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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.           277

    the event of  refusal,  attacik the town.  In response  to  this
    iniperative summons the commanders of the war-boats were
    sent off handcuffed, and the Viceroy made the required atone-
    ment for the outrage.
      During the year 1812, the western squadron was reinlorcc  1 hy
    the  ' Mornington' twenty-two guns, and 'Thetis' and  'Ariel,'
    ten-gun brigs, from Bengal, they being relieved by the  ' Teign-
    inouth,' sixteen guns, and 'Antelope,' fourteen guns, which
    had  been employed  in China; the  former vessel  and  the
    ' Malabar' and  ' Aurora' proceeded early in the following year to
    Java, and participated in the expedition against the Rajah of
    Sambas, where, as already mentioned, the  ' Teignmouth' lost
    more than two-thirds of her crew.
      Towards the end of 1812, a small military  force, under the
    command  of  Colonel  Lionel  Smith,  assisted by  the Hon.
    Company's cruiser  ' Prince of ^Vales,'  fourteen guns, and a
    squadron of small craft, proceeded against a nest of pirates who
    had long established themselves at Malwan,* on the Malabar
   coast, rendering navigation nnsafe for trading vessels unless
    nnder convoy, and  compelling the Bombay Govennnent  to
   retain  a. cruiser to blockade the  coast.  The expedition was
   completely successful, and the pirates were so thoroughly rooted
                                            The port of Malwan
     * Malwan had for centuries been tlie haunt of pirates.
   is situated between the fort of that name and Melundy island, or Sindcedroog,
   and  lies between Gheriah and Vingorla.  Malwan and three other ports had
   formerly belonged to the Rajah of Kolapoor, -while between them and the Portu-
   guese territory of Goa, lay the small principality of VVaree. ruled by the Uhonsla
   family.  The late Duke of Wellington, then Major-General Wcllcsley, apprehen-
   sive t)f the safety of the single Company's cruiser employed to blockade the coast
   of Malwan, a fear not shared by the officers of the Bombay Marine engaged  in
   that service, wrote in 1801 that he regarded " the blockade of the Uajah's ports
   by a Company's cruiser as always inconvenient and expensive," and recommended
   the adoption of a treaty on their paying com])cnsation for the country vessels
   ]ilundered.  Again, writing to Colonel Sir William Clarke, commanding the 81th
   Regiment at Goa, he remarks that " nothing can be more scandalous than the system
   of piracy which has long been carried on on the coast of Malabar  ; and 1 am con-
   vinced that the nu-asure which I have proposed  to the Rajah is an expedient
   which will answer the j)urpose expected from it, only for a time.  I indeed doubt
   much whether the Rajah of Kolapoor or the IShonslah have the power, suppos-
   ing them to have the inclination, to prevent piracy  ; and that object is, in my
   opinion, to be atl'ected only by severe instantaneous punishments of pirates on
   their own coasts, and in sight of their own people  ; and if it sliould  still l)e per-
   sisted in, by sending strong armaments  -within  all the creeks and rivers, with
   orders to destroy boats, vessels, the fortifications which protect them, and even
   the habitations of the pirates."
     The capture of the lortresses of Newtec and Rairce, during tlie Mnhratta War
   in  1818, by a force under Sir William Xeir Grant,  in which  the IJombay
   Marine participated, finally put an end  to the depredations of these  restless
   jieople.  At this time only the principality of Sawunt Wiirec, a stri]) of territory
   forty miles in lenglh by twenty-five in breadth, remained between the Southern
   Concan and the rortugucse district of Goa, and  its ruler, called Phund Sawunt,
   gave trouble in 1814, though the rci.ning prince  in  18.i7, -was faithful.  The
   family was known by  the  title of Desaee, and the dynasty  wa-* al>o  called
    Bhon"^^la m the eighteenth century.  He is now a petty diief, entitled to a saluto
    of nine guns.
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