Indian Antiquary Vol 52

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

Page 471

NOVEMBER, 1923 ]
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
161. In 1593 the annual ship coming from Java, with only 14 Portuguese among the crew, wag beset almost in sight of Goa by 14 Malabar vessels. After a defence lasting three days and three nights, all the Portuguese were killed, but one of the crew, a Java islander, set the ship on fire, so that the enemy got little benefit from her (Faria, III, 73 ; see para. 160 above).
Chinese. 162. Geronimo Roman, writing in 1584, says that, at that time, the Chinese Government had an arsenal on the isiand of Lintao near Macao, to which was attached a fleet, but that the latter, though consisting of a large number of boats, was armed only with small iron guins, and that when even as many as a hundred of these war boats managed to surround a single corsair, they did not dare to come to close quarters without first resorting to nome such device as that of blinding the enemy by throwing powdered lime into the air from windward (Mendoza, I, lxxix, see paras. 343, 358 below).
Turks and Arabians. 163. In 1586 two ships bound from Chaul to the Red Sea, with goodis belonging to Portuguese merchants, were taken by two Turkish galleys.which had been built at Suez and now began to do much damage in the Red Sea. These galleys defeated a small Portuguese fleet under Ruy Gonsalvez de Camara and took Paté and Brava on the coast of Melinda in Africa. Gonsalvez's lieutenant, Pedro Homen Pereira, was also defeated in an attack upon a pirate stronghold at Nicolu on the Arabian coast, after a fight in which a gallant Dutch trumpeter lost his life in a desperate attempt to save the Portuguese ensign, which its bearer had thrown down in order to make his escape (Linschoten, I, 92). Colonel Miles (p. 178) says that in 1580 or 1581 (Faria, II, 370, says 1581) some galleys were equipped at Aden (by the Wali of Aden Dames, p. 26) under command of a freebooter, Meer Ali Beg. He left Aden in August 1580 or 1581 and plundered Muscat, the Portuguese fleeing to Matara, a league distant, where they were kindly treated. Then, supported by all the Arab traders, he betook himself to piracy on the African coast and took many places from the Portuguese. On the 5th March 1589 he was taken prisoner at Mombassa by Thomé de Souza Coutinho, who stormed his fort, killed over 70 Turks and took many prisoners, besides liberating-many Christians. Coutinho sent him to Lisbon, where he died after having become a Christian (Faria, IIT, 31, 69-61).
Portuguese and Japanese. 164. In 1670 the Portuguese had discovered the harbour of Nagasaki and had been allowed to make use of it for the purposes of trade (A8. Soc. of Japan, Trans., IX, 129). They took advantage of this privilege to introduce priests who began to proselytize and to interfere with the civil authority, which created so much disturbance that, on the 25th July 1587, the Japanese ordered all the Portuguese religious to leave the country, though they permitted trade to continue (Murdoch, II, 243). This arrangement, however, was not sufficient. The Japanese converts behaved with such insolence towards the Government that they provoked a series of massacres between 1590 and 1593 and again in 1596 (Kaempfer, II, 52, 54), and a general hostility towards their Portuguese patrons. In 1597 a Portuguese ship was purposely wrecked by the Japanese pilot in the harbour of Hurado (Firando or Hirado), in the Province of Toza. As in India, Japanese custom gave all wrecks to the king and the cargo was therefore confiscated and no redress was obtainable (de Morga, p. 84).
Japanese. 165. In 1588 Korea offered to renew friendly relations with Japan, provided that the latter would deliver up the Korean runaways who acted as guides to the Japanese pirates. In 1689 Sa Wha-dong, the leader of these runaways, and three Japanese pirates were surrendered at Seoul and immediately executed (Murdoch, II, 307).