For the defence of this little piratical state Angria’s Marathas constructed a number of forts, choosing admirable positions and displaying no small measure of engineering skill. From these strongholds they made depredations by sea and land, not only upon their native neighbours, but also upon the European traders, English, Dutch, and Portuguese; swooping down on unprotected merchant vessels and even presuming to attack warships. Several expeditions had been directed against them, but always in vain; and when in 1754 the chief of that date, Tulaji Angria, known to Europeans as the Pirate, burnt two large Dutch vessels of fifty and thirty-six guns respectively, and captured a smaller one of eighteen guns, he boasted in his elation that he would soon be master of the Indian seas. But a term was about to be put to his insolence and his depredations. On March 22, 1755, Commodore William James, commander of the East India Company’s marine force, set sail from Bombay in the _Protector_ of forty-four guns, with the _Swallow_ of sixteen guns, and two bomb vessels. With the assistance of a Maratha fleet he had attacked the island fortress of Suvarndrug, and captured it, as Hybati had related. A few days afterwards another of the Pirate’s fortresses, the island of Bancoote, six miles north of Suvarndrug, surrendered. The Maratha rajah, Ramaji Punt, delighted with these successes against fortified places which had for nearly fifty years been deemed impregnable, offered the English commodore an immense sum of money to proceed against others of Angria’s forts; but the monsoon approaching, the commodore was recalled to Bombay. The spot at which the _Good Intent_ had fallen in with the sinking grab was about eighty miles from the Indian coast, and Captain Barker expected to sight land next day. No one was more delighted at the prospect than Desmond. Leaving out of account the miseries of the long voyage, he felt that he was now within reach of the goal of his hopes. The future was all uncertain; he was no longer inclined to trust his fortunes to Diggle, for though he could not believe that the man had deliberately practised against his life, he had with good reason lost confidence in him, and what he had learnt from Bulger threw a new light on his past career.