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JULY, 1926 )
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
105
(Captain John Lloyd). (Madras to Court, 3rd April 1695). The Court of Directors had, of course, been informed of these events and on the 17th July 1696 wrote to say that Govern. ment had been asked to issue a Proclamation for the arrest of Every. This was done on the 17th July and the 10th August 1696, the Lords Justices of England offering a reward of £500 and the East India Company one of Rs. 4,000 (London Gazette ; State Trials, XIII, 451), sums which appear comico lly small when one considere how much more lucrative and not much more dangeroua it was to be a pirate than it was to be only a pirate-catcher or an informer.
419. On the 14th September 1695 Captain Samuel Burgese of the Margaret of New York Bailed for Madagascar, with a Commission from Governor Fletcher (India Office, 0.C., 6321, Deposition of Edward Baker and John Stivey).
Arabians. 420. As early as 1612 we find mention of the Baluchis of Sind as pirates. Nicholas Withington, who was in Sind at that time, says that the Baloches of Sinda had taken a boat in which there were seven Italians and one Portuguese friar. All the Italians were killed in the fight, but the friar, being taken alive, the pirates ripped up his belly to see if he had swallowed any gold or jewels (Foster Early Travels, p. 220). Gemelli Careri (Churchill's Voyages, IV, 190) on a voyage to Diu in 1694, mentions the islands of Cocalita, Giavar and Giavani, inhabited by petty pirates called Baluocos, who also inhabited the country between Persia and India (i.e., Baluchistan). He says that they were Arabs in religion and manners and used to hamstring their prisoners to prevent them from escaping. This cruelty of disposition clearly differentietes them from the inhabitants of the coast of India Proper.
421. The danger from the Muscat pirates to ships trading to the Persian Gulf was so great at this time that Indian merchants would not entrust their goods to Dutch vessels without guarantees of indemnification against loss (Letter from Surat, 7th February 1694-5).
422. Early in 1695 Muscat Arabs landed at Cong in the Persian Gulf and took plunder to the value of 60,000 tomaunds79. Bruce (III, 169) says that at this time the Muscat fleet consisted of five large ships carrying 1,500 men, that they took a rich Armenian ship and all the Portuguese ships they met with. In all there were twelve Arab ships cruising in the Persian Gulf. A little later with eight large ships (of 40 to 60 guns, the Admiral carrying 70) they proceeded to Mangalore, plundered and burned that town and also Barcelore, destroyed a number of Portuguese ships and taking in a cargo of rice, returned to Muscat. They did not however escape entirely scatheless, for in Mangalore Road, thinking her to be a Portuguese, they attacked a French ship of 40 guns commanded by Monsieur de Prade. De Prade and 12 of his men were killod and some twenty wounded, so that the Frenchman was forced to break off the fight and run for Goa, but the Arabs are said to have lost 200 men killed before she did 80 (Letter from Calicut, 18th April 1695. Madras Cons., 10th May 1695). The Portuguese also obtained some slight revenge by the destruction of three Arab ships at Rajapore (Letter from Surat, 7th February 1694-5; 0. C. 5969; Letter from Madras, 6th June 1696). The Imame of Muscat now grew 80 powerful that the Company's Agent at Gombroon predicted that "they would prove as great a plague as the Algerines were in Europe” (Bruce, III,
198).
423. On the 1st March 1695-6 (India Office, 0. C. 6000) six European ships were attacked by six Arab ships and two grabs, the Arab Admiral's ship carrying 60 guns and from 900 to 1,000 men. One of the European ships was the Ruparel, Captain Sawbridge (Mangalore to Surat). Sawbridge beat off the ship which first engaged him, the Romane of 7 to 8 hundred men, but finding himself surrounded and further resistance hopeless, surrendered, and with some of his men was taken on board the Romane. Whilst on board, the Romane with two of her consorts engaged a French ship (? Monsieur de Prade) mounting 40 guns. During the
70 Toman, a Persian gold coin formerly worth more, but now worth 78. 1d.
