"What on earth is the matter?" Charlie exclaimed. "What vessels are
those, and why are you afraid of them?"
"Tulagi Angria! Tulagi Angria!" the captain cried, and the crew took
up the refrain.
The name that they uttered fully accounted for their terror.
Chapter 15: The Pirates' Hold.
Sivagi, the founder of the Mahratta Empire, had, in 1662, seized and
fortified Yijiyadrug; or, as the English call it, Gheriah, a town at
the mouth of the river Kanui, one hundred and seventy miles south of
Bombay; and also the island of Suwarndrug, about half way between
Gheriah and Bombay. Here he established a piratical fleet. Fifty years
later, Kanhagi Angria, the commander of the Mahratta fleet, broke off
this connection with the successors of Sivagi, and set up as a pirate
on his own account. Kanhagi not only plundered the native vessels, but
boldly preyed upon the commerce of the European settlements. The ships
of the East India Company, the French Company, and the Dutch were
frequently captured by these pirates.
Tulagi Angria, who succeeded his father, was even bolder and more
successful; and when the man-of-war brig, the Restoration, with twenty
guns and two hundred men, was fitted out to attack him, he defeated
and captured her.
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