The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago | Page 6

single ships
to the Red Sea. On the setting in of the monsoon, they collected at
Mocha, and made their way back in a single body. All Indian trade with
the Red Sea was paid for in gold and silver, so that the returning ships
offered many tempting prizes to freebooters.
In 1683 John Hand, master of the Bristol, interloper, cleared his ship
with papers made out for Lisbon and Brazil, and sailed for Madeira.
There he called his crew together, and told them he intended to take his
ship to the East Indies. Those who were unwilling were overawed,
Hand being a mighty 'pastionate' man. He appears to have been half
pirate and half trader; equally ready to attack other traders, or to trade
himself in spices and drugs. On the Sumatra coast, finding the natives
unwilling to do business with him, he went ashore with a pistol in his
pocket to bring the 'black dogs' to reason. The pistol went off in his
pocket and shattered his thigh, and that was the end of John Hand.
In the same year, six men, of whom four were English and two Dutch,
while on passage in a native merchant's ship from the Persian Gulf to
Surat, seized the ship, killing the owner and his two wives. The lascars
were thrown overboard, six being retained to work the ship. Their
cruise did not last long. Making for Honore, they threw the six lascars
overboard when nearing the port. The men managed to get to land, and
reaching Honore, gave information of the would-be pirates to the local
authorities, who seized the ship, and soon disposed of the rogues.

Three years later, two ships under English colours, mounting
respectively forty-four and twenty guns, were reported to have captured
vessels in the Red Sea, to the value of Rs.600,000. The Seedee of
Jinjeera, who styled himself the Mogul's Admiral, received a yearly
subsidy of four lakhs for convoying the fleet, a duty that he was quite
unable to perform against European desperadoes. Public opinion at
Surat was at once excited against the English, and further inflamed by
the Dutch and French, who were only too anxious to see a rival
excluded from the trade. Sir John Child, to pacify the Governor, offered
to send a man-of-war to look for the pirates; but the Dutch and French
factors continued to 'spitt their venom' till the Governor laughed in their
faces and asked why they did not join in sending vessels to look for the
rogues, since the matter seemed to them so serious.
In the same season a gallant engagement was fought against pirates,
though not in Indian waters. The Company's ship Caesar, Captain
Wright, bound from England for Bombay, was chased off the coast of
Gambia by five ships, carrying each from twenty to thirty guns, under
French colours. Wright had no intention of yielding without a struggle,
so put his ship before the wind, to gain time for getting into fighting
trim. The Caesar was carrying soldiers, and there were plenty of men
to fight the ship. The boats were cut away, the decks cleared,
ammunition and arms served out, three thousand pounds of bread
which cumbered the gun-room were thrown overboard, and the tops
were filled with marksmen. As soon as all was ready, the mainsail was
furled, and the ship kept under easy sail. Before long the two smaller
ships came up, hoisted the red flag, and began firing, one on the
Caesar's quarter and one astern. Soon the three other ships, two of
which Wright styled the Admiral and Vice-Admiral, came up. The
Admiral ranged up on the quarter and tried to board, but was obliged to
sheer off, with the loss of many men and a bowsprit shot away. The
Vice-Admiral tried to board at the bow, but with no better success,
losing a foreyard and mizzen-mast. For five hours the engagement
lasted, but the small-arm men in the Caesar's tops fired so well that the
pirates could hardly serve their guns. The crew showed a wonderful
spirits cheering loudly at every successful shot, till the discomfited
pirates bore up, leaving the Caesar to pursue her way to Bombay, much

knocked about as to hull, but having lost only one man killed and eight
wounded.
In the following year came news to Surat of two vessels, under Danish
colours, that had stopped English ships and seized native ones between
Surat and Bombay. The Phoenix, a British man-of-war, was at Surat at
the time, so, together with the Kent, East Indiaman, it was despatched
to look after the marauders, taking with them also two small boys, sent
to represent the French and the Dutch. In due time Captain Tyrrell
returned, and reported that he had found a squadron of four vessels;