A History of the Mahrattas v1.c22.14

v1.c22.14

² [Matthews left Spithead in February 1721, and arrived in Bombay in September of the same year. The expedition was dispatched by the King’s order at the request of the East India Company which was alarmed by constant reports of piracies committed by Angria and European buccaneers. Downing (Comp. History of the Indian Wars, 1737), who accompanied the expedition as a midshipman, gives an amusing account of the behaviour of the Viceroy of Goa and the Portuguese General of the North on the occasion of the attack on Alibāg (Kolāba), and of the Commodore’s anger at their pusillanimity. (B.C.G., ii. 87–9.)]