Page 202 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

‘the Nabob is treated as to outward show, as a Prince, but without
possessing any degree of power beyond his policy, which is about
the extent of Hyde Park’.
‘Near the palace were drawn up the Nabob’s elephants, all
caparisoned, and a park of artillery and his bodyguard.’ The
officers were received by the Nabob in the centre building of the
large palace, necklaces of flowers were put round their necks, and
they were handed arica nut and chanan, with betel nut rolled in
plantain leaf, on silver trays. Near the palace, as in most of the
big houses in Madras, was a ‘tcalcry’, a number of small buildings
in a square, covered with wire, in which ducks were kept and bred.
At Pondicherry, Loch attended a ball at the house of a rich
Armenian merchant. He describes it as ‘unc belle asscmblcc dc
belle fillcs’. He noticed that the ladies ‘had not the pale, wan
appearance which the English have, after being for a time in this
climate, but whether it was so in fact, or whether a little assistance
had been used at the toilette, I will not pretend to determine’.
He remarked how ‘the natives partake of the maimer of the
French, both in speech and gesture’.
In the middle ofjunc, Loch was back in Trincomalec, where he
got orders to return to the Gulf. He sailed on July 16th, in the
Southwest Monsoon, by the southern route, as he says, ‘the longest
way round the shortest way home’. On this voyage, the Eden's
best run was 217 miles in twenty-four hours, but she took thirty-
nine days to reach Muscat. At Muscat, Loch learned, from the
Commander of the Mercury, that the garrison of Ras al Khaima
had been forced to evacuate the place owing to the impossibility
of getting sufficient drinking water, and the ill effects of the
unbearable heat on the men. They moved to Kishm Island where
water supplies were good, and the climate was better than most
places in the Gulf. Before leaving, Perronet Thompson had
destroyed every building which might be used as a stronghold
by the pirates. A few weeks later, Loch put in at Kishm and
found the troops settled there in barastis, with plenty of good
water, and even a certain amount of supplies provided by the
inhabitants.
The weather at Muscat was at its worst, the temperature at
sunrise being ioi° so Loch only stayed there for the inside of a
day. The south-east wind, known as the ‘Ghoos’ was blowing;
! it caused a ‘distressingly suffocated feeling. Neither officers nor

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