The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years AgoBiddulph, J. (John)
History
The Pirates of Malabar, and an Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago
Biddulph, J. (John)
East India Company -- History; India -- History -- 18th century; Pirates
His young wife doubtless assisted him in his complicated accounts, and
gained some knowledge of local trade. It must have been a wonderful
delight to her to escape from the dulness of Carwar and mix in the larger
society of Bombay, and she must have realized with sadness the mistake she
had made in marrying a deformed man old enough to be her grandfather, at
the solicitation of her parents. She made, at this time, two acquaintances
that were destined to have considerable influence on her future life. On
the 5th August, the _Godolphin_, twenty-one days from Mocha, approached
Bombay, but being unable to make the harbour before nightfall, anchored
outside; a proceeding that would appear, even to a landsman, absolutely
suicidal in the middle of the monsoon, but was probably due to fear of
pirates.[3]
That night heavy weather came on, the ship's cable parted, and the
_Godolphin_ became a total wreck at the foot of Malabar Hill. Apparently,
all the Englishmen on board were saved, among them the second supercargo,
a young man named Thomas Chown, who lost all his possessions. There was
also in Bombay, at the time, a young factor, William Gyfford, who had come
to India, six years before, as a writer, at the age of seventeen. We shall
hear of both of them again.
In October, came news of the death of Mr. Robert Mence at Carwar. 'Tho his
time there was so small wee find he had misapplyed 1700 and odd pagodas to
his own use,' the Bombay Council reported to the Directors in London. In
his place was appointed Mr. Miles Fleetwood, who was then in Bombay
awaiting a passage to the Persian Gulf where he had been appointed a
factor. With him returned to Carwar, Harvey and his wife, to adjust some
depending accounts with the country people there.
We get an account of Carwar thirty years before this, from Alexander
Hamilton, which shows that there was plenty of sport near at hand for
those who were inclined for it, and it is interesting to find that the
Englishmen who now travel in search of big game had their predecessors in
those days--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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