£56 I S L A N D O F I C E Y L 0 :N.
I s l e o f C a l - open towns, charaiteriftic of Dutch neatnefs and induftry. The
long ifle o f Calpentyn lies near the lhore, about thirty-fix miles
Isle o f Ma- farther north. That o f Manaar, fee p . 182, concludes all I
e a a r . ihall fay o f this magnificent ifland.
T H E
C ]
T H E
L I F E of SIR W I L L I A M JAMES» Baronet 5
c o m m u n i c a t e d by l a d y james.
S ir W il l iam J ames embarked in a fea life at twelve years of
age. He was more than twenty years at fea before he got the
command o f a fhip. He was with Sir Edward Hawke in the
Weft Indies, in 1738, as a junior officer. Some years after, he
commanded a fhip in the Virginia trade; in her he was taken
by the Spaniards, in the Gulph of Florida, and carried a pri-
foner to the Havannab. His fufferings after his captivity will
be related hereafter:— In the beginning o f 1747, he went to
the Eajl Indies as chief officer of one o f the Eajl India Company’s
fhips, and performed two voyages in that ftation. In
1749, the Eaji India Company appointed him to the command
o f a new fhip called the Guardian, equipped as a fhip of war ;
in her he failed to Bombay, to prote£t the trade on the Malabar
coaft, which was much annoyed by the depredations o f Angria,
and other pirates, with which thofe feas fwarmed.
D uring two years he was conftantly employed in convoying
the merchant ihips from Bombay and Surat, to the Red Sea, the
Gulph of Perfia, and up and down the Malabar coaft, from the
Gulph of Cambay to Cape Comorin. He was frequently attacked
on this fervice by the different piratical ftates. At one time,
when he had near feventy fail o f fhips and veflels under his
charge, he was affailed by a large fleet of Angria\ frigates and
V ol. I. t 71 „ galiivats,