Page 309 - INDIANNAVYV1
P. 309
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.