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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[ JANUARY, 1924
pirates. Moreover, he did not hesitate himself to attack and plunder Chinese vessels (Voyages of John Davis, Hak. Soo., LXXX, 178). In 1608 William Hawkins met at Surat one Mahdi Kuli, captain of a ship plundered by Mitchelbourne in 1605 (Foster, Early Travels, p. 126).
205. In reference to the pirates who lay in wait for the Spanish and Portuguese ships off the Cape Verde Islands, it is evident that one of these islands,- I do not know whichwas a kind of rendezvous, for William Hawkins, in the Journal of his Voyage to the East Indies, says that, in July 1607, he made for one called the Isle of Safety, as all English and French vessels went there. Later on, Hawkins touched at St. Augustine's in Madagascar, but, as he does not mention meeting any Europeans there, it is probable that this place had not yet become a pirate resort (Brit. Mus., Egerton MSS., 2100).
206. In the fourth General Voyage of the English East India Company the Ascension (Captain Alexander Sharpey) took, in 1607, two barques belonging to the Moons of Melinda in Africa. The Moors made little resistance to the capture, but, watching a favourable opportunity, the prisoners attempted to seize the Ascension and were not suppressed until forty out of fifty had been killed. These Moors belonged to the best families in Melinda, and Captain Sharpey was compelled to leave the coast to escape from reprisals (Lediard, I, 417).
Dutch. 207. In 1604 the Dutch, after failing to take Macao from the Portuguese, seized Pehou, one of the Pescadores or Ponghu Islands, and to fortify it employed one half of the crews of some sixty Chinese ships which they had taken, plundered and burnt on the coast of Fokien. Most of these men died. The other half of the crews were sent to Batavia and sold 88 slaves (Ljungstedt, p. 33).
208. The Dutch at this time generally tried to identify themselves with the English 80 as to convince the Japanese that they had no connection with the Spaniards or Portuguese, the reputation of the latter being so bad that their assertions (see para. 198 above) that the English and Dutch were all pirates carried no conviction to the minds of their hearers. In 1610 a Dutch Factory was established at Hirado (Firando) in Japan (Murdoch, II, 470). According to Boulger (II, 119), Dutch ships visited Japan in 1586 and 1588, but their first establishment in that country was in 1609.
Portuguese, 209. In 1605 a ship belonging to Arima of Shimabara was plundered by certain Por. tuguese at Macao. Later on, hearing that some of the culprits were on board another ship, he pursued her to the east of Yuwojima and there took and burned her on the 18th Decem. ber 1609 (48. Soc. Japan. Trans., IX, 144). In 1608 some Portuguese frigates attacked and took in Surat River two barques belonging to Captain William Hawking. When restitution was demanded, it was contemptuously refused on the ground that the Indian Seas belonged solely to the King of Portugal, and the English prisoners were sent to Lisbon. In the same year the Portuguese at Surat threatened to carry away to Diu & ship belonging to the Queen Mother of the Mughal, then lading for Mocha, unless & pass was purchased for 100,000 mahmudis, but ultimately they accepted 1,000 rials and some presents (Foster, Early Travels, pp. 126, 129).
210. On the 28th October 1613 William Biddulph wrote to the East India Company that the Portuguese had seized a Gujarat (Surat) ship (in spite of her having a Portuguese pass) valued at 70 to 80 thousand pounds, and had carried away 700 persons, the men for slaves, the women and children for converts (Cal. State Papers, East Indies). Biddulph probably referred to the Remewe (see para, 173 above).
Japanese. 211. The incursions of Japanese pirates into the waters of the Malay Archipelago have already been alluded to in the story of the death of John Davis in 1605 (see para. 204 above). The narrator of Mitchelbourne's voyage tells us that Mitchelbourne met other
