Page 63 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

from Bombay as a present to the Commander-in-Chief. The
mangoes which were grown at Trincomalcc tasted so strongly of
turpentine that nobody could cat them. Loch gave his Bombay
mangoes to the coxwain to carry when he went ashore. On
looking round for the coxwain, ‘I was much astonished to see him
and a couple of natives in a scuffle, and I overheard him swearing
that he would not give up the mangoes’. The two ‘natives’ were
revenue officials, demanding customs duty. Loch went to the
Resident and Collector, and told him what had happened, but the
Resident said that ‘he doubted very much that lie could allow the
mangoes to pass, so strict were their instructions’. However,
eventually Loch was allowed to bring his mangoes ashore. The
mango incident seems to have upset Loch, and his comments on
the ‘natives’ of Trincomalcc arc not flattering. ‘The people, like
their kinsfolk in Malabar, arc famous jugglers, they work beauti­
fully in jewelry, but do not consider it necessary to adhere to the
truth and arc not altogether honest.’
On October 7th, Manscl and Dunkin left in a country craft for
Madras, at the same time Loch lost two of his officers who had to
be invalided home. For the next three weeks, the crew were
busily employed in ‘stripping the masts and yards of the rigging,
and refitting it, repairing the sails, and caulking the ship through­
out. By October 30th, we were again all ataut and ready for sea.’
In their off-time, the seamen were allowed to go ashore on an
island in the bay which was called Sober Island, apparently it was
named thus because the authorities believed that there was little
chance of the seamen being able to obtain spirits there. This was
far from being the ease for, as Loch says: ‘where money is to be
gained, the demand will be supplied by some means. I can only
say it was anything but a sober island while I was there, and some
very jovial days have I had with poor Sir Richard and his friends.’
From this rather odd remark, it appears that the Commander-in-
Chief used to have parties on this island, which was supposed to
be ‘dry’.
On November 2nd, Loch received orders from Sir Richard
King to proceed to the Persian Gulf, calling at Bombay, where the
Eden was to be provisioned. He was told that, provided that he
did not take too much time, he could call at any of the ports
which he wished to visit on the Ceylon and Malabar coasts. On
November 3rd, the Eden was ready for sea, and Sir Richard King
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