The Pirates of Malabar, and An Englishwoman in India Two Hundred Years Ago byJohn Biddulph chapter VI

EXPEDITION AGAINST KENNERY

The islet of Kennery, about ten miles from the mouth of the harbour, and
three from the mainland, had long been a thorn in the side of Bombay trade.At the time of the first occupation of Bombay it was uninhabited. In 1679it was suddenly occupied by Sivajee, who began to fortify it. The dangerof this to Bombay was at once seen, and part of the garrison was sent insmall vessels, afterwards reinforced by the Revenge, frigate, tointercept the communication between Kennery and the mainland. On the 18thOctober, the Mahratta fleet bore down and engaged. In half an hour theDove, grab, hauled down its colours and was captured, and all thesmaller vessels made sail for Bombay, leaving the Revenge, like its morefamous namesake, alone amidst its foes. Fortunately, there were on boardtwo sturdy Englishmen, Minchin, the Company's commodore, and Keigwin, thecommander of the garrison. Undismayed by the odds against them, Minchinand Keigwin gallantly fought their ship; all attempts at boarding were
repelled with loss, five of the Mahratta gallivats were sunk, and, at last,the whole Mahratta fleet took to flight, pursued by the Revenge, andsought refuge in the shallow waters at the mouth of the Negotna river. Twodays later, they came out again, but found Keigwin and Minchin so ready toengage, that they desisted from the attempt to reach Kennery. In this way,for some time, a partial blockade of the Negotna river was maintained bythe Revenge, which had been reinforced by the Hunter frigate, and anumber of small vessels from Bombay. In spite of all efforts, a fewMahratta vessels from time to time evaded the blockade, and kept Kennerysupplied with provisions and arms. This unexpected opposition from a
company of traders stirred Sivajee to settle the matter by an attack on
Bombay, which was in no condition to make any resistance. He marched fivethousand men to Kalyan, and demanded permission, of the Portuguese, toland at Thana and march on Bombay. The permission was refused, but the
Bombay Council were so alarmed lest the Portuguese should ultimately giveway, that they opened negotiations with Sivajee. Meanwhile, his seizure ofKennery had alarmed the Seedee, who sent his fleet into Bombay harbour,and offered his co-operation to the President, who accepted it with somemisgivings. Before long, it was discovered that the Seedee intended tokeep Kennery for himself, if he could capture it, which seemed to theCouncil as bad as if it were in Sivajee's hands, so the English squadronheld aloof, while the struggle for Kennery continued between the Seedeeand the Mahrattas. Sivajee was too much occupied with other matters totrouble about Bombay, and in March, 1680, a treaty of peace was made. Hisstruggle with the Seedee for the possession of Kennery went on, withresults that are not recorded; but eventually both parties appear to haveleft the place to itself. In 1710, Conajee Angria seized the islet and
fortified it.

By the end of October all was ready. The ships from England, with the
merchandise and money for the yearly investment, had arrived, and joined
in the expedition. In order to put an end to the quarrels among commandersthat had marked the failure of former expeditions, Boone resolved to takethe command himself; so, on the 1st November, he hoisted his flag on boardthe Addison, East Indiaman, having with him Mr. Walter Brown and otherfactors and writers. There was at this time in the service a renegadePortuguese, one Manuel de Castro, who had been in Angria's service beforeBoone had given him employment. He had been present at Hamilton's attackon Carwar, when his misbehaviour had been such as to make all presentdistrust him. By his boasts of his knowledge of Angria's harbours he hadgained the confidence of the Council, and had been appointed Commodore ofthe Company's gallivats. But several of the English captains refused toserve under him, protesting that they knew his character better than theGovernor did; so Boone contented himself by giving him command of onlyfive gallivats. On the 2nd, the squadron weighed anchor, and, on thefollowing day anchored off Kennery. It consisted of the Addison andDartmouth, East Indiamen, the Victoria frigate, the Revenge andDefiance grabs, the Fame galley, the Hunter ketch, two bombketches,and forty-eight gallivats. On the 6th they were joined by the Morrice,and on the 12th by the Stanhope, East Indiamen. Directly after anchoring,a futile bombardment was opened on the Kennery fort, but the distance wasso great that nothing was effected but waste of ammunition. The ships thenstood in closer, and opened fire again, while the Dartmouth ran in andfired several broadsides. While this was going on, the Victory andRevenge were signalled to attack two grabs that were seen coming out ofthe harbour; but, on fourteen gallivats coming out to assist the grabs,they were recalled. The 4th was spent in preparations for a landing, andthe gallivats rowed round the island to choose a landing-place. It wasfinally arranged that the soldiers and marines should land to windward,while the sepoys, covered by the fire of grabs and gallivats, should landat the opposite side of the Island, to leeward. But when the momentarrived, next morning, the sepoys absolutely refused to land, in spite of
the severest measures.[1] The soldiers and marines, three hundred in
number, landed, but were beaten back with a loss of eighteen killed and
fifty wounded, "more by ye force of stones hoven from ye rocks than fier
arms." Some loss was occasioned by the bursting of a gun on board one of
the gallivats. Manuel de Castro, with his squadron of gallivats, had beenordered to lie off the mouth of the harbour and prevent reinforcementsreaching Kennery. Notwithstanding, he allowed five of Angria's gallivatsto slip in with ammunition and provisions for the besieged, of which theywere believed to stand much in need.
The 6th was occupied in making preparations for another attack, and
volunteers were called for from among the sailors, for which service theywere to receive forty rupees each, which, at the existing rate of exchange,was reckoned equal to five pounds sterling. The loss of a leg or arm wasto be recompensed by a sum of L30 on return to England, and employment forlife under the Company. The married men were promised, if killed, thattheir widows should receive L30, with L10 for each child. These offersprocured some forty volunteers, who were to be led by Gideon Russell, mateof the Morrice.

Early next morning the attacking party were put into the boats, to land
under cover of the fire of the Britannia, Fame and Revenge; when itwas found that a strong current prevented disembarkation, and the boats
were forced to lie off under a heavy fire, until the tide changed. To makematters worse, Manuel de Castro ran two of his gallivats ashore under theguns of the castle, so that fifty or sixty men were killed or woundedbefore a landing was effected. At ten o'clock the boats pulled for thelanding-place; but the tide was still running so strongly that they werethrown into confusion, and many of the attacking party never landed at all.The sepoys again refused to land. A small party of seamen, headed byGideon Russell, attacked the gateway under a shower of shot and stones,and, before long, Russell fell, grievously wounded. He was carried back tothe Morrice, where he died next day. The seamen continued their attackunder Clement Downing, backed by Major Stanton, Captain Coxsidge, and thesoldiers. John Steele, the carpenter's mate of the Morrice, with hisbroad axe hewed at the gate and nearly effected an entrance, when thecowardice of two of Stanton's captains caused the attack to miscarry. Oneof them threw down his sword, which was carried to Boone, who, on returnto Bombay, ordered him to be broke at the head of the garrison. The other,somewhat more courageous, came boldly up to the gate and fired his pistol;
but the bullet rebounded and struck him on the nose; upon which he orderedthe drums to beat a retreat, and the soldiers got back to the boats,
leaving a small handful of seamen to prosecute the attack. These, in turn,seeing the hopelessness of any further attempts, retreated to their boats,and rowed off under a heavy fire, leaving many wounded to be massacred bythe enemy. It was the old story, repeated so often on these occasions; abadly planned attack carried out half-heartedly by undisciplined men,under one or two resolute leaders; as soon as the leaders were disabled,the rest retreated with more or less loss.

A desultory bombardment was continued for some days, and some shots were
fired against Colaba; but Kennery was now well provided with ammunition,
and could return two shots for every one fired by the Bombay squadron. Onthe 11th, Angria sent a flag of truce to offer terms, which were rejected.On the 14th, Boone returned to Bombay in the Dartmouth, seeing thatnothing more could be effected, and, on the 24th, the whole squadron madesail for Bombay, after exhausting all their ammunition. Their return seemsto have been hastened by the appearance of Angria's fleet from Gheriah,which had Bombay for a time at its mercy.

The failure of the attack on Kennery, under his own eyes, taught Boone
that, without some assistance from England, he could hope to accomplish
little against Angria, whose ships now lay off the harbour, making it
difficult for trading vessels to go in or out. Three times the Morrice
got under way, and three times had to return, before she could start on
her return voyage to Europe. In consequence of Boone's representations,
the Directors sent out the St. George, a sixty-gun ship, to act as a
guardship for the harbour. Her arrival only served to show the
incompetency of many of the Company's naval officers at that time. In
laying the ship on shore to scour its bottom after the voyage from England,its back was broken, and the St. George became a total wreck.

Meanwhile, with an eye to a future campaign against Angria's strongholds,
Boone set to work to build a floating battery. The Phram, as it was
called, was designed with shot-proof sides to carry twelve 48-pdrs.; but,as will appear before long, its fate was as ignominious as that of the St.George.

His own observation had convinced Boone of the treachery of Manuel de
Castro. On his return to Bombay, the renegade was put in irons, and
shipped off to St. Helena. There he was detected in fomenting a mutiny
among the convicts and slaves. He was deported, and before long made his
way back into Angria's service.

Meanwhile, the wall round the town, the building of which had been one ofBoone's earliest projects, was nearing completion. It was built entirely,or almost entirely, by contributions from the native merchants, and Boonereported to the Directors that, when the whole space was built over, theground-rents would realize Rs.8890 a year for the Company's treasury. Thechurch also, the building of which had been started by Aislabie, wasfinished about this time. The original chapel inside the factory was nolonger able to accommodate the increasing English population, besidesbeing in a ruinous condition.

Like other chiefs along the coast, the Bombay authorities gave passes to
traders living under their protection, and in their warfare with Angria
they had adopted the practice of other chiefs, of not recognizing the
immunity of vessels that did not carry passes from themselves. We find at
this time the Kattiawar traders complaining of two ships having been
seized that held protective passes from Angria. In reply they were told
that they must have English passes. The Company was at war with Angria,
and his power was increased by those who paid him for protection. So, likeall neutrals, they had to suffer in a war with which they had no concern.

Apprehensive of a fresh attack after the monsoon, Angria opened delusive
negotiations for a treaty of peace, through his feudal lord, Sahoojee.
Boone was regularly taken in, and announced with satisfaction, to the
Directors, that a treaty had been made, under which Angria contracted to
restore all ships and vessels he had taken, except the _Success_, which
was hopelessly decayed, for which he was to pay Rs.10,000, or to restore
goods to that amount. In lieu of captured cargoes he was to pay Rs.50,000,or to give goods of equal value, and within two years he was to payRs.10,000 more, for which payment Sahoojee undertook to be surety. Boonereported that he had captured from Angria prizes to the value of Rs.9785,which, together with the above payment, and a two-per-cent. war-tax on thepeople of Bombay, would go some way to recoup the Company for their lossesand the cost of the expeditions. Altogether, the prospects of increasedtrade were brighter, but, so long as Angria held Colaba, he consideredthere could be no permanent peace. He was soon undeceived. As soon asAngria saw that he was safe from attack for another season, he repudiatedthe treaty, and by the beginning of the new year his piratical doings wererenewed.

[1] "Killed and wounded several of them, but all to no purpose."--Log of
the Addison.