Indian Antiquary Vol 52

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

Page 478

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(NOVEMPER. 1923
184. From the above it is evident that the captains of these armed vessels trading to the East must, necessarily, have been allowed by their employers a freedom of action which would be incomprehensible in modern times. Nor had they much in the idens of their own countrymen that we should think valuable to guide their judgment as to what was wrong and what was right in their relations with the nativos of the East. In the first place, the latter were Muhamınadans or Pagans, and as such they considered them to be the natural enemies of Christians. This was not merely the opinion of ignorant men, for Sit Edward Coke (Institutes, pub. 1628) was of opinion that pagans were to be treated as perpetual and irreclaimable enemies of Christians (Southey, S.D. 1096). In the second place, the Asiatics were of a different race and colour, and were therefore to be considered not only as inferiors but, on quasi-Biblical grounds, also as the natural prey of the white races. William Finch says that in his time (1608) "some Europeans think it lawful to make prize of the goods and ships of the Ethnicks fi.e., the heathen]" (Foster, Early Travels, p. 147). When Darby Mullins, an Irishman, who had served with Kidd and Culliford, was executed with Kidd on the 23rd May 1701, he said that he had joined the pirates "not knowing but that it was very lawful (as he said he was told) to plunder ships and goods, etc., belonging to the enemics of Christianity” (Brit. Mus., 515-1-2/193).44 In the third place, the Law of the Sea, as then interpreted, classed all men as enemies whose nations were not formally allied to one's own. When in 1593 Sir Richard Hawkins was captured by the Spanish and threatened with the punishment of a pirate, he protested that, though according to Spanish law a Spaniard could not take up arms against a national enemy without his King's Commission, an Englishman, according to English law, could do so (Observations, Purchas, XVII, 190-1). If then an Englishman met with one of his irreclaimable enemies,' it could hardly be expected that he would have much scruple about plundering him. Accordingly, as it was above all essential that his voyage should pay-and pay handsomely--for itself, when a merchant-captain was unable to obtain a good market, he had little or no hesitation in filling his ship with unbought goods from the holds of any Moorish, Indian, Chinese or Malay vessels which had not paid for passes from his own countrymen, more especially if they had made the unpardonable mistake of purchasing passes from any of his enemies (see para. 233 below). Similarly he enjoyed and exercised to the full the right of reprisal for any injury or insult which he might have suffered. Such was the simple creed of the Dutch, English and French captains of the time. The Asiatics, as well as the Portuguese and Spaniards, called them pirates, but if they thought it necessary to describe themselves by any particular name, it was that of Adventurers, and this we may accept, remembering that, after all, it means practically the same thing as pirates. Their ships they described as private men-of-war. The Adventurer had this in common with the pirate, namely that the object of his enterprise was gain, that he had practically no scruples and did not hestitate to employ torture in order to obtain any information he might require. He differed from the pirate in that he held a regular commission and did not attack his own countrymen, so he could not, properly, be classed amongst the "enemies of the human race."
185. As what most distinguishes piracy from other forms of violence is generally believed to be the cruelty and callousness of the pirates, it is, I think, important that, before judging the pirates themselves, one should take into consideration the nature of the times
44. "The navigation of that age assumed all mankind to be their natural prey, and regarded commerce and piracy as alternative pursuits, equally entitled to respect." Satow, Japan and Siam,
p. 140
46 The word pirate is derived from the Grool meirates, meaning one who attempus or attacke.