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DECEMBER, 1902.)
THE ANDAMANS IN THE XVIITH CENTURY.
505
1705. - No. IX. (a)
Fort William 6th March 1795. Road a Letter from the Superintendant at the Andamans To Edward Hay Esqr., Secretary to the Government.
Sir, I have to request that you will acquaint the Governor General in Council that the Leeboard & Schooner, belonging to the Honble. Comp., has just arrived from Port Cornwallis, The accompanying Letter from the Officer Commanding there will aqnaint you with the reasons that induced him to send as Prisoners the Frenchman suspected as a spy and the Commander of the small Pegu Vessel which conveyed him there.
From the private accounts I have had from Lieutenants Ramsay and Stokoe of this Circumstance it appears to me that, they had just grounds for acting as they have done, Altho' from an Examination of the Prisoners as well as from their papers that have been transmitted to me it is very doubtful whether the Frenchman made his appearance there with any evil intention, As however Antoine Charles Cimetere, the man in question has been distinguished during this war, by several dering enterprizes doubtful if justifiable by the rules of War ; I will beg leave to state what I have been able to colleet from his Papers and from the Conversation I have had with bim - Cimetere appears to bave served in the French Navy during the wbole of the last war, and obtained the rank of Lieutenant - on the 3rd of July 1792 He makes his appearance, as Captain of the Ship L'Auguste Victoire Atted out at Pondicherry, evidently for Commercial Purposes as appears by the Commission or Passport granted him by Monsieur Defrogne Commandant of Pondicherry and Memers Mottel and Fontaine Commissaries, which Commissions or Passport appears to me equivalent to those granted by other Governments to Trading Vessels, but by no means analogous to what is termed a Letter of Marque nor indeed could be, as it was granted in the time of profound Peace.
It appears that he navigated the Indian Seas in Commercial persuits till the 6th May 1793 when, being obliged to put into Soringa Bay in very bad weather with his Ship maeh damaged he heard of the war, between Great Britain and France, when he immediately boarded and Seized the Phoenix Ketch of Calcutta the property of Mr Tyler, Sailed for Bimlipatam, Here finding the Dutch nation was also engaged in the War, and his own Ship being at the point of Sinking he shifted his Crew with every thing of Value from her to the Phoenix on which he sailed for Pegu, where he arrived on the 6th of July - It does not appear by any of his Papers, when he left Pega, but by the accompanying letter from Mr Tyler, I find he sailed for Tarray where his Ketch was seized by the Government of that place.
Oimetere appears again at Tarray on the 15th of March 1794 in command of a small Privetoer named La Fortune ou la Mort, with a Crew of 12 men, from whence he sailed to Mergui, and on the 8th of the same Month, entered the Port in their Boat in the Night, boarded and carried of the Penang Skooner, of Prince of Wales's Island, oommanded by Richard Thompson which Vessel it would appear was carried to the coast of Pedier and sold - Here I lose sight of Cimetere, till by « Journal of his own Keeping he embarks on board of a Grab Snow at Nanoowry in the Nicobars, that was taken on her Voyage from Surat to Siam with a rich Cargo by the French Privateer Revenge; On board of this Prize he seems to have been employed as Second Officer, and on the death of the Captain as first, - After repeated attempts in opposition to t.be Monsoon to make their passage to Mauritius they were obliged to bear away to Pegu and arrived at Bossein in the end of October.
From this time I have only to depend on his own Account, He says that, they endeavoured to Kquip and Provision the Grab at this Port in order to proceed on their Voyage to Mauritius, that the Captain and him having been engaged in some Counterband Commerce were detected and Seised
