Page 86 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

In Bombay, he produced his horses for inspection by Colonel
Baker who was in charge of the remount depot for horses, which
were bought for the Presidency cavalry. The Colonel found
among them some remarkably fine animals, one of which lie
admired exceedingly. ‘The Little Greek, with all the address of
which he was master, begged the Colonel to confer a favour on
him by accepting the horse as a gift, knowing quite well that the
blunt, honest Colonel would spurn the idea of accepting a present.’
Baker then invited Adey to look over his own stud and to give
an opinion of his horses. While displaying one of his finest
animals he said to the Greek: ‘Mr. Adey, you requested me to
accept one of your horses, so it is only courtesy for me to offer
you this one.’ To the blunt Colonel’s astonishment and dismay,
Adey, instead of politely refusing the gift, replied in his broken
English: ‘Sarc, I will show you how different is the politeness of
our country to that of yours. We always accept presents offered
by great men, such as Your Excellency. We would consider it
an insult, in our low condition, to refuse such.’ So Adey got
away with the horse.
It was shortly after this incident that Loch arrived in Bombay
on his way to the Gulf. Adey at once came on board to renew
the acquaintance which he had made with Loch in London, and
begged for a passage to Bushirc. Loch, thinking that Adey’s
knowledge of Arabic would be useful, told him that, if he could
arrange for a passage with any of his officers, he could join the
ship. The midshipmen agreed to his messing with them. Offi-
cers were apparently allowed to take passengers in their quarters,
if they had the permission of the Captain, for on this trip there
were several passengers on board the Eden.
During the voyage, Adey showed himself to be both a braggart
and a coward. When pirate ships were sighted, he stamped up
and down the deck, rubbing his hands, and asking what chances
there were of overtaking them and going into action. But when
the Eden drew near to the pirates, ‘the poor little devil would
come to me with his hands on his stomach, telling me that he had
such “a big pain” that he would be obliged by my directing my
servant to give him one small drop of brandy, for he was very
bad’. The brandy made him a man again, and he would stay on
deck, swaggering around, but when the guns opened, he dashed
down the hatchway into the steerage, where he remained ‘as if
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