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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JUNE, 1924
large Malabar pirate, from which they had rescued a grab. The pirate carried about 60 fighting men besides the rowers “who threw stink pots and plied chambers and small shot, Hung stones and darted long lanoes and were with difficulty driven off." The pirate captain and thrge or four chief men were killed in the fight (II, 16, 29).
344. Fryer (1, 144) tells us that a rocky island near Mangalore was known as Sacrifice Teland because of the butchery on it of some Englishmen by pirates, whose chief lived at Dhar. mapatam in the Malabar District. Hamilton (I, 305) says that the rock took its name from the massacre of a number of Portuguese by the people of Kottika when the Portuguese first came to India Forbes (1, 203) ascribes the name to the massacre of an English crew early in the 17th century. John Pike in his Journal (f. 179 b) says that Sacrifice Rock was an island off Caliout, and Cornwall (Observations, p. 26) places it three leagues off shore from Calicut. (See para. 78 above).
845. In 1676 a large Malabar vessel, after a hot engagement off Diu with a Portuguese took refuge in Bombay harbour. The Portuguese Captain-General of Bassein threatened to attack Bombay if she was not given up, but meekly accepted the Deputy Governor's refusal, (Bom. Gaz., XXVI, 61, 64).
346. Between 1675 and 1707 Khem Sawunt, namesake and descendant of the founder of the Savantvadi dynasty (see para. 250 above), established his independence of the Mughal Government (Bomb. Sel., N.S., X, 1).
847. In 1677 Ali Raja, a chief of Kota 67, having taken an Englishman in a Daman vessel, put him to a crue! death when Mr. Bourchier refused to ransom him. In June an expedition was sent to punish him. Another Englishman, Isaac Watts was, murdered by the Cota pirates because he refused to turn Muhammadan (Bom. Gaz., XXVI, i, 65, 76, 80; Anderson, p. 178). Ali Raja was a title meaning, in Tamil, Lord of the Sea, and taken from the fact that though only a subject of Colastry the Chief so named was Lord of the Laccadive Islands. The Dynasty came into existence about the tenth century when Muhammadanism was introduced into Malabar and according to one account a Colastry Prince was converted to that religion, or according to another account, a Colastri Princess married one of the Muhammadan immigrants. At any rate the line of descent was through the sister according to the Malabar Hindu custom, and each succession needed ratification from Colastry. The family name of these Princes appears to have been Mamale or Mamarke, Canter Visscher gives it in Turkish or Moorish as Mahomet Ali Caamo (Logan's Malabar, I, 193, 238, 362n. Van Rheede's Memorandum on the State of Malabar in India office, Home Miscellaneous, 456 B, p. 271. Adrian Moens' Memorandum, p. 147). Van Rheede, says (p. 141) that Cotta was one of the places of refuge, which were to be found in every Malabar Rajaship or Kingdom, to which no criminal, however great his crime, could be pursued.
848. In 1679, in reprisal for the English allowing the Mughal fleets to shelter near Bombay, Sivaji occupied the island of Kenery (Khanderi) whilst the Sidi occupied that of Henery (Underi), thus presenting a constant menace to that port. In October the English unsuccessfully attempted with a small contingent to drive Sivaji's force out of Khanderi. Sivaji's men easily put to flight the native boats included in the English squadron, but were repulsed with great slaughter when they attempted to take the Revenge commanded by Captain Minchin (Anderson, p. 174).
340. During the course of this year the Bombay Government armed three shibars, or native trading boats, with 40 men of the garrison as a protection against pirates (Orme, Hist. Frag., p. 79)
*7 I presume this was Ali Raja of Cannanore, the Raja of Kadattanad (between the Mahé and Kotta Rivers, originally part of Kolattiri. Innes, Malab. Gar., pp. 131, 133).
