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SEPTEMBER, 1926)
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
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They decided not to publish it because it stated that he had 130 men and that each of them had had a share of £1,000 in the booty, for it was feared that not only would this be an acknow. ledgment that the pirates were English, but that the sufferers, hearing how much booty had been carried to England, would know what damages to demand and would make extortionate claims. They agreed therefore to announce only that the King of England, hearing that some of his gubjects had united with others to rob on the high seas, had offered a reward of £500 for the capture of Every and of £50 for that of each of his crew, and that the Company had followed suit (Surat Diary, 17th May 1697).
443. On the 15th May 1697 the East India Company writing to the Admiralty, mention complaints made by the Royal African Company86 in the preceding February of their losses by the pirates in the Indian Seas, since which month they had received reports of "the Royal African Company's ship Hannibal having been seized on the coast of Guinea and carried off on the same piratical account" (Home Misc., XXXVI, p. 241; Sloane MS. 2902, f. 230). As a matter of fact, the crew of the Hannibal mutinied on the 3rd January 1696-7 on the coast of Guinea because of the harsh conduct of Captain William Hill. The mutineers set him, his officers and a few loyal men adrift in a boat to be drowned at seå or eaten by cannibals if they got ashore, made themselves a set of bloody colours and carried the ship to Pernambuco in Brazil, where one John Smith (? the Supercargo) with the assistance of the Governor recovered the vessel (Sloane MS. 3996. ff. 10-30). N.B.-No mention is made of black colours being prepared as a declaration of piracy.
444. At the Nicobars (See para. 433 above), Robert Culliford and his gang, going aboard a small country ship, were made prisoners by the Master, John Wallis ; but when the latter arrived at Mergui, he was forced to put his prisoners ashore by the Mocha, which had been cruising between Cape Comorin and Singapore. According to Wallis, the pirates had formed a fleet of seven vessels (Letter from Madras, 19th January 1696-7), but the only ship which the Mocha seems to have regularly consorted with was a small one of 130 tons which came from Madagascar and carried 70 men, all old pirates, who managed their ship without any commander (Cal. S. P. Col. 1698,723, viii). About this time it is said that the Mocha took a Portuguese ship, on board of which was the Viceroy. After letting him go, they met a Malayan privateer off Sumatra and boarded her with their longboat, but the Malays killed every man in the boat and the Mocha thought it better to leave them alone (Confession of James Kelly, who was executed 12th July 1700. Brit. Mus. 515. 1. 2/186.) On the 24th January 1696-7 off Ceylon the Mocha took the Satisfaction (William Willock Master), a small merchantman which did not surrender until she had lost four or five men. Willock was kept prisoner until the 22nd December and wrote & graphic account of his captivity (Ind. Off, 0. C. 6484). On the 7th or 8th February 1696-7 the Mocha took near Quiloan (Quilon) a Portuguese ship of 300 tons from Macao," very rich in gold and silks." They treated the crew very cruelly. "One of the Padres they hoisted up with his hands tied behind him and with a cutlass cut some part of his beard off. In a few days after God Almighty was pleased to show a judgment on him that did it. In three days all his flesh turned to corruption, so that he died gnashing his teeth but could not speak" (Willock's Narrative). A little later, the Mocha intercepted the Allumshey (from Bengal to Surat) and took her, after she had suffered eight or nine casualties. The pirates took out of her several guns, an anchor, and only such valuables as were between decks, and let her go. Whilst in the power of the Mocha and her consort, the Alum shey witnessed the capture and burning of one of Abdu'l Ghafor's ships. Her arrival in Surat in April 1697 created great excitement amongst the natives when they heard her news, and the Dutch tried to persuade the Governor that the English Company's ships were really pirates. The Council was foroed to explain that the Mocha, though certainly one of their ships, had been run away
15 Founded 27th September 1672
