The pirates of Malabar : and An Englishwoman in India two hundred years ago

Front matter

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CORNELL

Preface

Fob most people, interest in the doings of our forefathers in India dates from our wars with the French in the middle of the eighteenth century. Before then their lives are generally supposed to have been spent in monotonous trade dealings in pepper and calico, from which large profits were earned for their masters in England, while their principal excitements were derived from drinking and quarrelling among themselves. Little account has been taken of the tremendous risks and difficulties under which the trade was maintained, the losses that were suflfered, and the dangers that were run by the Company's servants from the moment they left the English Channel. The privations and dangers of the voyage to India were alone sufficient to deter all but the hardiest spirits, and the debt we owe to those who, by painful effort, won a footing for our Indian trade, vi PREFACE

is deserving of more recognition than it has received. Scurvy, shortness of water, and mutinous crews were to be reckoned on in every voyage ; navigation was not a science but a matter of rule and thumb, and shipwreck was frequent ; while every coast was inhospitable. Thus, on the 4th September, 1715, the Nathaniel, having sent a boat's crew on shore near Aden, in search of water, the men allowed themselves to be inveigled inland by treacherous natives, who fell upon them and murdered twelve out of fourteen who had landed from the ship. Such an occurrence now would be followed by a visit from a man-of-war to punish the murderers. Two hundred years ago it was only an incident to set down in the ship's log-book. But all such outrages and losses were small in comparison with those to which traders were exposed at the hands of pirates.

It is difficult to realize, in these days, what a terrible scourge piracy was to the Indian trade, two hundred years ago. From the moment of losing sight of the Lizard till the day of casting anchor in the port of destination an East India ship was never safe from attack, with the chance of slavery or a cruel death to crew and passengers,

PREFACE vii

in case of capture. From Finisterre to Cape Verd the Moorish pirates made the seas unsafe, sometimes venturing into the mouth of the Channel to make a capture. Farther south, every wateringplace on the African coast was infested by the English and French pirates who had their headquarters in the West Indies. From the Cape of Good Hope to the head of the Persian Gulf, from Cape Comorin to Sumatra, every coast was beset by English, French, Dutch, Danish, Portuguese, Arab, Malay or other local pirates. In the Bay of Bengal alone, piracy on a dangerous scale was practically unknown.

There was no peace on the ocean. The sea was a vast No Man's domain, where every man might take his prey. Law and order stopped short at low-water mark. The principle that traders might claim protection and vengeance for their wrongs from their country, had not yet been recognized, and they sailed the seas at their own risk. Before the close of the seventeenth century the buccaneers had passed away, but their depredations, in pursuit of what they called " free trade," were of a different nature from those of the pirates who succeeded them. Buccaneer viii PEEFACE

exploits were confined to the Spanish main, where they ravaged and burnt Spanish settlements on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, moving with large forces by sea and land. According to Esquemeling, Morgan saUed on his expedition against Panama with thirty-seven sail and two thousand fighting men, besides mariners and boys. But the Spanish alone were the objects of their attack. So long as Spain claimed a monopoly of South American trade, it was the business of Spain alone to keep the marauders away ; other Governments were not disposed to assist her. Hardly had the last of the buccaneers disappeared from the Western seas, when a more lawless race of rovers appeared, extending their operations into the Indian Ocean, acting generally in sii^gle ships, plundering vessels of every nationality, though seldom attacking places on shore.

Of these men, chiefly English, the most notorious were Teach, Every, Kidd, Roberts, England, and Tew ; but there were many others less known to fame, who helped almost to extinguish trade between Europe, America, and the East. Some idea of the enormous losses caused by them may be gathered from the fact that

PEEFACE ix

Bartholomew Roberts alone was credited with the destruction of four hundred trading vessels in three years. In a single day he captured eleven vessels, English, French, and Portuguese, on the African coast.

War in Europe, and the financial exhaustion that ensued, rendered it almost impossible for the maritime powers to put an effective check on the pirates either in the East or the West. With peace their numbers increased by the conversion of privateersmen into freebooters. Slaver, privateersman, and pirate were almost interchangeable terms. At a time when every main road in England was beset by highwaymen, travellers by sea were not likely to escape unmolested. But the chief cause of their immunity lay in the fact that it was the business of nobody in particular to act against them, while they were more or less made welcome in every undefended port. They passed themselves off as merchantmen or slavers, though their real character was well known, but they paid royally for what they wanted; and, as gold, silver, and jewels were the principal booty from which they made their ' dividend,' many a rich bale of spices and merchandise went to purchase the good will

X PREFACE

of their friends on shore, who, in return, supplied their wants, and gave them timely information of rich prizes to be looked for, or armed ships to be avoided. They prided themselves on being men of honour in the way of trade ; enemies to deceit, and only robbing in their own way. The Malabar coast was scandalized when Kidd broke the rule, and tricked or bullied people out of supplies. Officials high in authority winked at their doings from which they drew a profit, and when armed squadrons were sent to look for them, the commanders were not always averse to doing business with the freebooters.

The greatest sufferers among European traders in India were the English ; for not only were the greater number of pirates of English blood, but pirate captains of other nationalities often sailed under English colours. The native officials, unable to distinguish the rogues from the honest traders, held the East India Company's servants responsible for the misdeeds of the piccaroons, from whom they suffered so grievously. StUl, whatever their nationality might chance to be, it is fair to say that the generality of them were courageous rascals and splendid seamen, who, with their large crews.

PREFACE xi

handled their ships better than any merchantmen could do. When a pirate ship was cast away on a desolate coast, they built themselves another ; the spirit of the sea was in their veins ; whether building and rigging a ship, or sailing and fighting her, they could do everything that the most skilful seamen of the age could do. As was said half a century later of La Bourdonnais, himself a true corsair in spirit, their knowledge in mechanics rendered them capable of building a ship from the keel ; their skiU in navigation, of conducting her to any part of the globe ; and their courage, of fighting against any equal force. Their lives were a continual alternation between idleness and extreme toil, riotous debauchery and great privation, prolonged monotony and days of great excitement and adventure. At one moment they were revelling in unlimited rum, and gambling for handfuls of gold and diamonds ; at another, half starving for food and reduced to a pint of water a day under a tropical sun. Yet the attractions of the life were so great, that men of good position took to piracy. Thus, Major Stede Bonnet, of Barbados, master of a plentiful fortune, and a gentleman of good reputation, fitted out a sloop xii PKEFACE

and went a-pirating, for which he was hanged, together with twenty-two of his crew, in November, 1718. Even women, like Anne Bonny and Mary Eead, turned pirates and handled sword and pistol. Desperate, reckless, and lawless, they were filled with the spirit of adventure, and were the forerunners of the men that Hawke, Nelson, and Dundonald led to victory.

Long after they had disappeared from the seas the Indian trade continued to be exposed to the ravages of native pirates, who were not finally coerced into good behaviour till well into the nineteenth century. Of the European pirates Kidd, the most ignoble of them all, is alone remembered, while the name of Angria is only recalled in connection with the destruction of Gheriah by Watson and Olive. The long half-century of amateur warfare waged by Bombay against the Angrian power is dismissed in a few words by our Indian historians, and the expeditions sent forth by Boone against Angrian strongholds are passed over in sUence. An account of some of them is given in Olement Downing's curious little book " Indian Wars," valuable as the relation of an eye-witness ; but the work, published in

PEEFACE xiii

1737, is inaccessible to the general reader, besides shewing many omissions and inaccuracies.

The early records of the East India Company have furnished the foundation on which this neglected chapter of our Indian history has been compiled. If the Company's servants appear at times in an unfavourable light, the conditions of their service must be considered, while the low standard of conduct prevailing in England two hundred years ago must not be forgotten. They were traders, not administrators, and the charter under which the Company traded was of very insecure duration. Twice the Crown broke faith with them, and granted charters to rival associations. As the stability of the Company became assured, the conduct of its servants improved.

It is not intended in these pages to give an exhaustive account of all the pirates who haunted th4 Indian seas, but to present some idea of the perils that beset the Indian trade — perils that have so entirely passed away that their existence is forgotten.

Scattered among the monotonous records of the Company's trade are many touches of human interest. Along with the details relating to sugar, pepper, and shipping, personal matters affecting xiv PREFACE

the Company's servants are set down ; treating of their quarrels, their debts, and, too often, of their misconduct, as ordinary incidents in the general course of administration. At times a bright light is turned on some individual, who relapses into obscurity and is heard of no more, while the namesof others emerge again and again, like a coloured thread woven in the canvas; showing how much romance there was in the lives of the early traders. One such thread I have followed in the account of Mrs. Gyfford, from her first arrival in India till her final disappearance in the Court of Chancery, showing the vicissitudes and dangers to which an Englishwoman in India was exposed two hundred years ago.

To Mr. William Foster, of the India Office, I am especially indebted for aid in directing my attention to old documents that would otherwise have escaped notice, and who has generously placed at my disposal some of the results of his own researches into the history of the Company in the seventeenth century, as yet unpublished.

My thanks are also due to Sir Ernest Robinson for permitting me to use his picture of an engagement with Mahratta ships, as a frontispiece.

J. B.

Chapter I Bise Op European Piracy In The East

Portuguese pirates — Vincente Sodre — Dutch pirates — Royal filibustering — Endymion Porter's venture — The Courten Association — The Indian Red Sea fleet — John Hand — Odium excited against the English in Surat — The Cxsar attacked by French pirates — ^Danish depredations — ^West Indian pirates — Ovington's narrative — Interlopers and permission ships — Embargo placed on English trade — Rovers trapped at Mungrole — John Steel — Every seizes the Charles the Second and turns pirate — His letter to English commanders — The Madagascar settlements — Libertatia — Fate of Sawbridge — Capture of the Qunj Siiwaie — Immense booty — Danger of the English at Sural — Bombay threatened — ^Friendly behaviour of the Surat Governor — Embargo on European trade — Every sails for America — His reputed end — Great increase of piracy — Mutiny of the Mocha and Josiah crews — Culliford in the Resolution — The London seized by Imaum of Muscat .

Chapter II

Measures to suppress piracy — The Adventure fitted out — Warren's squadron meets with Kidd — His suspicious behaviour— He threatens the Sidney — Waylays the Red xvi CONTENTS

Sea fleet — Captures the Mary — Visits Carwar and Calicut — His letter to the factory — Chased by Portuguese men-of-war — Chases the Sedgwick — Chi vers — Action between Dorrill and Resolution — Kidd captures the Quedah Merchant — ^Dilemma of European traders at Surat — Their agreements with the authorities — Experience of the Benjamin — News of Kidd's piracies reaches England — Despatch of squadron under Warren — Littleton at Madagascar — Eadd sails for New York — Arrested and tried — His defence and execution — Justice of his sentence — His character — Diminution of piracy — Lowth in the Loyal Merchant — Act for suppression of piracy— Captain Millar ... 38

Chapter III The Rise Of Conajee Angria

Native piracy hereditary on the Malabar coast — ^Marco Polo's account — Fryer's narrative — The Kempsant — Arab and Sanganian pu-ates — Attack on the President — Loss of the Josiah — Attack on the Phwnix — The Thomas captured — Depredations of the Gulf pirates — Directors' views — Conajee Angria — ^Attacks English ships — Destroys the Bomhay — Fortifies Kennery — Becomes independent — Captures the Governor's yacht — Attacks the Somers and Orantham — Makes peace with Bombay — His navy — Great increase of European and native piracy 69

Chapter IV

Arrival of Mr. Boone as Governor — He builds ships and improves defences of Bombay — Desperate engagement of Morning Star with Sanganians — Alexander Hamilton —

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

Expedition against Vingorla — Its failure— Hamilton made Commodore — Expedition against Carwar — ^Lauding force defeated — Successful skirmish — ^Desertion of Goa recruits — Reinforcements — Landing force again defeated — The Eajah makes peace — Hamilton resigns Commodoreship — A noseless company— Angria recommences attacks — Abortive expedition against Gheriah — ^Downing's account of it — Preparations to attack Kennery 85

CHAPTEE V

The Company's civil servants — Their comparison with English who went to America — Their miserable salaries — The Company's military servants — Regarded with distrust — Shaxton's mutiny — Captain Keigwin — ^Broken pledges and ill-treatment — Directors' vacillating policy — Military grievances — Keigwin seizes the administration of Bombay — His wise rule — Makes his submission to the Crown — ^Low status of Company's military oflBcers — Lord Bgmont's speech — Factors and writers as generals and colonels — Bad quality of the common soldiers — Their bad treatment — Complaint against Midford — Directors' parsimony . . 103

CHAPTEE VI

Sivajee's occupation of Kennery— A naval action — ^Minchin and Keigwin — Bombay threatened — ^The Seedee intervenes — Conajee Angria occupies Kennery — Boone sails with the expedition— Manuel de Castro— Futile proceedings— Force landed and repulsed— Second landing— Manuel de Castro's treachery— Gideon Russell— Bad behaviour of two captains xviii CONTENTS

— Defeat — Attack abandoned — The St. Oeorge — The Fhram — Manuel de Castro punished — Bombay wall completed — Angria makes overtures for peace — Boone outwitted 119

CHAPTEE VII

EXPEDITION AGAINST GHERIAH Trouble with the Portuguese — Madagascar pirates again — Loss of the Cassandra — Captain Macrae's brave defence — The one-legged pirate — Richard Lazenby — Expedition against Gheriah — Mr. Walter Brown — His incompetency — Gordon's landing — ^Insubordination and drunkenness — ^Arrival of the Pkram — General attack — Failure — The Kempsant's alliance — Attack on Deoghur — The Madagascar pirates, England and Taylor — Ignominious flight — Fate of the Phra/m — Brown despatched south again — The pirates at Cochin — They take flight to Madagascar — Their rage against Macrae and England — England marooned — ^Taylor takes Goa ship — Rich prize — Governor Macrae . . . 131

CHAPTER VIII

Measures taken in England against pirates — Woodes Rogers at the Bahamas — Edward Teach — Qhalloner Ogle — Bartholomew Roberts killed — Matthews sent to the East Indies — Naval ofiBcers' duels — Portuguese alliance — Expedition against Colaba — Assault — ^Defeat — A split in the alliance — ^Plot against Boone — His departure — Matthews' schemes — His insulting behaviour — He quarrels with everybody— Goes to Madagascar — The King of Ranter Bay — Matthews goes to Bengal .161

CONTENTS

CHAPTEE IX

A TROUBLED YEAR IN BOMBAY

XIX

PAGE

Loss of the Eunter galley— Quarrel with Portuguese— Alliance of Portuguese with Angria— War with both— A double triumph — Portuguese make peace — Angria cowed — Matthews reappears— Trouble caused by him — He returns to England— Court-martialled— The last of Matthews . . 191

CHAPTEE X

The case of Mr. Curgenven — Death of Conajee Angria — Quarrels of his sons — Portuguese intervention — Sumbhajee Angria — Political changes — Disaster to Bombay and Bengal galleys — The Ochham beats off Angria's fleet — The Coolees — Loss of the Derby — Mahrattas expel Portuguese from Salsette — Captain Inchbird — Mannajee Angria gives trouble — Dutch squadron repulsed from Gheriah — Gallant action of the Harrington — Sumbhajee attacks Colaba — ^English assist Mannajee — Loss of the Antelope — Death of Sumbhajee Angria — Toolajee Angria — Capture of the Anson — Toolajee takes the Restoration — Power of Toolajee — Lisle's squadron — Building of the Protector and Guardian .... 202

CHAPTEE XI

Toolajee fights successful action with the Dutch — He tries to make peace with Bombay — Alliance formed against him — Commodore William James — Slackness of the Peishwa's fleet — Severndroog — James's gallant attack — ^Fall of Sevemdroog — Council postpone attack on Gheriah — Clive arrives

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FASB

from England — Projects of the Directors —Admiral Watson — Preparations against Gheriah — The Council's instructions — Council of war about prize-money — Double dealing of the Peishwa's officers — Watson's hint — Ships engage Gheriah — Angrian fleet burnt — Fall of Gheriah — Clive occupies the fort — The prize-money — Dispute between Council and Poonah Durbar — Extmction of coast piracy — Severndroog tower 227

An Englishwoman in India Two Hundhed Yeaks ago . 253

ILLUSTRATIONS

Mahkatta Grabs and Gallivats attacking an English

Ship Frontispiece

Map OF Malabae Coast . . . . Facing page \\9

THE

PIE ATE S OF MALABAE

Chapter I Rise Of European Piracy In Tee East

Portuguese pirates — Vincente Sodre — Dutch pirates — ^Eoyal filibustering — Endymion Porter's venture — The Courten Association — The Indian Red Sea fleet — John Hand — Odium excited against the English in Surat — The Coesar attacked by French pirates — Danish depredations — West Indian pirates — Ovington's narrative — ^Interlopers and permission ships — Embargo placed on English trade — Rovers trapped at Mungrole — John Steel — ^Every seizes the Charles the Second and turns pirate — His letter to English commanders — The Madagascar settlements — ^Libertatia — Fate of Sawbridge — ^Capture of the Qunj Suwaie — ^Immense booty — Danger of the English at Surat — Bombay threatened — Friendly behaviour of the Surat Governor — ^Embargo on European trade — Every sails for America — His reputed end — Great increase of pu-acy — ^Mutiny of the Mocha and Josiah crews — Culliford in the Resolution — ^The London seized by Imanm of Muscat.

From the first days of European enterprise in the East, the coasts of India were regarded as a favourable field for filibusters, the earliest we hear of being Vincente Sodre, a companion of Vasco da Gama in his second voyage. Intercourse with

B heathens and idolaters was regulated according to a different code of ethics from that applied to intercourse with Christians. The authority of the Old Testament upheld slavery, and Africans were regarded more as cattle than human beings ; whUe Asiatics were classed higher, but stUl as immeasurably inferior to Europeans. To prey upon Mahommedan ships was simply to pursue in other waters the chronic warfare carried on against Moors and Turks in the Mediterranean. The same feelings that led the Spaniards to adopt the standard of the Cross in their conquest of Mexico and Peru were present, though less openly avowed, in the minds of the merchants and adventurers of all classes and nationalities who flocked into the Indian seas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. With the decadence of buccaneering and the growth of Indian trade, there was a corresponding increase of piracy, and European traders ceased to enjoy immunity.

In 1623 the depredations of the Dutch brought the English into disgrace. Their warehouses at Surat were seized, and the president and factors were placed in irons, in which condition they remained seven months, This grievance was the

EISE OF EUROPEAN PIRACY 3

greater, as it happened at the time that the cruel torture and execution of Captain Towerson and his crew by the Dutch took place at Amboyna, It was bad enough to be made responsible for the doings of their own countrymen, but to be punished for the misdeeds of their enemies was a bitter pill to swallow. In 1630, just as peace was being concluded with France and Spain, Charles I., who was beginning his experiment of absolute government, despatched the Seahorse, Captain Quail, to the Red Sea to capture the ships and goods of Spanish subjects, as well as of any other nations not in league and amity with England. There were no Spaniards in the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean, but international arrangements in Europe were not regarded when the equator had been crossed. Quail captured a Malabar vessel, for which the Company's servants at Surat were forced to pay full compensation. The Seahorse returned to England in 1633, but in view of the new field of enterprise opened up, Endymion Porter, Gentleman of the King's bedchamber, embarked on a piratical speculation, in partnership with two London merchants, Bonnell and Kynaston, with a licence under the privy seal to visit any part of the world and capture ships and goods of any state not in league and amity with England. Two ships, the Samaritan and Roehuch, were fitted out with such secrecy that the East India Company were kept in ignorance, and sailed in April, 1635, for the Red Sea, under Captain Cobb.

The Samaritan was wrecked in the Comoro Islands ; but Cobb, continuing his cruise with the Roebuck, captured two Mogul vessels at the mouth of the Red Sea, from one of which he took a large sum of money and a quantity of goods, though the vessel had a pass ^from the Surat factory. Again the Company's servants at Surat were imprisoned, and not released till they had paid full compensation. Some small satisfaction was experienced when it became known that John Proud, master of the Swan, one of the Company's ships, had encountered the Roebuck in the Comoro Islands, and had attacked the freebooter. He was unable to capture it, but succeeded in procuring restitution of the captured goods ; the treasure, however, was carried ofi" to London, where it must have seemed as if the days of Drake and Hawkins had come again.

The Company laid their grievance before the

EISE OF EUEOPEAN PIKACY 5

King, who expressed mucli concern, promising to write to the Great Mogul and explain matters ; so the Company commenced an action against Bonnell and Kynaston in the Admiralty Court. Porter was too highly placed to be struck at. Bonnell evaded arrest and escaped to France, but Kynaston was arrested and lodged in gaol ; upon which Charles ordered his release on bail, saying he would try the case himself at his leisure.

But Porter's views went beyond a single piratical voyage. Hardly had Cobb started on his cruise, when he entered into partnership with Sir William Courten for an association to establish a separate trade to the East Indies. A royal grant was obtained, and the King himself was credited with a share to the nominal extent of £10,000. The grant was a flagrant breach of faith, and was the inauguration of the system of interlopers that in after years caused so much loss and trouble to the Company. Four ships were equipped and sent out, and before long it became known that two vessels from Surat and Diu had been plundered by Courten's ships, and their crews tortured. Again the Company's servants at Surat were seized and thrown into prison, where they were kept for two montlis, being only released on payment of Es-lj^OjOOO, and on solemnly swearing to respect Mogul ships.

The Civil War brought these courtly piracies to an end, and the decay of the Spanish power drew the more turbulent spirits of Europe and America to the Spanish main, so that for a time there was a diminution of European piracy in Indian waters. As buccaneering became more dangerous, or less lucrative, adventurers of all nations again appeared in Eastern waters, and the old trouble reappeared in an aggravated form. The Indian Eed Sea fleet oflFered an especially tempting booty to the rovers. Lobo, a Jesuit ^iest, writing in the seventeenth century, tells us that so vast was the commerce of Jeddah, and so great the value of the ships trading to that place, that when, in India, it was wished to describe a thing of inestimable price, it was customary to say, 'It is of more value than a Jeddah ship.' Every year during the winter months, Indian traders, and pilgrims for Mecca, found their way in 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, ofiered 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

EISE OF EUROPEAN PIRACY 9

fought against pirates, though not in Indian waters. The Company's ship Csesar, 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 Csesar 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 Csesar'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 ofi", 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 spirit, 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.