The year 1698 saw the Company's trade almost extinguished owing to the depredations of the sea rovers and the hostility aroused against Europeans. Every letter brought accounts of the pirates and the losses occasioned by them. In small squadrons they swept the coast from Madras to the mouths of the Indus, and haunted the sea from Cape Comorin to the Straits of Malacca. In July, the Company's ship _Dorrill_, bound for China, was attacked in the Straits of Malacca by the _Resolution_, late _Mocha_, commanded by Culliford, and, after a hot engagement of three hours, made the pirate sheer off, with heavy losses on both sides. Bowen in the _Speedy Return_, for the taking of which Green was, with doubtful justice, hanged, Chivers in the _Soldado_, North in the _Pelican_, Halsey, Williams, White, and many others of less fame, were plundering and burning everywhere with impunity. Early in the year, Kidd captured the _Quedah Merchant_ a country ship bound from Bengal to Surat, belonging to some Armenian merchants who were on board. The captain was an Englishman named Wright; the gunner was a Frenchman, and there were two Dutchmen. This was the best prize made by Kidd, and yielded some £10,000 or £12,000, which was at once divided among the crew of the _Adventure_, Kidd's forty shares being one-fourth of the whole. Able seamen got one share; landsmen and servants a half-share only. The Surat factory was filled with alarm, not without good reason. In vain Sir John Gayer wrote to the Governor, and sent an agent to the Emperor to disclaim responsibility. In August came an imperial order directing that the English, French, and Dutch should be held responsible for all losses, and that for the _Quedah Merchant_ alone the English should pay two lakhs of rupees. Guards were placed on the factories; all communication with them was forbidden; their Mahommedan servants left them, and their creditors were made to give an account to the Governor of all debts owing by Europeans. The Dutch and French tried to exonerate themselves by laying all the blame on the English, but the Governor refused to make any distinction, and called on the three nations to pay fourteen lakhs of rupees as a compensation for the losses occasioned by piracy. Sir John Gayer was a man of action. Like Macrae, to be mentioned later in these pages, he had first brought himself into notice as a sea-captain, and as Governor of Bombay had upheld the Company's interests for four years, in circumstances of no ordinary difficulty. The time for some decided action had arrived if the Company's trade was to continue. On receiving intelligence of these occurrences, he appeared off Surat with three armed ships, and sent word to the Governor that he would neither pay any portion of the fourteen lakhs, nor give security. At the same time he intimated that he was ready to furnish convoys for the Mocha ships, as he had already done, and, in proof of good will in acting against the pirates,