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May, 1926 )
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
Malabarese. 882. One Captain Freake, having been wrecked in Madagascar, managed to secure a sloop at Johanna, on which he saved the treasure carried on board his ship. Thence he made his way to Patta on the coast of Africa, where he was well treated by the officers of. the Muscat Government. Hearing at Patta that Bombay was besieged by the Mughal forces (i.e., by the Sidi Yakub. Bomb. Gaz., XXVI, ii, 512; Bruce, II, 641) he made his way to Vingurla, which was held by "Kinsamutt"(i.e., Khein Sawunt), a tributary of the Mughal, though the Castle was commanded by an officer of the Marathas. He hoped for friendly treatment from the latter, but they combined with the" Kinsamutt" to plunder him, making a fine booty of the treasure which he had preserved with so much difficulty and danger. At last he and his surgeon made their escape to Carwar, whence, on the 8th December 1689, he reported his adventure (Ind. Off. 0. C., 5690).
883. On the 7th August 1689 one John Stevens, belonging to a Galivat, then lying off Cross Island, was seized, after some resistance, by two boats belonging to the Sidi from Maraga, and he and six others were forced to turn Muhammadans under pain of being starved or decapitated (Ind. Off. O. C., 5689).
884. In 1690 Kanhoji Angria, son of Tukaji Angria, who had distinguished himself in the service of Sivaji, was appointed second in command of the Maratha fleet by Sambhaji (Duff., I, 368). This is the accepted account of the founder of a piratical dynasty which gave much trouble to Europeans for some sixty years, but there are others which are not very flattering. Colonel Miles (p. 267) says that, in 1643, a Muscat dhow was wrecked near Rajapore and the crew made captives. One of them, a half caste Arab named Sumbhoo, established himself as a pirate, but was killed in fight with the Mughal troops in 1675. His son Poora then carried on the lucrativo profession and was killed in 1686. He was gucceeded by his son Kanowji i.e., Kanhoji. The same account was given in 1756 by the author of the Authentic History of Tulajee Angria, who calls the founder of the dynasty Sambo Angria and says (p. 14) that he was a “Coffree" and (p. 15) an Arabian. Pura (he says) died in 1686 leaving two sons, viz., Pura, aged seven, who died young, and Connajee, about three, who was brought up by his uncle "the South" (i.e., Sahu) Raja, and when about twenty, was placed by him in command of the Island of Khanderi in the mouth of Bombay Harbour. This author dismisses as absurd the further story that Khanoji Angria was an impostor who had murdered the sons of Pura Angria and successfully assumed the name and person of the younger.
Anglo-Americans. 885. Early in 1689 the Dutch at Pulicat sent to Madras 9 English pirates, whom they had taken in Ceylon. Tried by Court Martial on the 12th April, two were sentenced to death and six to be stigmatized' with a hot iron in the forehead (Madras Cone. 12th April 1889), but apparently only one was hanged aboard ship at the yard arm; another was whipt on board all the ships in the Road and then, with the remainder, branded with the letter P. TS in the forehead and banished. (Letter from Madras to Commissary General Rhede, 28th April 1689.)
886. Amongst the prisoners in the Marshalsea in 1692 was one “Rand Pye by suspi. tion of the murder of John Riddall, 28th April 1690, on board the pinnace belonging to the ship called the Kempthorne on the high sea off of a place called Mariegon in the East Indies by wounding him on the head with a stretcher, whereof he languished and dyed within nine months." (Calendar of Prisoners, &c. H.C. A. I. No. 13).
Sanganlans. 387. In 1690 Ovington described the Sanganians as occupying the coast from Sind to Cape Jagat (i.e., Dwarka), infesting all the western coast, and cruising as far as Ormuz (Bomb. Gaz., IX, 528).
73 When Dante was about to enter Purgatory, seven P's were marked on his forehead, denoting the geven deally sins. Cary's Dante Purgatory, IX, 101; XXI, 63.
