________________
82
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1924
pirates, they wore boards, turbans and vests. In their paros (galley shaped vessels carrying from five to six hundred men) they infested the Indian coast as far as the Red Sea, but rarely attacked European vessels, of which if they took any, it was generally by surprise. In June 1670, he tells us (p. 132) of Cotta or Cognali (i.e. Padepatam or Kunhale; see para, 168 above), which gave its name to "the most famous pirate in those seas" and of one Couleas Marcal of Bargara, “a rich Mahometan merchant and famous pirate in these parts", whom he visited on business. Dellon was himself, when travelling by boat, taken and pretty roughly treated by the followers of Cognali, but was set free after a few days, the French having made a treaty with the Zamorin who was Cognali's overlord. On page 169 Monsieur Dellon says that the Malabar corsairs had recently taken a Hoy belonging to the French Company (and worth £2000), which they had sold to the King of Achara, a little north of Goa.
381. Among certain proposals made to the Company by the President and Council of Surat, relating to the Island of Bombay (Forrest, Bomb. Records, 1, 52) is one, viz., No. 5, dated Surat, 5 Feb. 1671 :-“That for the greater security of the port against Malabars, Sangonas and Arab pirates certain sea-laws be established for encouragement of privateers to go out in search of said pirates, to whom the Company may lend a frigate or other vessels, which they would build, on certain conditions, viz., the said vessel or frigate to have so many shares of what prizes shall be taken and the rest to be divided among the adventurers according to their respective proportion. It will be seen that 24 years later (see para, 446 below), it was on this very principle that Captain Kidd was sent out to catch pirates. The “Sangonas "just mentioned were, of course, the Sanganians. So notorious were these at this time, that in Ogilvy's Atlas (1670) Cutch is described (p. 293) as Sanga (Bom. Gaz., XIII, ii, 713 n). Fryer (II, 152) writing in 1676, says "We braced our sails close, in expectation of the southern gales, which met us about the 19th degree of North Latitude. Here in this large field of water the Singanian pirates wreak their malice on the unarmed merchants, who, not long able to resist their unbounded lust, become tame slaves to their lawless rage and fall from the highest hopes to the humblest degree of servitude. These are alike cruel and equally savage as the Malabars, but not so bold as to adventure longer in those seas than the winter's blasts have dismissed them, retiring with their ill-got booty to the coasts of Sinda, where they begin to rove nearer their dens of thievery, not daring to adventure combat with the Malabars, or stir from thence till the season makes the Malabars retire."
Chinese. 382. In 1670 the English obtained permission to establish a Factory at Amoy. This proving to be a loss, owing to the extortions of the local authorities, the ruinous system of barter adopted, and the interference with trade by the Chinese pirates, after nineteen years it was abandoned. (Anc. and Mod. Hist. of China, p. 73).
888. After Koxinga had taken Formosa, the Dutch attacked and disabled a large junk of his with 300 men on board. It however escaped into Nagasaki but with only nine men alive. Koxinga complained to the Japanese, who made the Dutch then in port pay compensation. On the other hand, when in 1672 the Dutch ship Kuylenberg was stranded on the coast of Formosa, the crew murdered and the cargo plundered, the complaints of the Dutch at Nagasaki were completely ignored (Kaempfer, II, 67-68).
384. In 1673 Ching-king-may, son of Koxinga, defeated the King of Fokien and in 1674, took the Pescadores. In 1678 he again invaded China and died in 1881 (Chin, and Jap. Repos., I, 428), being succeeded by his son Ching-ke-fan or Ching-k'i-shwang (Dubois, I, 92). Maogowan (p. 532) says by his brother Ko-shwang.
885. In 1682 the Tartars having reduced Fokien, the Manchu Governor Yau offered a free pardon to the Chinese who had followed Koxinga to Formosa, and when many of them had deserted Ching-ke-fan, Yan's fleet took the Pescadores and forced Ching-ke-fan (in July
