Page 240 - INDIANNAVYV1

208 HISTORY OP THE INDIAN NAVY.
quickly dispersed with severe loss. In this affair the havildar
and two men were killed and the rest wounded ; several men
of the ships' crews, who were ashore at the bazaar, were also
murdered by the infuriated natives.
On the 18th of October, 1798, the Company's cruiser ' Drake,'
Captain Bond, sailed from Bombay with presents from the
Government to the Kin^ of Baba,for his hospitality and humane
attention to the crew of the 'Neptune,' which had been cast
away on the coast of Madagascar. The ' Drake' arrived at that
island towards the end of the month ; but as the King of Baba
was a few days' journey in the interior, a messenger was
despatched with the information, and an officer sent up the
river, in a cutter, to meet him. On the 7th of November the
King came down and received the presents in the midst of his
nobles, Avith all the pageantry of his court. Like the unsophis-
ticated King of the Pelew Islands, who considered hospitality a
solemn duty incumbent on every one, it was a long time before
he could be made to understand the object of the expedition,
nor could he then conceal his surprise that the Company should
have thought it necessary to send him remuneration for
succouring those in distress. More than once he inquired of
Captain Bond " whether among the number of those who had
shared his protection he had a relation or friend." Upon receiving
an answ^er in the negative, he unaffectedly replied, " Then
wherefore have you come so far, and taken so much trouble."
At length he was made sensible that the English owned them-
selves indebted to his hospitality, and, in the presents which
had been delivered, had acknowledged the obligation. The
officers of the ' Drake' remarked as two singular customs, that his
sable Majesty used as his throne the knees of his wives, who bent
one knee upon the earth to support themselves, and that Avhen
he mounted and descended the sides of the ship, on proceeding
to inspect the ' Drake,' he always made use of the back of one of
his chiefs.
In the year 1800, the Hon. Company's frigate ' Cornwallis,' of
fifty-six guns, commanded by (^aptain Isaac Gonsalez Richard-
son, having convoyed some of the Company's trading ships
to England, sailed from the Downs with a return fleet bound to
India. The services performed by the ships and officers of the
Bombay Marine duringthe momentous period of the history of this
country, embraced between the years 1800 and 1814, were most
praiseworthy, and the small cruisers did not shun a conflict with
the heavily-armed privateers which quitted the ports of France
and the Mauritius in great numbers in order to prey upon
British commerce in Indian waters. While the trade was
protected against pirates, who received severe chastisement
when they attempted to resist, the French privateers were
severely handled when they encountered the Company's cruisers,