Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 438

10
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
( MAY, 1922
commission, he established himself as a pirate chief in the island of Hiburi in the Bungo Channel (936). By 938 he had 1500 craft under his flag and was practically master of the Inland Sea. All that the Government did was to send him a letter of warning and to raise him a grade in official rank. This encouraged him to indulge in further depredations; 80, in 940, Ono Yushifuro was appointed to deal with him. The treachery of one of his lieutenants enabled Ono to drive him from the Inland Sea. With help from Kyushu he estab. lished himself at Hakata, where his ships were burnt or captured and the fortress taken after a desperate resistence. Sumitomo escaped to Iyo, where he was captured and executed in 941, his head being sent to the Capital (Murdoch, I, 250-2).
31. In 1129 piracy in the Inland Sea was suppressed by Taida Tadamori, who governed Harima, Ise and Bizen in succession (Murdoch, I, 283).
32. In order to open commerce with the Chinese between 1166 and 1170, Tseonyana, King of Japan, sent emissaries to the Island of Flaynan (? Hainan), but these men plundered instead of trading, so that the Chinese refused all overtures (Lettres Edifiantes, XVI, 258).
Chinese. 33. In 998 A.D. the Government at Dazaifu reported to Kioto that Chinese pirates had ravaged the coast at Tsukushi. Next year troops were sent against them. In April 1019 Chinese pirates again ravaged the coast of Tsukushi and killed Fujiwara Masatada, the Governor (Asiat. Soc. of Japan, IX, 127). In 1270 Kublai Khan sent an Ambassador, Chaoliang, to demand homage from Japan. This was refused, and in 1274 he sent a fleet which the Japanese defeated. In 1279 he sent an Ambassador whom the Japanese executed, as it appeared that his predecessor Chao had played the spy. In 1281 a great Chinese fleet was destroyed at Firando by a storm and 100,000 Chinese soldiers, who had been landed, were killed by the Japanese (Allen, in China Review, III, 59; Maogowan, 437). In 1348 one Fang Kwo Chin, a salt dealer, being accused of collusion with the pirates who infested the Tai-chow Islands in Chehkiang, turned pirate to avoid arrest and ravaged the coast. Having captured an Imperialist officer, he set him free on condition that he would represent his innocence and procure his pardon. This was granted and he was made a minor Mandarin, but in 1354 he rebelled again, and it was not until 1366 that he was finally defeated and ceased to trouble Government (Macgowan, pp. 456-63). In 1373 Itataha, King of Cochin-China, defeated a fleet of pirates which infested the coast and sank 20 of their ships (Mémoire his. torique de la Cochin-Chine. Lettres Edifiantes, IV, 587).
Sanganians. 34. At the end of the 12th century the Gohils, a Rajput tribe, driven from their possessions, settled in Saurashtra under one Sejuk. They made their head-quarters first at Piram Island in the Gulf of Cambay and then at Gogo. Like their predecessors they quickly adopted the local profession, and Sejuk's grandson Mocarro (Mokhraj Gohil) became a noted pirate, levying tribute from every ship that passed and using his spoils largely in fortifying his castle on Piram Island, which he took from the Baria Kolis about 1326 (Bomb. Gaz., VIII. 153). In 1345 [ or 1347, Bomb. Gaz., I, i, 230 ) the castle was taken and Mokhraj killed by Muhammad Tughlak (Ras Mala, I, 318). It is said that 25,000 men were killed in the defenoo (Tod, Travels, pp. 265-6). This disaster did not, however, put an end to the Rajputs of Saurashtra, for Vaja chieftains of Vejalkot in the Gir and Janjmer on the East Bhavnagar sonst openly practised piracy (Bomb. Gaz., VIII, 163), and the Sultans of Ahmadabad (6.e.,