insulting behaviour--He quarrels with everybody--Goes to Madagascar--The King of Ranter Bay--Matthews goes to Bengal ...

CHAPTER IX. A Troubled Year in Bombay

A TROUBLED YEAR IN BOMBAY

Loss of the Hunter galley--Quarrel with Portuguese--Alliance of Portuguese with Angria--War with both--A double triumph--Portuguese make peace--Angria cowed--Matthews reappears--Trouble caused by him--He returns to England--Court-martialled--The last of Matthews ...

CHAPTER X. Twenty-Six Years of Conflict

TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF CONFLICT

The case of Mr. Curgenven--Death of Conajee Angria--Quarrels of his sons--Portuguese intervention--Sumbhajee Angria--Political changes--Disaster to Bombay and Bengal galleys--The Ockham beats off Angria's fleet--The Coolees--Loss of the Derby--Mahrattas expel Portuguese from Salsette--Captain Inchbird--Mannajee Angria gives trouble--Dutch squadron repulsed from Gheriah--Gallant action of the Harrington--Sumbhajee attacks Colaba--English assist Mannajee--Loss of the Antelope--Death of Sumbhajee Angria--Toolajee Angria--Capture of the Anson--Toolajee takes the Restoration--Power of Toolajee--Lisle's squadron--Building of the Protector and Guardian ...

CHAPTER XI. The Downfall of Angria

THE DOWNFALL OF ANGRIA

Toolajee fights successful action with the Dutch--He tries to make peace with Bombay--Alliance formed against him--Commodore William James--Slackness of the Peishwa's fleet--Severndroog--James's gallant attack--Fall of Severndroog--Council postpone attack on Gheriah--Clive arrives from England--Projects of the Directors--Admiral Watson--Preparations against Gheriah--The Council's instructions--Council of war about prize-money--Double dealing of the Peishwa's officers--Watson's hint--Ships engage Gheriah--Angrian fleet burnt--Fall of Gheriah--Clive occupies the fort--The prize-money--Dispute between Council and Poonah Durbar--Extinction of coast piracy--Severndroog tower ...

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AN ENGLISHWOMAN IN INDIA TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO

ILLUSTRATIONS

MAHRATTA GRABS AND GALLIVATS ATTACKING AN ENGLISH SHIP. MAP OF MALABAR COAST.

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THE PIRATES OF MALABAR

CHAPTER I. _rise of European Piracy in the East_

RISE OF EUROPEAN PIRACY IN THE EAST

Portuguese pirates--Vincente Sodre--Dutch pirates--Royal filibustering--Endymion Porter's venture--The Courten Association--The Indian Red Sea fleet--John Hand--Odium excited against the English in Surat--The Caesar attacked by French pirates--Danish depredations--West Indian pirates--Ovington's narrative--Interlopers and permission ships--Embargo placed on English trade--Rovers trapped at Mungrole--John Steel--Every seizes the Charles the Second and turns pirate--His letter to English commanders--The Madagascar settlements--Libertatia--Fate of Sawbridge--Capture of the Gunj Suwaie--Immense booty--Danger of the English at Surat--Bombay threatened--Friendly behaviour of the Surat Governor--Embargo on European trade--Every sails for America--His reputed end--Great increase of piracy--Mutiny of the Mocha and Josiah crews--Culliford in the Resolution--The London seized by Imaum of Muscat.

From the first days of European enterprise in the East, the coasts of India were regarded as a favourable field for filibusters, the earliest we hear of being Vincente Sodre, a companion of Vasco da Gama in his second voyage. Intercourse with heathens and idolaters was regulated according to a different code of ethics from that applied to intercourse with Christians. The authority of the Old Testament upheld slavery, and Africans were regarded more as cattle than human beings; while Asiatics were classed higher, but still as immeasurably inferior to Europeans. To prey upon Mahommedan ships was simply to pursue in other waters the chronic warfare carried on against Moors and Turks in the Mediterranean. The same feelings that led the Spaniards to adopt the standard of the Cross in their conquest of Mexico and Peru were present, though less openly avowed, in the minds of the merchants and adventurers of all classes and nationalities who flocked into the Indian seas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With the decadence of buccaneering and the growth of Indian trade, there was a corresponding increase of piracy, and European traders ceased to enjoy immunity.

In 1623 the depredations of the Dutch brought the English into disgrace. Their warehouses at Surat were seized, and the president and factors were placed in irons, in which condition they remained seven months. This grievance was the greater, as it happened at the time that the cruel torture and execution of Captain Towerson and his crew by the Dutch took place at Amboyna. It was bad enough to be made responsible for the doings of their own countrymen, but to be punished for the misdeeds of their enemies was a bitter pill to swallow. In 1630, just as peace was being concluded with France and Spain, Charles I., who was beginning his experiment of absolute government, despatched the Seahorse, Captain Quail, to the Red Sea to capture the ships and goods of Spanish subjects, as well as of any other nations not in league and amity with England. There were no Spaniards in the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean, but international arrangements in Europe were not regarded when the equator had been crossed. Quail captured a Malabar vessel, for which the Company's servants at Surat were forced to pay full compensation. The Seahorse returned to England in 1633, but in view of the new field of enterprise opened up, Endymion Porter, Gentleman of the King's bedchamber, embarked on a piratical speculation, in partnership with two London merchants, Bonnell and Kynaston, with a licence under the privy seal to visit any part of the world and capture ships and goods of any state not in league and amity with England. Two ships, the Samaritan and Roebuck, were fitted out with such secrecy that the East India Company were kept in ignorance, and sailed in April, 1635, for the Red Sea, under Captain Cobb.

The Samaritan was wrecked in the Comoro Islands; but Cobb, continuing his cruise with the Roebuck, captured two Mogul vessels at the mouth of the Red Sea, from one of which he took a large sum of money and a quantity of goods, though the vessel had a pass from the Surat factory. Again the Company's servants at Surat were imprisoned, and not released till they had paid full compensation. Some small satisfaction was experienced when it became known that John Proud, master of the Swan, one of the Company's ships, had encountered the Roebuck in the Comoro Islands, and had attacked the freebooter. He was unable to capture it, but succeeded in procuring restitution of the captured goods; the treasure, however, was carried off to London, where it must have seemed as if the days of Drake and Hawkins had come again.

The Company laid their grievance before the King, who expressed much concern, promising to write to the Great Mogul and explain matters; so the Company commenced an action against Bonnell and Kynaston in the Admiralty Court. Porter was too highly placed to be struck at. Bonnell evaded arrest and escaped to France, but Kynaston was arrested and lodged in gaol; upon which Charles ordered his release on bail, saying he would try the case himself at his leisure.

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