s commanders to seize interlopers; but the interlopers,
as a rule, were remarkably well able to take care of themselves. As
pirates and interlopers alike sailed under English colours, the whole
odium fell on the English. In August, 1691, a ship belonging to the
wealthy merchant, Abdul Guffoor, was taken at the mouth of the Surat
river, with nine lakhs in hard cash on board. A guard was placed on the
factory at Surat, and an embargo laid on English trade. As the pirate had
shown the colours of several nationalities, the authorities were loth to
proceed to extremities. Fortunately for the English Company, a member of
the pirate crew was captured, and proved to be a Dane; so the embargo on
English trade was taken off.

Though they plied their calling at sea, almost with impunity, the pirates
occasionally fell victims to Oriental treachery on shore. Thus, James
Gilliam, a rover, having put into Mungrole, on the Kattiawar coast, was
made welcome and much praised for the noble lavishness with which he paid
for supplies. Soon there came an invitation to a banquet, and Gilliam,
with some of his officers and crew, twenty in all, were received by the
representative of the Nawab of Junaghur with excessive ceremony. Much
polite curiosity was evinced about the noble strangers. "Why did they
always go armed? Were their muskets loaded? Would they discharge them to
show their host the European method?" The muskets were discharged, and
immediately the banquet was announced. "Delay to reload the muskets was
inexpedient. It would be time to recharge their weapons after the feast."
And then, when seated and defenceless, there was an irruption of armed
men, and Gilliam, with his followers, were seized and fettered. For a
year they lay at Junaghur, where two of them died. In vain Gilliam
contrived to send a letter to the Surat factory, asking that they might
be claimed as British subjects. President Harris knew that the least
interest shown in the fate of the rovers would be fatal to the interests
of the Company, and was relieved when he heard that they had been sent to
Aurungzeeb's camp; after which they are heard of no more.

In the beginning of 1692, authority was given to the Company's commanders
to seize pirates and hold them till the King's pleasure was known, but
the measure was of small effect. The pirates were prime seamen, who
outsailed and outfought the Company's ships; while among the Company's
crews they had numerous sympathizer