Page 313 - INDIANNAVYV1
P. 313

HISTORY OF TPIE INDIAN NAVY.          281

      'Aurora,'  in company  with  which  the  corvette  continued
      the cruise.  While thus engaged he was instrumental in saving
      treasure amounting to sixty bags of dollars, and the greater
      part of the cargo of a vessel, formerly known as the  ' l*rincess
      Royal,' belonging to some of the principal merchants of Surat,
      which had been wrecked on the Kattywar coast  ; for this act,
      the merchants, upwards of twenty in number, and  the under-
      writers, presented him with a letter of thanks, and he received
      from the Governor in Council, a despatch conveying his " high
      approval" for his meritorious conduct, and his huuianity in pre-
      serving the crew from the hands of the " lawless soldiery  "  of the
      Government of Joouughur, who had appropriated the whole of
      the valuable cargo, besides forty-two bags of dollars and silver,
      in recovering which, says the Political Agent, "Captain Grant,
      who had returned to the coast for the express object of pro-
      curing restitution, was subjected to personal insult and danger."
        In 1820, by an unexpected event, the active career of Captain
      Grant was temporarily brought to a sudden termination, and
      though he served in India some years after this event, his con-
      stitution had received so rude a shock by the cruel ill-treatment
      to which he was subjected, that he never recovered his health,
      and was ultimately forced to quit the Service, and retire upon a
      pension.  Captain Grant had been so successful in his vigorous
      measures for the extirpation of piracy on the coast of Kattywar,
      that the Guicowar considered it unnecessary to maintain a naval
      establishment.  He, accordingly, received orders to proceed in-
      land from his station, Velun Bunder, near Din Head, to Ann-ellie
      Fort,  to deliver over charge of his vessels to the Guicowar's
      Sersooba or Dewan.  While proceeding on this journey with
      an escort of four moinited men, he was waylaid by a bidm-icutt'ui*
      band of thirty-five horsemen, commanded by a noted  Kattee
      outlaw chief, one Bawawalla, and, after a brief struggle, in which
      his servant was killed, and  his moonshee and two of his small
      escort were wounded, the party were overpowered.  Captain
       Grant was personally unable to make any efllectual resistance,
       as he oidy carried a riding whip, and was carried away to endure
       a confinement of nearly three months in the most  pestilential
      jungles of tlu; Kattywar peninsula.!

        * Balia-wuttia means literally " out of countn," and the outlaws, wlio wore
       thus termed, were the most cruel of the liumau  race, and not only ravaged the
       country and robbed all degi-ees of the community, but did not scruple to maim
       or murder even those wlio offered no resistance.
        t His sufferings were sucli that most men would have succumbed to them, but
       he was gifted with an iron frame and indomitable resolution, and snrviveil more
       than  lialf a century  ;  in April,  1871, at the request of General 8ir George Lo
       G-rand Jacob—wiio had filled the post of Political Agent at Kattywar, between
                       s\ipplied liim with the following " Narrative of bis Cap-
       tivity," whieli appears in that ollicer's work, entitled " Western India :"— " On
       the years lS;51)-43—be
       first coming up, 15awawalla said that ho wanted to consult me about his alfairs,
       and on this pretext got me to dismount  ; my people being rendered helpless, I
   308   309   310   311   312   313   314   315   316   317   318