"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٢‎٩] (١٧٨٢/١٣٨٤)

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1229
bring contagion, the cargo was transhipped to the Company's cruiser
a Drake" with a view to its being landed after the epidemic had
ceased. The disease, however, so far from abating at the approach of
the hot weather, as had been expected, continued day by day to increase ;
and the position of the Company's employes, whose servants had deserted
them and whose provisions had begun to fail and could not, it was
supposed, be replenished with safety, soon became extremely inconvenient.
At lengthy an the 23rd of April, having first sealed up the warehouses,
recommended the Factory to the care of the local government, and
appointed Khojah Petrus and another Armenian merchant to represent
the Company in their absence, they left Basrah for Bombay in the
"Tyger " of eight, and the " Drake ;; of fourteen guns. In a resolution
which they drev up immediately before starting, and which they left to
be forwarded to the Court of Directors in London, they justified their
conduct chiefly m the ground that there were not at Basrah any outstand
ing debts of consequence due to the Company, that the plague had caused
a total suspension of business, and that it would be unsafe to hold com
munication with the natives for at least six months to come; and, in
taking their departure, they were careful not to let it be suspected at
Basrah that the^ meant to go so far as Bombay.
Three days ater, while the two vessels were still descendinp" the Ca P tnr e of
tll0 Tvff©! 4 ''
Shatt-al-'Arab, the ft Tyger", then three or four miles ahead of the in the Shatt-
" Drake was unexpectedly boarded by four piratical Gallivats from 26th 1 A*' *1
Rig which her commander, Lieutenant Scott, had taken for Masqat 1773.
vessels. Lieucenant Scott, finding that his lascars had all jumped over
board and that he had only 11 Europeans left with whom to oppose the
enemy, also threw himself into the water and was eventually picked up,
along with two Europeans and two lascars, by the Drake
Messrs. Beaumont and Green, Senior Merchants, who remained on board
the vessel, were captured with her; but what became of the rest of the
crew does not appear.
The " Drake " made every effort to overtake the " Tyger " and the
pirate ships, which, assisted by a fifth Gallivat, quickly towed the
unfortunate vessel away ; but the pursuit, as the a Drake " on account
of her draught of water was unable to cross the bar before the next
morning's tide, was unsuccessful; and the Agent, considering it useless
to proceed to Kig with the "Drake'"' in her overloaded condition to
demand the restoration of the "Tyger " and the release of the prisoners,
resolved to prosecute his voyage " with the utmost expedition, lest from
the lateness of the season the 'Drake' should lose her passage to