The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago | Page 2

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 single 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 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,
privateers-man, 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 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. Still, 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, 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 skill 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 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
Read, 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