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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 161

of playing them off. Thus they frequently asserted that the
brig could not fight, or, if she did, that any vessel of e(iual size
would capture her. These sarcastic observations, though made
only in joke, sometimes exasperated Pruen to such a pitch that
he was only prevented hy his position as commander, from taking
revenge upon the detractors of his ship and crew; however, the
altercations generally ended by his expressing a hope that he
might have an opportunity, while they were on board, of showing
these " soldier officers " that a Couipany's cruiser could fight,
and that as well as the lordly line-of-battle ships, to which he
was referred as " real men-of-war." His wish was gratified, and
the military officers, forming the elite of the British Army, had
the much-desired opportunity; audit is related that, when the
desperate action was at its height, and half his men lay weltering
in their blood. Captain Pruen coolly turned round to the gentle-
men wlu) so bravely bore their part in the fray, and some of
whom were already desperately wounded, with the inquiry as to
whether the Ranger ' and her crew could fight ?
'
In 1770 a squadron of ships of the Marine was despatched
from Bonibay to Mocha, to redress a grievance under which a
British subject was labouring, but happily matters were arranged
without any bloodshed. In that year the captain of a trading-
vessel from India was on shore at the British factory at ]\locha,
when a slave boy, whom he had corrected, ran away and took
refuge in au Arab's house, where he was prevailed upon to
become a Mahomraedan. His master, meeting the boy one day,
flogged him, whereupon the mob attacked the factory, and would
have sacrificed the English captain but that he managed to effect
his escape to his ship. The Governor, having refused to make
good the losses he had suffered at the hands of the populace,
who had destroyed his effects in the factory, the captain sailed
for Bombay, and requested redress from the Government. Two
ships of the Bombay Marine were immediately fitted out with
every requisite for bombarding the city, and, on their arrival at
Mocha, a message was sent to the Governor, apprising him of
their mission. The inhabitants were greatly alarmed, and
abandoned the forts, which they had been accustomed to consider
iitipregnable, and would have deserted the city had not the
Governor prevented it. He thought proper to comply with the
demands which were made on behalf of the sufferers, and sent
off 4,000 dollars, extorted from the Banian merchants, to the
Connnodore, wlio was " ha[)py," says a writer, " to preserve the
city from destruction, and to appease the wrath of the British
at so cheap a rate."*
AVe will now give someaccount of events up the Persian Gulf,
where the Company's Marine were engaged on ground that has
* " Series of adventures in the course of a voyage up tlie Red Sea, on the coasts
of Nubia and Egypt, in the year 1777 ;" by Eyles Irwin, Esq.
VOL. I. M