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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(MAY, 1926
Arabians. 400. In 1692 the Arabs sent an expedition to Patta on the African coast and formed a Settlement there, prohibiting commerce with other nations (Hamilton, I, 12. See para. 382 above).
401. In 1694 a Muscat Arab fleet burned the shipping off Salsette and stormed the Portuguese fort at Versovah (Vesava), thue putting an end to a projected Portuguese attack on Bombay (Hamilton, I, 180; Low, I, 88. See para. 425 below).
Dutch. 402. The Madras Consultations for May 1692 note the Council's disapproval of certain expenditure by Mr. Daniel Dubois, Chief of Vizagapatam, in protecting two Dutch pirates who had offered to become Muhammadans and enter the service of the “Moors." The Council considered that this was the duty of the Dutch and hot of the English Agent and that therefore such expenditure "cannot by no reason or justice be charged upon the Company, being Occasioned by his own inconsiderate passion."
. French-Americans. 403. During the year 1693 there cruised in the Indian scas a French pirate whose name is not given. On the 15th May 1692 he had captured off the Madeiras, on her way to Brazil. & Portuguese man-of-war. This he did by hoisting English colours and approaching her under the guise of friendship and then suddenly boarding her. She was commanded by a Monsieur Morats, whose fate is not known, and carried 40 gung-and 260 men. The pirate refitted her for his purpose, at first with 30 guns and 140 men, but later increased these to 42 guns with 150 Europeans and 50 Coffrees. In the Red Sea he plundered a number of Surat shipe, cutting off the ears, noses and fingers of his prisoners and otherwise still more barbarously ill-using them to make them discover their treasure. Coming to Rajapore on the 18th September 1694, Jonas Hann, one of her original crew, who had been forced to join the pirate, escaped to Bombay (Ind. Off. O. C.5939, 5941). This is the only pirate whom it seems posisible to identify with Johnson's heroic Captain Misson. According to Johnson (II, 14), Misson, when he turned freebooter, refused to fly the Black Flag, and chose & white one with the motto For God and Liberty.' Johnson says that he consorted with Tew, and founded a Settlement in Madagascar which he called Libertatia, where for a time he enjoyed great authority and reputation for justice amongst the natives, until a Dutchman, Otto van Tyle (A man of this name was living at St. Mary's as late as 1699, Col. Off. Rec., 5/1042, 40, xi) excited & rebellion amongst them and the Settlement was destroyed. Misson left Madagascar at the same time as Tew, but his ship sank in a storm with all hands, the weather preventing his consort from rendering any assistance (Johnson, II, 108). Our own Records show that there was a French pirate in these seas in 1693, but the long story in Johnson seems to me too fanciful to deserve credit.
Andamanese. 404. At Achin in 1694 Hamilton was informed that “the cannibal Andamanese" used yearly to raid the Nicobar Islands with a number of small prows (prahus) for the sake of taking prisoners. Sometimes, however, they sold their prisoners in Achin. According to Sir R. C. Temple, the Andamanese, in spite of their reputation, have never been cannibals (see para. 723 below).
Malays. 405. At Achin, we are told by Hamilton (II, 68) who was there in 1694, there were sold as slaves the prisoners taken by a class of freebooters known as the “Saleeters." These people were inhabitants of the coast islands between Junkceylon (then) in Siam and Mergui.
Anglo-Americans. 406. In 1694 one Daniel Smith, with John Birch and others, sailed from the Bermudas to the East Indies. At Madagascar they separated and, whilst Smith was at sea, Birch and his Company took a rich "Moor "ship, dividing £800 a man. Smith and his Company being the
