Indian Antiquary Vol 49

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

Page 23

FEBRUARY, 1920 ]
EPISODES OF PIRACY IN THE EASTERN SEAS
As all these matters ought
comply'd with my demand in acquainting me what he was. to be justify'd by a faire account when requir'd, I have deliver'd this to the perusall of my officers to justify the thing with mee, as being satisfy'd to the truth of itt, and there being no opportunity to attest the same by affidavit.
I subscribe with them to all these transactions.
RICHARD WHITE; G. MARTIN, Lieut.; JAMES BARTLETT Mr., &c. &c."
[India Office Records, O. C. 7463.]
19
XIX.
HOW THE DUTCH WERE FRIENDS OF THE PIRATES, 1703.
Madagascar as a base for European piracy in the Red and Indian Seas had the advantage of its great security from attack and the facility with which stores could be replenished and crews recruited, but it was not a good market for booty. Thus the pirates considered themselves fortunate when they found that the Dutch Settlements on the Malabar Coast were quite ready to trade with them, of course sub rosa, taking their spoil in return for cash, stores, wine and provisions. To the Dutch this trade had a double advantage. It furnished them with proofs that the chief pirates belonged to the nation of their hated rivals, the English, and this information they handed on in such a way as to lead the native Government to believe that the pirates were really the ships of the English Company. On the other hand, what they bought cheap from the pirates they could sell again at good prices to their native customers or, if suitable, send to Europe. It was trade made easy as well as lucrative, 100
Some assistance also the pirates obtained from the French islands of Bourbon (Mascarine or Don Mascarenhas)1 and Mauritius. Here, however, the motive for their reception was the inability of the French Governors to offer any resistance.
Extract of a letter from Captain George Wesley3 to Mr. Pennyng, Chief at Calicut. Dated [Rajapur] 7 November 1703.
"Three years past one Captain Merrino, a Frenchman and French Company, took a ship belonging to Surat off or near Cape Aden and made a prize of her, wherein was considerable riches, and.... sailed for the island of Mascarenha [Bourbon], a general rendezvous for pirates, where the said Merrino is now settled and actually become an inhabitant. This relation I had from some of his own ship's Company, which are Frenchmen and belonged to the ship I was imprisoned in. The same year was taken, off St. John's [Sanjân], a Surat ship by the ship Speaker, whose Company consisted of all nations to my certain knowledge, the major part being now in the Pirates on the Coast, and the same
100 See also Episode XX, infra.
1 "The first inhabitants were pirates who settled here about 1657 bringing with them negro" (i.e. native Malagasy) women from Madagascar. Bernardin de St. Pierre, Voyage to the Isle of France, p. 192. Abandoned by the Dutch about 1712 and settled by the French from Bourbon. See Bernardin de St. Pierre, Voyage to the Isle of France, p. 54.
3 Commander of the Pembroke, taken by Bowen at Mayotta (Comoros) 10 March 1703 (Madras Consultations, 31 May 1703).