Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 65

MARCH, 1918]
AUSTRIA'S COMMERCIAL VENTURE IN INDIA
In Witness whereof I the said William Bolts have on the behalf aforesaid hereunto set my hand and Seal in Madras this third day of April in the year of our Lord seventeen hundred and Eighty.
In the presence of
WILLIAM BOLTS, Lieut.-Colonel in the Service of their Imperial Royal and Apostolick Majesties. Registered upon the Records of the Honble, the Mayor's Court at Madraspatam this 3rd day of April 1780.
THOS. BAMBRIDGE
JOHN MULLENS
61
JAMES TAYLOR Register
Agreed that the Court of Directors be advised of this Proceeding of Mr Bolts by the first Dispatch.
Consultation at Fort St. George, 5 February 1781.93
Read the following Memorial from Mr James Hegner. To the Honble. Charles Smith Esqr. President &ca.
Member of the Select Committee, Fort St. George. The humble Memorial of James Hegner
Sheweth
That Your Memorialist is Super Cargo of the Snow Vienna, Burthen 80 Tons, which Snow was bought by Nazareth Satur of Rangoon, Merchant, for account of their Imperial Majestys, the the Cost whereof, with her outfitting, amounted to the sum of (7000) Seven Thousand Rupees. That in the Month of September 1780 the said Snow sailed from Rangoon for Nancoury (one of the Nicobar Islands, and the property of their Imperial Majestys),95 under the Command of Captain Daniel Bowles. That the said Snow arrived at Nancoury in the month of December last. That in the beginning of this month, Lieutenant Staht, the Imperial Resident at Nancoury, appointed Your Memorialist Super Cargo of the said Snow, with orders to touch at Atcheen [Achin, in Sumatra], where a Cargo would be ready. That your Memorialist sailed from Nancoury the 5th Inst., and after beating up to Windward to the 17th, the said David Bowles declared that it was not in his power to fetch Atcheen and that he must sail for Madras. That on the 26 Instant, being nearly in the Latitude of Madras, we descried the French Fleet consisting of Seven Sail and were immediately after visited by some Officers belonging to a 60 Gun ship, who, after examining our Passport and Commission, ordered us not to leave the Fleet, but to follow them, which we did accordingly, and went to the northward of Polyacott [Pulicat] on the night of the 27th, when, on account of the fast sailing of the said Fleet, we lost sight of them, and as they shewed no Lights, we tacked about and Anchored in the Roads of Madras on the same Evening, and the Cable having broke, we let go a Second Anchor.
That at Sunrise of the 28th Inst. We hoisted the Imperial Colours, and being in distress fired a Gun for a Boat to come on board; soon after which Captain Bowles wrote a letter by a Cattamaran to the Master Attendant to inform him of the Name and Owner of the said Snow. And your Memorialist wrote to Mr Agavally Satur, Merchant of
93 Madras Select Committee Consultations (1789), V. 251-255.
4 The two merchants named Nazareth and Agavelly Satur were evidently Persian Armenians from Julfa near Ispahan. The name Satur is nowadays sometimes transformed into Chater.
See ante, IP. 12-13.