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NOVEMBER, 1926 ]
NOTES ON PIRACY IN EASTERN WATERS
123
June 1698. There being no further danger of interference by Kidd, he determined to carry out his old plan of visiting the Red Sea (See para. 444 above). Somewhere on his way he joined company with Chivers in the Soldado and Powell in the Pelican. They were fortunate enough to fall in with a big Turkish ship of 600 tons. (See para. 445 above), the Great Mahomet, returning from Judda to Surat. Her captain, thinking he was out of the danger zone, had left Captain South and the convoy on the 12th September, with the result that on the 34th or 28th of the month she was taken by the pirates, off Daman and seven leagues from Cape St. John. The Great Mahomet belonged to one Hassan (or Hussain) Amadon (or Amidas), brother of Ibrahim, Sharif of Judda. Hussain, who was on board, says that twenty of the pirates were killed in the fight. The number of people on board the Great Mahomet is not clearly stated. One account says that there were six or seven hundred. Another account says that the captors tortured the "Tindal" (native master or chief of the Lascars) and others, in order to discover the treasure which had been concealed, and then shot them; after which piece of cruelty one hundred and fifty pilgrims were turned adrift in boats without sails or oars, but were carried by the tide to Bassein. Some sixty female passengers (many of them women of quality) were retained on board and barbarously treated, five of them, it is said, stabbing themselves to save their honour. The treasure, goods and horses on board were estimated at 1,850,000 rupees (Surat to Bombay, 11th October 1698 ; Home Misc. 134.) According to a letter from Madras to Fort St. David, 3rd January 1698-9, the cargo was valued at 25 lakhs of rupees, and in the trial of Captain John Eldridge for complicity in this act of piracy the booty was calculated at £ 30,303, whilst according to the Deposition of Theophilus Turner (291h January 1700, H. C. A., 1-15) the pirates shared £800 a man. The Governor of Surat insisted that the English were responsible for this outrage, though it was really due to the failure of the French to undertake their share of patrol duty and to the recklessness of the Captain in leaving the convoy. Chivers burned the Soldado (formerly the Resolution) transferring his men to the Great Mahomet, which he renamed the New Soldado. His men and those of the Mocha (350 in all) who had now shared £ 1000 a man in gold and silver besides rich goods (Johnson, II. 383) declared that they had got money enough and were all, except those who had lost their gains at play, resolved to go to some part of the West Indies in the New Soldado. For some reason or other, Culliford and Chivers refused to give the crew of the Pelican any share in the booty, but allowed them 1000 dollars to purchase supplies. There is a similar story regarding the Pearl. Possibly it is only repetition (See para. 416 above) and, as the Pelican was very leaky, offered them the Mocha, an offer apparently not accepted (Letter from Surat, 5th December 1698, Home Misc., XXXVI, 434). Meanwhile, Captain Powell of the Pelican having gone mad, the crew refused to elect any captain, but made John Watson Quartermaster, and put him in charge of their ship. Soon after Watson, going ashore for water, was seized by the Marathas, who also vainly attempted to surprise the Pelican. When the Pelican left, they set him free and he made his way to Carwar Factory, where he died of a "fux" (dysentery) 11th November 1698 (India Office, 0. C. 6579). Culliford and Chivers, with the Pelican and two other pirate ships, one of which was the Swan (Thomas Johnson Commander), next went southwards to Cape Comorin, off which they engaged the Mary, Interloper, Captain Knox, (which, like other irregular traders and the pirates themselves, was supplied with all necessaries by the Dutch), but were beaten off, and she got safely into Quilon on the 16th November (Letter from Surat, 10th January 1698-9; Home Misc. XXXVI. 456). Thence, after taking a Moor ship (India Office, 0.0 8807), they went to St. Mary's. Here some of the pirates took their passage home on the Nassau (Giles Shelley, Master) paying the usual fare of 100 pieces of eight. On the same ship went Otto van Tyle, who had comod the destruction of Misson's Settlement (See para. 403 above). He deposed that his brother lived at St. Mary's and traded with the pirates (Col. Office, 5.1042, 40, xi, xii).
