Indian Antiquary Vol 49

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

Page 25

FEB., 1920)
MUNDESVARI INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF UDAYASENA
21
are 43 English, the better part of the Company French, the rest Negroes, Dutch &o. nations that cries 'yaw '13; from where they sailed to the Coast of Mallabar, and about three leagues to the northward of Cochin they anchored and fired several guns, but no boat coming off the quartermaster want near the shore and had conference by boat with the people, who supplied them next day with hogs &c. refreshments. And from Malpa (Mallappan) the Dutch broker came a messenger, who advised of the ship Rhimae, 14 her being in Mud Bay, 15 and that if the pirates would take her he would buy her of them; this I heard myself, and that they should be supplied with pitch, tar and other necessaries.
"I took an opportunity to ask the messenger, Who sends the things on board ? Not knowing but that I was one of the pirates, [he] told me, The Dutch, but he should be sont off with them. But before he brought them on board I got clear of the pirates. There had been several Dutch on board before I got ashore, and since my abode here for my health I have seen no difference, ( in their treatment between a pirate and a merchant ship, both black and white flocking off with all sorts of merchandizes and refreshments, jewels, plate and what not, returning with coffers of money. And Malpa, tho broker, has been so impudent as to offer them to sails? sell]a small ship, which they want and asked one Thomas Punt 18 to carry her off to them, who denied him, telling him, now he was not ashamed to show his face, but should he be guilty of so base an action, he must never see the face of his countrymen (again), which made the gentleman change his countenance.
"Thus are these villains encouraged by our pretended friends, which Auga Rhimae [Agha Rahmân) cannot chuse but soe; and, if at his arrival at Surat [he] will speak the truth, must declare the same. I would have waited on him to that purpose, but so feared of being taken notice of and lose the benefit of the physician, which at present I am in great need of, I dare not do it.
“These being the heads of what I remember and what I heard and had from their mouths in discourse at several times from the reports of the pirates on board them in my seven months imprisonment, having omitted nothing but the many hazards of life and abuses received from these villains &c. &c.
GEORGE WESLEY." [T. B. Howell's State Trials, Vol. XIV., p. 1302. ] (To be continued.)
THE MUNDESVARI INSCRIPTION OF THE TIME OF UDAYASENA :
THE YEAR 30.
BY N. G. MAJUMDAR, B.A.; CALCUTTA. This inscription was discovered near the temple of Mundesvart on a hill close to the village of Ramgarh, seven miles south-west of Bhabua in the Bhabuan sub-division of the district of Shahâbâd, Bihar. One part of the stone bearing the inscription was found about twenty-eight years ago, and it was in 1903 that the removal of the débris around the temple
13 People, (Germans and Scandinavians) who say ja 'yaw ") for yes. H 1..., the ship belonging to Aghå Rahman. See infra.-ED. 16 Probably the inlot of Machhakundi (the Fishpond) off Rajapur.-ED.
1J As Captain of the Hoses he was captured by the pirate John Halsey in August 1707. Halsey plu...dered the ship and let her go. Surat Factory Records. Letter from Robt. Adams, 17 Sept 1707.