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JULY, 1926 )
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
107
of their share of the loot of the Gunsway for cheating (see para. 416 above). They must therefore have made a good haul later. Possibly then it was the Pearl which early in 1696 took a ship belonging to Abdul Ghafûr. The pirate is described as a ship of 400 candies (about 100 tons) and 80 to 90 men. The Moors, after losing 20 men, surrendered and were robbed of 175 to 200 thousand rupees. (Surat Diary, 18th and 22nd March 1695-6). On the other hand, Middleton mentions William May as one of those who went home with Every.
433. On the 11th June 1696 (Ind. Off, 0. C. 6264; Letter from Madras, 30th Sept. 1696) the crew of the Company's ship, the Josiah Ketch, ran off with her from Madras Roads, the Master being ill ashore, under the Mate, Robert Culliford 80 (an Irishman. See Deposition of John Hayles, H.C. A., 1-16), who had obtained the assistance of six other Englishmen to effect the crime. Culliford took her to the Nicobar Islands, but whilst he was ashore with his friends, plundering the natives, one James Croft, Armourer of the Fleet frigate (who had been decoyed on board the Josiah whilst drunk), with the aid of the lascars overpowered the remaining pirates and carried off the ship to Achin.
484. On the 18th June 1696a more tragical mutiny8l occurred on board the Company's ship Mocha off the Head of Achin. This ship, bound from Bombay to China, was commanded by Captain Leonard Edgcombo. He appears to have been an unpopular commander. At Johanna he refused to take on board one Max.who had been left there by Every, not wishing to go a-pirating (State Trials, XIII, 474), and at Bombay (Hamilton I, 235) his crew made complaints of ill-treatment, for which they could obtain no satisfaction. I presume that some of them deserted, for he was forced to take on some new hands. These included the old pirate James Gilliam (now calling himself Simpson Marshall, see para. 395 above) with Ralph Stout and some 15 others of his comrades, who had escaped from Junagarh and got down to Bombay and were, without doubt, looking out for an opportunity to revenge themselves on the Company for the President's refusal to obtain their release. It can easily be imagined that such men had little difficulty in making a party on the Mocha. It is said that Gilliam himself murdered Captain Edgcum be,82 The Supercargo George Willock, and 17 others who were unwilling to join the mutineers, were sent adrift in a boat. After three days of great hardship they managed to make their way to Achin, where they found the Josiah Ketch (Ind. Off, 0. C. 6230; Home Misc. XXXVI, p. 307; Surat Letters Recd., CXIII, pt. ii, p. 5; Log of the Sceptre, 29th Jan. 1696-7). The mutineers meanwhile made Ralph Stout their Captain, renamed their ship the Resolution and went to Tenaggerim. (Bombay to Surat, 5th April 1697; Madras to Court, 30th December 1696).
485. I have said (see para. 412 above) that Dirk Chivers (a Dutchman of Hamburg, Ind. Off. 0. C. 6805) had been elected Captain of the Resolution, which he renamed the Soldado, after the de position of Captain Robert Glover. He seems to have consorted with a newcomer, an Irishman, John Hore83 (brother-in-law of the man whom he had deposed) of the John and Rebecca (180 tons, 20 guns, 100 men, originally a French ship, the St. Paul). Apparently in company they took a "Moor "ship belonging to Abdu'l Ghafur in the Red Sea (Arnold Wright, p. 191) or the Persian Gulf, and then off Babs after leaving Mocha, two others (under English
90 Culliford had been a pirate in the West Indies and was one of the men who ran off with Kidd's ship, the Blessed William in 1690 (nes para. 446 below) when Kidd refused to turn pirate. He came to India with the pirate William May (or Mason) in 1693, but left his ship at Mangalore in October 1694, with what object is now evident. (H.C.4. 1. 16, Oulliford's Deposition).
81 In a letter from the Madras Council to Fort St. David, 5th August 1696, it is stated that Culliford had plotted the mutiny on the Mocha before the Josiah Ketch left Bombay for Madras.
89 Jamon Kolly (British Museum 515. 1-2. 186) in his dying confonsion 12th July 1700 said Kat Captain Edgcumbe was murdered by his old orew in revenge for past ill-treatment. • 88 Lord Bellamont in a Letter, 18th May 1698 Odl. od. Records, 5-1040) says that Hore had & Commission from Governor Fletchor. The latter in a letter, 22nd June 1697, says that he had one from Bir William Beogton, Governor of Jamaica.
