Page 268 - INDIANNAVYV1

23(5 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
Here Lieutenant MacJonalJ received command of the ' Lively,'
a small schooner of" eight guns and forty men, and, in the latter
part of 1807, on receipt of inteHigence from Colonel Schuyler,
Political Agent at Goa, that a 8urat ship, captured by two
French corvettes, had put into Goa to refit, he was removed for
the occasion into the ' ]\Iosquito,' pattamar, carrying seven
12-pounders, and a party of artillerymen, in addition to her
crew, and sent with H.M's. brig ' Diana,' Commander Kemp-
thorne, to lie in the offing and capture her on leaving that port.
Here they watched the prize for three months, but she at length
escaped, owing to the ' Diana' having hugged the weather-shore
too much, and the pattamar not being fleet enough to cut off her
retreat in the double-reef topsail breeze she chose for the
attempt. Lieutenant Macdonald now resumed command of the
'Lively,' and, in October, 1808, proceeded in company with two
armed pattamars, to the northward to watch the piratical ports
of Bey t and Poshetra, at the mouth of the Gulf of Cutch.
Lieutenant Macdonald instituted so vigorous a blockade of
the port of Poshetra and the neighbouring island of Beyt, that
the chief gave in his submission, though the hydra head of
piracy was raised again as soon as the little squadron was with-
drawn to Bombay. While off the Guzerat coast. Lieutenant
Macdonald encountered, with his little schooner, four piratical
dhows of the Joasmi Arabs, of whom a detailed account will
be given in a later chapter, and for his gallantry received the
thanks of the Bombay Government.
On his return to Bombay he proceeded to take charge of the
flotilla co-operating with the army in Travancore, and on the
fall of Trivandrum, which terminated this war, carried General
Stewart to Colombo. Early in 1810, a new brig, the 'Ariel,'
often guns, was launched in Bombay and Lieutenant Macdonald
received the command.* He sailed in July for ]\Iadras,
whence he was sent by Sir George Barlow, with despatches, to
Lord Minto at Calcutta, and, in October, sailed with Mr. (after-
wards Sir) Stamford Raffles, to Penang and Malacca. Under
that able governor, Lieutenant Macdonald was employed in
important missions to the Sultan of Palimbang, and other native
chiefs, and so meritorious were his services that Lord JMinto, the
Governor-General, conferred on him a captain's commission as
a special reward.
* Lieutenant Macdonald was fortunate in leavinj; three ships which met with
tragic fates after his connection with them had ceased. The ' Lively ' was blown
up and his successor killed ; the ' Sylph ' was captured by a strong piraticnl force,
and nearly every soul was murdered ; and the ' Ariel ' foundered, and eighty-two
out of eighty-five souls were drowned.