Hamilton’s account of the east indies. 313

However, before the Arabs had done plundering, they became fecure and negligent,which the governor having notice of, proclaimed freedom to all flaves who wouldVenture to fally out on the enemy. Accordingly about 4000 foldiers and flaves madea l’ally with fuccefs, killing above 1000 Arabs , and made the reft flee from the town,the affailants lofing but very few; and by that one fally the town was regained. ThofeHaves are generally Mofambique and Mombafs negroes, whofe ftrength and bravery Ihave mentioned before. The city ftill feels the diftnal effects of the iofs it then re-ceived. At prefent there are not above 200 Portugueze both in the caftle and city.The reft of its inhabitants are Banyans of all forts, there may be about 40,000, butfew of them of fortune or figure, becaufe the infolence of the Portugueze makesit unl'afe for moneyed ftrangers to dwell among them. The King of Portugal has2-bout 12joool. per annum, of poll money paid into his treafury, and the cuftomsand land-tax may come to about 6000I. more : bur if that ifland were in the handsof fome induftrious European nation, it would be the beft mart town on the coaftof India , for the river Indus being near neighbours, both by Sindy and Cambay,thofe commodities might be imported and exported to advantage. And that com-merce has raifed Surat .

All the country between Diu and Dand Point, which is about 30 leagues alongHiore, admits of no traffick, being inhabited by freebooters, called Warrels, andoften aflbciaie with the Sanganians, in exercifmg piracies and depredations. Theyconfide much in their numbers, as the others do, and drive to board their prizes,and as foon as they get on board, they throw in fhow r ers of ftones on the prize’sdecks, in order to fink them that way, if they don’t yield, and they have earthenpots as big as a fix pound granadoe (hell, full of unquenched lime, well fifted,'vhich they throw in alfo, and the pots breaking, there arifes fo great a duft, thatthe defendants can neither breathe nor fee well. They alfo ufe wicks of cot-ton, dipped in a combuftible oil, and firing the wick, and throwing it into theireppofer’s fhip, it bums violently, and fets fire to the parts that it is thrown on.They have no cities, and their villages are fmall. The beft of them (lands about60 miles to the eaftward of Diu, and is called Chance. It is built about a league with-in the mouth of a river, which has a fmall ifland lying athwart it, about two milesinto the fea. The ifland has good fprings of frefh water, but no inhabitants. Inanno 1716, the Englifh went to burn that village, and their pirating veffels, butivere unfuccefsful in their undertaking. The Warrels occupy all the fea-coaft asHigh as Goga, which lies about 12 leagues within the Gulf of Cambay . And the'Coaft, from Dand Point to Goga, is very dangerous, being thick fet with rocksand land banks ; and a rapid tide runs amongft them of 6 or 8 miles in an hour,in_a channel that is 20 fathoms deep in fome places, which caufes anchoring toHe dangerous alfo.

Goga is a pretty large town, and has had fome mud-wall fortifications, whichHill defend them from the infults of their neighbours the Coulies, who inhabit theHorth-eaft fide of Guzerat, and are as great thieves by land as their brethren theparrels and Sanganians are by fea: nor is therg any land army that can comeinto their country to chaftife them, for there are fo many rivulets made by IndusUll d the fea, that are fo foft and muddy at the bottom, that there is neither paf-*' a ge for men nor horfe to penetrate their country. And their towns are invironed^hh fuch thick hedges of green bamboos, which are not to be burned in aHiort time, and the people fo numerous and valiant, that it would be an hardtalk to civilize them.

vol. viii, s s Goga