Page 195 - INDIANNAVYV1

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 163
Baron Kiiipbaasen took possession of it, until it numbered four
thousand souls.* "The Dutch," says a writer in the "Asiatic
Journal," (Vol. xxvii.. New Series,) "built a regular square
fort of four bastions, each of which mounted ten guns. In 1762,
Meer Meana, of Bunderick, took two armed gali vats, and landing
with two hundred men, plundered the island. The Dutch having
afforded assistance to the Persians in attacking Meer i\Ieana at
Bunderick in which they failed, he retaliated, and in 1766
attacked the Dutch at Kharrack, and compelled them to surrender
the island, though they had a garrison of eighty Europeans on
the island, who proceeded to Bushire. This island became,
under the Dutch, a flourishing settlement, with a population
exceeding twelve hundred souls.'' Abraham Parsons, in his
" Travels in Asia and Africa,'' gives a different version of
the capture of the island by the Meer, and says that
he first induced the Dutch Governor to visit him at Bunder
Reeg, and then forced him, on pain of death, to sign an
order directing the commanding officer to surrender. By this
acquisition, Meer Mohunna's power was greatly increased, and
he became the dread of all neighbouring chiefs. "From this
time," says Parsons, " he commenced pirate, fitting out his gali-
vats and other smaller armed vessels as cruisers ; they took and
plundered vessels of every nation, and he became as great a
terror to those who navigated in the Persian Gulf, as the famous
Angria had heretofore been in the East Indies." At length, in
1768, Kurreem Khan determined to expel Meer Mohunna.
The island of Kharrack was claimed by the Persian Govern-
ment, and Sheikh Nasseer, of Bushire, was directed to take steps
to recover it.

* The above is the account given by Malcolm in his " History of Persia,"
(vol. ii. p. 82). Ives, in his " Voyage to India," speaks of his visit to Kharrack in
1758, while it was in the possession of Baron Kniphausen, and gives a detailed
account of tlie settlement of the Dutch on the island. Mr. Ives proceeded up the
' Swallow,' Captain Price. Justamond
G-ulf from Bombay in the Company's cruiser :—
gives the following account of this event " Baron Knipliausen managed the
Dutch factory with extraordinary success. The English found themselves in
imminent danger of losing the superiority they had acquired at this place, as wed
as in most of the seaports in India. They excited the Turkish Government to
suppress a branch of trade that was useful to it, and procured an order for the
confiscation of the merchandize and possessions of their rivals. The Dutch
factor, who, under the character of a merchant, concealed the statesman, instantly
took a resolution worthy of a man of genius. He retired witii his dependents,
and the broken remains of his fortune, to Kharrack. a small islaml at the distance
of fifteen leagues from the mouth of the river, wlierc he fortified himself in such a
manner that, by intercepting tlie Arabian and Indian vessels bound for the city,
he compelled the Grovernmeiit to grant him an indemnification for the losses he
had sustained by their behaviour. The fame of his integrity and abilities drew to
his island the privateers of the neighbouring ports ; the very merchants of
Bussorah and the Europeans who traded thither. This new colony found^ its
prosperity increase every day, when it was abandoned by its founder. Tlie
successor of this able man did not display the same talents ; towards the end of
the year 1765, he suffered himself to be dispossessed of his island by the Arabian
corsair, Mirmahana,"
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