History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

CHAP. 1.] A PIRATICAL CONFEDERACY. 31

frequently rendered more atrocious by the commission of murder ; but the stealthiness and security with which such feats were performed wholly defeated the aim and the ends of justice.

“Nor was the system of piracy any half-handed measure: the Gifts of the Ocean (the happy sobriquet) were shared from Cambay north as far southward as Daman—by a leagued fraternity, whose emissaries were too frequently the servants or friends of the enterprising merchant. It was nothing unusual to learn of singular storms and stranger shipwrecks; yet Swali Nest or Thari Hole had received many hundred bales of cotton or richer spoil both unsoiled by the sea and unknown to any voyage but that of the river. The gains were equally distributed, which permitted the existence of the band such a series of years. But even this nefarious, audacious, and extensive plot perished under proper vigilance and due discrimination.

“Mr. Anderson, lately Governor of Bombay, a man of severe thought and determined principles of action—when session judge of Surat, had bestowed some attention on this subject, but was at fault as to the means of extirpating these evils, and he bent his eye upon a young and adventurous instrument for accomplishing the required purpose. His penetration of character found in Ardeshir the willing engine. From this period are to be dated the extraordinary exertions of Ardeshir for Surat. Instantly diverting his notice to the amount and nature of the existing sore, he probed their extent, and then resorted to remedial steps.”

Ardeshir was the fortunate recipient of many marks of distinction. Frequent public darbars were held under Government instructions to do him honour, one under the immediate direction of no less a personage than Sir John Malcolm, then Goyernor of Bombay, who invested with his own hands the brave Ardeshir with a costly “ khilat,” and conferred upon him the title of ‘ Bahadur” of which he was so justly proud, in addition to the gift of a