bay harbour,
and careened their ships in sight of factories along the coast.

To avenge their losses, the Muscat Arabs, in April, 1697, seized the
_London_, belonging to Mr. Affleck, a private merchant. The Arabs were
engaged in hostilities with the Portuguese at the time, and forced the
crew of the _London_ to fight for them. Those who were unwilling were
lashed to masts exposed to Portuguese fire, from which they did not
escape scatheless. In vain the commanders of two of the Company's vessels
assured the Imaum that the _London_ was not a pirate.

"You have sent me a letter," he wrote, "about my people taking one of
your ships. It is true that I have done so, in return for one you
English took from me, so now we are even and have ship for ship; for
this one I will not surrender. If you wish to be friends, I am
willing to be so; if not, I will fight you and take all the ships I
can."

One pirate ship was reported to have chased two Cong ships, capturing one
and forcing the other ashore, where it became a total wreck. "What
influence this may have on the Rt. Hon. Company's affairs, God alone
knows," wrote the Surat President, mournfully. Soon he was in better
spirits. The same pirates had landed and plundered Cong; but, allowing
themselves to be surprised, fifty-six of the crew had been set upon and
killed.

With few exceptions, the English pirates came from the American colonies.
Every year, from New York, Boston, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, ships were
fitted out, nominally for the slave trade, though it was no secret that
they were intended for piracy in the Eastern seas. Whatever compunction
might be felt at attacking European ships, there was none about
plundering Asiatic merchants, where great booty was to be gained with
little risk. Sometimes the Governors were in league with the pirates, who
paid them to wink at their doings. Those who were more honest had
insufficient power to check the evil practices that were leniently, if
not favourably, regarded by the colonial community, while their time was
fully occupied in combating the factious opposition of the colonial
legislatures, and in protective measures against the French and Indians.
The English Government, absorbed in the French war, had no ships in the
Indian seas; but the straits to which English trade in the East had been
reduced, and the enormous losses caused by the pirates, at last forced
some measures to be adopted for coping w