Indian Antiquary Vol 54

SR No.: 032546
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1985
Total Pages: 376
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 289

APRIL, 1925)
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
Arabians and Sanganlans. 875. During 1686 Arab pirates did much mischief in the Gulf of Mooha, and three Arab ships from Cong harassed the Indian traders (Edwardes, 133), whilst in Deoeinber Sanganian pirates gave some trouble on the coast of Thana. Prompt assistance was sent by the Bombay Government (Bomb. Gaz., XXVI, i. 100). 876. In February 1887 Arab pirates appeared in the Persian Gulf (Ibid., p. 100).
English. *877. The depredations of the Danes and other pirates, being all credited to the English, led first to severe measures against the latter by the Mughal Officers, and next to open war. On the 23rd May 1687 the Bombay Council issued orders to Captain Joseph Eaton to take all Mughal ships and to sink them rather than allow them to escape. The humble position of the Company's officers at this time is shown by the fact that on the 1st January 1686, when Captain Eaton was flying the King's Jack under the Council's orders, Captain Tyrrell took it away from him (Ind. Off. 0. C., 5496). The orders to Captain Eaton were of course an act of war-a war which was conducted by the English in a somewhat high handed manner, e.g., in 1687 at Mocha, Captain Andrews of the Charles II, seized the oargo of the Streights Merchant (Captain Beer from England) and that of a ship belonging to Mr. Samuel Whitaker commanded by one Wren, who was killed for refusing to surrender his cargo. The Company had to pay heavily for this outrageous conduot, the claim for coffee alone on the Streights Merchant being £32,000. In 1688 the Royal James and Mary, together with the Charles and Caesar, being ordered to intercept country shipping, brought fourteen sail into Bombay. In 1689, Governor Child, returning from Surat to Bombay, seized a fleet of vessels carrying corn to the Mughal army at Bandar Rajapur (Coates, pp. 21-23). Ovington (p. 164) tells us that the eney success of the English in this wer over ships manned by lascars and " Moors led to the thought of piracy upon the Mocha and Surat merchants. In 1691, he soys, they took from them booty worth £120,000 and as much the next year.
378. Amongst prisoners in the Marsha sea in 1692 was one " William Wildey [1 Captain of tbe Welfare, se para, 327 above) for suspicion of the murder of one Captain Price by duoking him in the sea, between the Island of Moreshus (Mauritiu.) and the East Indies in the end of May 1687" Calendar of Prisoners, doc., H. C. A., I, xiji).
Anglo-Americans 879. In the year 1687 Captain Charles Swan was murdered in Mindanao. Swan had been sent by Sir John Buckworth and others, about 1683, to trade with the Spaniards (Ind. Off. O. C., 5690). He held a Commission from James, Duke of York, in which he was ordered neither to give offence to, nor to submit to any, from the Spaniards. The latter, according to his account, killed some of his men treacherously. Others deserted him and joined the Buccaneers, until finally, in despair, he turned Buccaneer himself. At last, having quarrelled with his comrades, he sailed to the Philippines, but when he arrived there, he could not make up his mind to turn pirate against his own countrymen, though, according to the Madras Council (Letter to Bombay, 13th Sept. 1688), he had committed many piracies in China, the Manilas and Mindanao. At the last mentioned place, in January 1686-7, his crew mutinied and carried off his ship, the Cygnet, leaving him, the supercargoes, and a few others, ashore, where it is belioved that he was murdered by the native chief; but Captain Forrest when he visited Mindanao in 1775 (Voyage to New Guinea, p. 309) was told that he was drowned by the accidental overturning of his boat. The crew meanwhile elected one John Read their oommander (Dampier's Voyages, I, 401 ; Sloane M8., 3236; f. 199 b) and renamed their ship the Bachelor's Delight. After & prolonged cruise, in which she is said to have taken a Surat Manila ship, she came, in May 1688, to Trimlewas, on the Madrag ooart, where some twenty of te crew including the Surgeon, Harman Coppinger, deserted. Some surrendered voluntarily to the