Page:A Comprehensive History of India Vol 1.djvu/544

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JnSTOJiY OF l.DL.

[Hook HI.

of wai-fiire.

A.D.i72o^ the indiscriminate i)lun(lei- of all ships that came within his reacli. Along the

whole coast, from the vicinity of Bombay southwards to that of Goa, his vessels,

The Angria protected by forts, and sheltered within creeks and the mouths of the numen,uK

pirates.

small streams which descend from the Western Ghauts, lay ready to j>ounce «,n any hapless vessel that might chance to heave in sight. In carrying on tlieir depredations the pirates derived great facilities from the nature of tlie naviga- tion. The sea and land breezes blow alteiTiately in the twenty-four hours, dividing the day between them. The land breezes, liowever, do not reach more than forty miles out to sea, and hence vessels, in order to profit by them, must Their modo keep witliin that distance from the coast. They were thus oblicred to run into the very danger which they were anxious to avoid, and fell a frequent and eas}-

prey to Kanhojee's fleet of grubh •and gallivats. The.se two classes of vessels, which, for mercantile purposes, are still in common use on the Malabar coast, were admirably adapted for predator}' warfare. The grab.s, varj-ing in burden from 300 to 1 50 tons, and made broad in proportion to their length, for the purpose of drawing little water, canied a

A Grab i-From Solyyn, Les Hindous. number of gUnS, twO of them

from nine to twelve pounders, placed on the main deck so as to fire through port- holes over the prow, and the rest, usually six to nine pounders, fitted to give a broadside. The gallivats, which never exceeded seventy tons burden, comldned the double advantage of sailing and row boats. Besides a very large triangular sail, they were provided with forty to fifty stout oars, which enabled them to act as tugs to the grabs, and pull them even in a calm at the rate of foiu* miles an horn'. Thus attacked, it was scarcety possible for a merchant vessel to escape. Her enemies keeping at first at a safe distance, plied her with shot till they had dismasted her or thoroughly damaged her rigging, and then, as she lay helpless in the water, either compelled her to stiike, or boarded her by sending forward a number of gallivats, each with from 200 to 300 men. F.iiiureof xiie East India Company tried both force and negotiation with Kanhojee.

negotiations i ./ o .'

with them. After an ineffectual attempt to coerce him in 1717, Mr. Charles Boone, then governor of Bombay, tried the effect of a written remonstrance, and in Novem- ber, 1720, received a long and rambling, but verj'' characteristic answer, in which

' This is a ship with three masts, a pointed prow, and a bowsprit. Its crew consists of a nicodar or captain, and a few clashics or Moorisli sailors. The grabs are built at Bombay, where it appears that navigation was brought to some degree of perfection

at a very early period. The pointed prow which distinguishes the grab belongs to the Hindoo con- struction, and is not met with in any other countri*. The Portuguese have imitated it in their Indian ships. — Solvyn, Lcs Mindous.