fo that the commerce was then carried on, as it is in many;
places to this day, in fmall boats, which convey the merchandize
to the ihips, which are obliged to anchor at a diftance from:
land. Ptolemy alfo mentions the ports of- thefe pirates, or the
’Aifym OTifax», and gives a lift o f them. It is not improbable,
but that thefe pefts o f the fea continued from that time to.the
prefent: but certain it is, that Vafco de Gama found them oh
this coaft in full force, in his firft voyage to India. Marco Polo,
who travelled in 1269, defcribes, at p. 145, their piracies in thofe .
days, both in the feas of Guzerat and Malabar. He fays they
took their wives and children with them, and pafled the whole
fummer on the fea. They commonly had twenty fhips in a
fleet, which they ranged at the diftance o f five miles from
each other, making a line of a hundred miles. As foon as any
one defcried a merchant Ihip it made a fignal, by fmoke, to the
reft; fo there was no po.fiibil.ity o f efcape. They offered no
violence to the crew; they only plundered the veflel, and fet:
the people on ihor.e.
In our days many o f the ports of the modern pirates have;
been brought into notice, by the. attempts to extirpate thefe
nefts o f thieves, and with a temporary fuccefs. Their principal
faftneffes- were in ViBoria, Severn-droog, Sunderdob, Vingorla
rocks, in Lat. 15° 22' 30", fix or feven miles from the ihore ;
and I fhould have given particular pre-eminence- to Gberiab, G hhkiah.
the port o f the chief pirate Angria, neatly midway between
Bombay and Goa.
ViBoria is the name we bellowed on one o f thefe faftnelfes.
The Indian one was Bancooie. This we retain, not only becaufe
P 2 it