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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 25
owing to the jealousy of the Dutch, who seized two of the
Company's ships— the ' Swan' and ' Defence.' This ill feeling
eventually culminated on the 27th of Fel)ruaiy, 1(323, in what
is known in history as the Massacre of Amboyna, when Captain
Towerson, the Company's Agent, and nine Englishmen, were
seized and executed, on the pretence that they had entered
into a conspiracy for the purpose of taking possession of the
Castle of Amboyna.* This sanguinary deed was avenged in
1810, when the place surrendered to the British, just previous
to the outbreak of the Java war.
On the 25th September, 1616, four ships arrived at Surat
from England, which had left the Land's End on the 13th
of March, in company with two others ; of these latter one
separated, during a violent gale of wind, in the Bay of Biscay,
and the other remained behind at the Cape, but both at length
got safe to Bantam, whither they were bound. These four
ships—the ' Charles,' ' James,' ' Globe,' and ' Unicorn —were
'
under the command of Captain Benjamin Joseph, a brave and
ex])erienced seaman, and made their course, like all which
had hitherto come to Suratf through the Mozambique Channel,
between Madagascar and the mainland of Africa. Here,
amongst the Comoro Islands,| they descried, at daybreak of
the 5th of August, a Portuguese ship of enormous size,§ known
* These events took place notwithstanding the agreement arrived at in London
on the 17th of Julj-, 1619, between Commissioners appointed by the Dutch and
Eughsli Gorernments, by which free tiade was declared in tlie Eastern islands
and on the Coromandel coast, and each Company was to furnish ten ships of war
to be employed exclusively in India, for purposes of mutual defence, while a
court, consisting of four members of each Company, was also appointed to sit at
iBatavia.
t Up to this date the ships that had sailed for Surat, all of which, liowcver,
did not arrive tliere, were tlie following: —The 'Hector,' Captain Hawkins, in
1607-8; the 'Ascension,' Captain Alexander Sharpey, in 1608-9; the 'Trades'
Increase,' the ' Peppercorn,' and the ' Darling,' under Sir Henry Middleton, in
1610-11 ; the ' Dragon ' and ' Hoseander,' under Captain Best, in 1612 ; the
' Expedition,' Captain Cliristopher Newport, which went to Gruadel and Diu, but
did not come on to Surat, in 1613; the New Year's Gift,' the 'Hector,' the
'
' Merchant's Hope,' and tiie ' Solomon,' under Captain Nicholas Downton, in
161i-15; the 'Expedition,' 'Dragon,' ' Lyon,' and ' Peppercorn,' which brought
Sir Thomas Roe, and were commanded by Captain Keeling, in 1615-16.—Orme's
" Oriental Fragments," p. 375.
% The four Comoro Islands lie nearly midway between the north extreme of
Madagascar and the African coast. Comoro, the largest and liighest of these
islands, gives its name to the group, the others being Mohilla, ilayotta, and
Johanna ; tliey are all very high, and may bo seen from fourteen to twenty
leagues in clear weather. The inhabitants are Mahomedans, descendants of
Arabs mixed with Africans, and are generally found to be courteous and hospit-
able ; but the natives of Comoro appear not to have merited this character when
the Indian ships lirst traded to India, for the 'Penelojie' had part of her crew
enticed on shore, and destroyed by the inhabitants of this island.
§ Edward Terry, who was chaplain to Sir Thomas Roe, sailed in ttie ' Charles,'
which he calls " a new built goodly ship of a thousand tons ; the ' Unicorn,' a
new ship likewise, and almost of as great a burthen ; the ' James,' a great ship
too ; three lesser, the ' Globe,' the ' iiwan,' and the ' Rose.' " He likewise says,
that " seven hundred men sailed in the carrack, for she was a ship of an