Indian Antiquary Vol 52

SR No.: 032544
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 568
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 24 MB

Page 473

NOVEMBER, 1923)
NOTES ON PIRAOY IN EASTERN WATERS
Sacrifice Rock' (see para. 78 above) was still known as Kunhale's Rock and the Kotta River long continued to be the principal nest of the corsairs, who, friendly to the Dutch and English, continued to work havoc upon the waning commerce of Goa" (Pyrard, II, 527). Pyrard tells us (I, 351) that in a house which he visited in 1608 (probably in Kottakal) there were pictures of Kunhale's exploits, and the Malabar Gazetteer says that these exploits and those of others of his family are the subject of many popular ballads. Pyrard says that Kunhale left a son named Marcara (? Marakkar) who was greatly respected by the people of Malabar. He declares that, whatever may have been asserted by the Zamorin, the Malabarese pirates had a perfect understanding with him, paying him tribute, 41 and being supplied by him when necessary with loans which they repaid with interest. They were chiefly Muhammadans, but welcomed any one who cared to join them, whilst they forced nobody. They ordinarily had fleets of 80 to 100 galleys (the latter they called pados) and with them they harassed the trade between Diu and the south. Before they embarked they chose a chief, for the term of the voyage only, and made vows to give a certain proportion of their booty to the poor and to the priests (see para. 35 above). At sea they preyed not only on the Portuguese but on everybody, including their own countrymen and even their own relatives, considering it unlucky to pass by anything thrown in their way by Fortune, 43 Before fighting they took betel, and upon it swore fidelity to each other. When they took Indian prisoners they merely plundered them, letting them go with their ships and heavy cargo. Though on land they traded peaceably with the Portuguese, at sea they were their mortal enemies, and if victorious they killed or ransomed their prisoners. When overpowered, they ran their vessels alongside the enemy and tried to sink her with themselves. On the other side, the Portuguese offered rewards for each man captured and sent their prisoners to the galleys 43 for life without any hope of redemption.
169. In the Nair territory, says Pyrard (I, 338, 344), there were four chief pyratical ports, viz., Moutingue between Cannanore and Calicut (where the King resided with his two chief pirates, Moussey Caca and Mestar Cogniali, and a third, the commander of his galloys, called Cousty Hamede, the most feared of all the corsairs of the coast), Chonbalo towards Cannanore, Badak towards Calicut, and finally, Cangelotte near Barcelore. The pirat :s had to pay customs and other duties to the Nair King as well as the presents due to the Zamorin.
170. Monsieur Henri Defeynes de Monfart, who was in Malabar about 1608-9, says that the people of that country " are exceeding black but yet not curled, flat-nosed or great lipt as the negroes be, nevertheless with as good faces as any in all Europe. They are Mahometans and valiant, although they are somewhat of a savage inclination and would never come to composition with the Portugals but delight themselves to be at variance with all their neighbours . . . Meanwhile I was there they took 160 caravels from the Portugals. And when they take any prisoner who by chance hath his garments cut or jag'd, they say he did teare them of purpose, knowing they should once be theirs, and knock him on the head with staves" (Somers, Colln. of Tracts, III, 337). On his return to Europe de Monfart was imprisoned for four years at Lisbon, the Viceroy of Goa having sent warning that he was " an undertaking man, who had exactly viewed all those countries [i.e., India to China] and could do much hurt to the King (of Spain] their master, by the acquaintances and
41 According to the Malabar Gazetteer (p. 433), the Marakkars had transferred their allegiance from the Zamorin to the Raja of Kadattanad after the murder of Kunhale.
17 European pirates made the same excuse for attacking their own countrymen. See Captain George Roberts, Four Voyages, 1722, p. 65-66.
43 O. Dellon (Inquisition at Goa, p. 149) says that as the Portuguese had no galleys in their Marine, prisoners condemned to the galleys were shut up in a prison at Lisbon known as The Galloy. I presumo therefore that a form of imprisonment is here referred to.