'History of the Indian Navy. (1613-1863).' [‎30] (49/622)

30
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
police of the seas, hitherto maintained by the Indian Navy,
should be abandoned. It had been the custom, ever since the
time of the Mogul sovereigns, for a fleet of traders to leave
Surat for Mocha and Jiddah, in the month of March, under the
convoy of the Company's ships of war, and the same course
had been pursued after we became possessed of Surat. Acting,
however, on the 7th paragraph of the recommendations of the
Finance Committee, no vessel of war was employed in 1833 to
convoy the fleet of traders which carried the manufactures
of Guzerat and Great Britain, to the average value of from
12 to 25 lacs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees of rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. . The Surat fleet arrived at Mocha at
the time Turki Bilmas had obtained possession of the town,
and he immediately availed himself of the windfall by seizing
the vessels and fleecing the merchants. On receipt of this news
at Bombay, the 'Nautilus,'Lieutenant R. Lowe, was recalled
from the Cutch Coast and despatched to Mocha. On her
arrival here, on the 29th of May, prompt measures were
taken by her commander, and the merchants were released and
the fines repaid to them. But the detention caused them to
lose the season; their goods for Jiddah were transhipped into
other vessels, and they lost, in addition to the interest on the
capital, the profits of the voyage. Altogether, their loss was
calculated at not less than .£40,000 or .£50,000; and for this
they had to thank the Finance Committee, w T hose report bore
this among its first fruits. Turki Bilmas, on Lieutenant
Lowe's arrival, was at a place called Berk, about half way
between Mocha and Jiddah, which he proposed to attack, with
two ships, three brigs, and about twelve hundred men. At
this time the 'Palinurus' lay at Jiddah to protect British
interests, and everything wore a warlike aspect, guns, stores,
and troops pouring into the city, while three ships were
brought by the Egyptian Government, and several gunboats
were being prepared to repel the redoubtable chief and his
Bedouin allies. Hearing of the arrival of the 'Nautilus,' Turki
Bilmas returned to Mocha on the 22nd of July, but he yielded
to the determined front shown by the British commander. At
one time " the state of things was such," says a writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , " that
not one of the Surat merchants thought his life in safety for
twenty-four hours, and it was apprehended that the slightest
attempt on the part of the 'Nautilus' to bring the Governor
to reason by force, would be the immediate signal for a general
massacre of all British subjects, plunder of the town, and
retreat inland, so the most that could be done was to protect
the vessels in the harbour." When we remember the sanguinary
events that occurred at Jiddah in 1857, when the British and
French Consuls, and all Christians, were massacred, we may
believe that the position of affairs was most critical, and that