p and friars, and
the Portuguese General of the North was ordered to prohibit all
intercourse with Bombay, and to inflict the severest penalties on all
persons attempting to go there or to leave it.

"Those who are captured shall be whipped and put in the galleys for
five years, and, if of noble birth, they shall pay the sum of one
thousand xeraphims in lieu of working in the galleys, and shall be
transported for five years to the fortress of Diu."[1]

It seemed as if Boone was to have a Portuguese war added to his other
troubles. Fortunately, more moderate counsels prevailed, and, in September,
a conciliatory letter was written to Boone by the Viceroy, announcing his
approaching departure. A few days later, the new Viceroy, Francisco Jose
de Sampaio e Castro, arrived in Goa. While the quarrel was in progress, a
native ship from Surat, bound for Jeddah, was captured off Bassein by a
European pirate ship. This was probably England's ship, _Victory_, of
which we shall hear more directly. The ship and cargo, valued at twelve
lakhs, were carried off, and the passengers and crew put ashore at Malabar
Hill.

A month later, Boone received intelligence of a serious loss to the
Company's trade from the Madagascar pirates. On the 7th August, the
_Greenwich_, Captain Kirby, and the _Cassandra_, Captain James Macrae,
bringing the usual yearly investment for Bombay and Surat, were in Johanna
roads, engaged in watering. At anchor, near them, was an Ostend ship that
had called for the same purpose. A few days before, they had received
intelligence that a French pirate, Oliver la Bouche,[2] had run on a reef
off Mayotta, and lost his ship, and was engaged in building a new one.
Thinking that the opportunity of catching the pirates at a disadvantage
should not be lost, Macrae and Kirby agreed to go in search of them and
attack them. They had just completed their arrangements when two strange
sails hove in sight. They proved to be the _Victory_, a French-built ship
of forty-six guns, commanded by the well-known pirate, Edward England, and
the _Fancy_, a Dutch-built ship of twenty-four guns, commanded by Taylor.
Macrae and Kirby prepared to give them a hot reception, the Ostend ship
promising to stand by them. So far were they from simply trying to make
their escape, that they looked forward to the handsome reward the Company
would give them for the capture of the pirates. From what followed it is
easy to see that Macrae