The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.118

c7.s9.118

It is now time to return to the affairs of the coast, where piracy still flourished not less than before the fall of Angria. In 1765 the piracies on the coast south of Vijaydurg induced the Bombay Government to send a force which took Málvan from the Kolhápur authorities and Ráiri from the Sávants.⁶ The name of the island-fort at Málvan was changed from Sindhudurg to Fort Augustus, but in the beginning of the following year the place was restored on payment of Rs. 3,60,000.⁷ A promise to pay a further sum was made, and permission given for the establishment of a factory at Málvan, which does not appear to have been made use of. Ráiri was not returned till October 1766, because our Government and the Sávants could not agree as to the price of it.⁸ Eventually Rs. 80,000 were paid, and the village and the district of Vengurla was made over and mortgaged for thirteen years.⁹ The mortgagee however was not permitted to realize the revenues, and the agreement to abstain from piracy was not observed either by the Kolhapur state or the Sávants.¹ The Bombay Government therefore at the end of the thirteen years refused to restore Vengurla, on which the Sávants in 1780 took it, plundering both public and private property. The Peshwa had in the meantime established a fleet at Vijaydurg under a Marátha named Anandráo Dhulap, whose family remained in power until 1812, and whose descendants still have a small property in the neighbourhood, and though entirely impoverished are considered fit to marry with the families of the Gáikwár and other princes. The Peshwa also had another fleet under the Sar Subhedár of Bassein² and after 1775 his officers paid no respect even to English ships, which they took if they could, and only restored if the capture was quickly and clearly proved against them. On account of these various piratical fleets the coasting vessels could not at this time ply without being convoyed by the Company's vessels. Sixty or eighty of them generally sailed from Bombay to Surat under a convoy of one or two ships. In 1774 five or six Portuguese merchantmen sailed from Goa to Surat convoyed by a sixty-four gun ship, but were attacked by the Maráthás, the frigate put to flight, and the rest taken into Gheria.¹ In 1780 a ship carrying despatches from the Court of Directors was taken off the coast and carried to Vijaydurg, and the officer sent as a prisoner to Rasálgad, one of the Konkan forts visible from Mahábaleshvar. A more serious affair took place in 1783 after peace had been concluded between the Bombay Government and the Maráthás. The Ranger, a ship of the Bombay Marine, sailed from Bombay on April 5 with several military officers on board: on the eighth when near Gheria she was attacked by Dhulap, and after a fight of five hours was captured and taken into Gheria, where Dhulap denied all knowledge of the peace. Two officers were killed and three besides the commander of the vessel wounded, and no communication was received at Bombay from the survivors till May 23, when a letter of May 5 arrived. The prisoners were released on the twenty-seventh, and arrived in Bombay in the Ranger on the twenty-ninth, she being too much disabled to proceed on her voyage. The bad faith of the Poona government was shown by Dhulap having displayed in the presence of some of the officers the ornaments sent to him from Poona in honour of the achievement.³