'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎418] (449/582)

418
HISTORY OF THE JOASSAMEE PIRATES.
to board. As the superiority on the part of the cruiser became
more decidedly apparent, these, however, fled, and were soon fol
lowed by the others, the whole of whom the Nautilus pursued,
and fired on during the chase as long as her shot would tell. In
this action, the English boatswain An officer responsible for the equipment on a ship and overseeing the work of the ship's crew. was killed, and Lieutenant
Tanner slightly wounded; but the destruction in the boats was
thought to have been considerable.
These repeated aggressions at length opened the eyes of the
Bombay Government to the weakness of their own forbearance,
and the public voice seemed to call for some stroke of revenge
on the injuries and insults that had for so many years been offered
to the British flag, and to those who sailed under its protection.
An expedition was accordingly assembled at Bombay, consisting
of European and Indian troops, and ships of war, both from the
Navy and the East India Company's Marine, as well as transports
for the service of the whole. The naval force consisted of La
Chiffone frigate, Captain Wainwright, as Commodore of the squa
dron ; his Majesty's ship Caroline, of thirty-eight guns. Captain
Gordon ; and eight of the East India Company's cruisers, namely,
the Mornington, Ternate, Aurora, Prince of Wales, Ariel, Nautilus,
Vestal, and Fury, with four large transports, and the Stromboli
bomb-ketch. The military force was composed of the 65th regi
ment of foot, a detachment of the 47th, a detachment of the Bom
bay artillery, forming altogether about a thousand men, and about
a thousand native troops, or sipahees, all under the command of
Colonel Smith of the 65th.
The fleet sailed from Bombay in the month of September, and
the first incident of the voyage was certainly an inauspicious one,
for when scarcely clear of the harbour's mouth, the bottom of the
Stromboli fell out, and the vessel sunk in an instant; drowning
Lieutenant Sealy of the Artillery, and Lieutenant Taylor of the
Marine, who were on board, as well as a great portion of her
crew. This vessel, it seems, however, was one of the most unfit
that could be selected for the service she was destined to perform.