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JULY, 1928)
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
103
418. It was commonly believed at the time that Every himself took possession of an Indian Princess : e.g., Hamilton says that he carried off a young Mughal lady, who was going to Mocca on a pilgrimage in fulfilment of a vow which she had made at her mother's deathbed. Van Broeck says that Every and his sailors were married to the women whom they selected by Muhammadan priests who were on board and that, by his Indian wife, Every had a son. The unhappy lady died soon after, but Every's reputed son grew up in Madagascar and, according to Clement Downing (pp. 117, 128) was known as Mulatto Tom and was one of the generals of the ex-pirate John Plantain, who had made himself a kind of king among the natives about 1720. Downing says "This Mulatto Tom was one that was so much feared amongst them that at the very sight of him they would seem to tremble. They often would have made him & king, but he never would take that title upon him.18 He was a man of tall stature, very clean limbed and of a pleasant countenance. He had hair on his head and no wool, which I have often admired at, having seen several of this mongrel breed, who have all wool on their heads. He had long black hair like the Malabar or Bengal Indians, which made me think he might be the son of Captain Avery, got on some of the Indian women he took on the Moor's ship which had the Grand Mogul's daughter on board. This is very probable for he could not remember his mother but that he sucked a black Madagascar woman which for some years he took for his mother, till he was told his mother died when he was an infant." Mr. C. F. Noble (in Dalrymple's Oriental Repertory, II. 136) says that in 1765 one Tom Similo, son of an English pirate, was King of Fort Dauphin and C. Grant (p. 303) Bays that when Admiral Kempenfeldt 'visited Madagascar in 1758 he heard that the King of Port Dauphin, whom the French called Tom Simcols, was the son of an English pirate and spoke both English and French. Was this Mulatte Tom ?
414. As regards the booty taken in the Gang-i-gawai, John Dann puts it at £1,000 per man, 180 men sharing. Middleton says that some men got £1,000, others only £ 500, whilst he, being only a boy, received £ 100 to apprentice him to some honest trade at home. Both Dann and Middleton (State Trials, XIII. 471) say that Every had only two shares and the Master one and a half. This was the usual custom in pirate vessels. Hamilton (I. 43) values the booty at Rs. 2,600,000 or (with the rupee at 2s. 3d.) £325,000, which would be about double the sum given by Dann, unless Every and other of the chief pirates took more than the customery share, or Dann's figures refer only to Every's own crow and are exolusive of the amount taken by the crews of his consorte.
415. Beside the lady and the booty Every carried off the Mughal flag. Unfortunately this flag is not described in any of the records, but Alexander Justice (Dominion of the Sea, 1705) gives a green flag, bearing two crossed scimetars (gold) as that of the Surat Grand Mughal. This very flag of Every's was flown by the pirates in July 1699 when John James fought Captain John Aldrod of H. M. S. Essex in Linhaven Bay on the coast of Virginia (Deposition of Captain Charles Sims, Col off. Records, 323-3, No. 37, i).
416. Johnson (1.53) says that Every, having persuaded his consorts to place all the treasure on board his own ship for safety, left them by stealth and carried it off ; but other accounts show that, having watered their ships at Rojapore, the pirates went to Mascarenhas (i.e., Bourbon) and there divided the booty. The crew of the Pearl were refused their proper share, because it was found that, when exchanging gold for silver with Every's men, they had given clipped pieces. They received only 2,000 pieces of eight to buy them provisions (Dann's Deposition.) At Bourbon Every put a shore the Frenchmen and Danes of his crew
78 In the play entitled the Successful Pirate (1715) by Charles Johnson, the hero is called Arviragus (Avorio or Avery) who, once in the Navy, was broken for caning a superior officer who had insulted but dared not fight him. He retired to Laurentia (i.e., St. Lawrence or Madagascar) and became king of the place and married Zelmane, the daughter of Ariasper, an Indian noble. His son by hor refused the thrope.
