PIRACY is described in the earliest Malay romances, and is spoken of in glorifying the brave deeds of their ancestors. Piracy has always been frequent along the coasts of China. Pirates continue to infest the Sulu Sea and the southern ports of the Philippines. They come in the middle of the western monsoon, and return in the beginning of the eastern monsoon. They seem to come mostly from Lanun Bay, on the south coast of Mindanao. Dampier, in 1686, calls them the Hillanunes, living in the heart of the country of Mindanao. They are bold, but rarely attack European ships, generally the trading schooners manned by Malaya. Their prahus are open boats, about 50 feet long, 12 wide, and 4 deep. They have a swivel throwing a 1 lb. ball, but their plan of attack is to throw themselves in overpowering numbers on board of their prey. Magiudano pirates, every year, with their long prahus, well manned, visit some part of the Archi pelago, robbing, destroying, killing, or making captive all they meet with. The Dutch and the British have done very much towards suppressing piracy, but the Spaniards nothing. In the Persian Gulf, and on the western coast of India, until the beginning of the 19th century, piracy had pre vailed, and in the 17th and 18th centuries an extensive system of piracy prevailed on the Arakan coasts and in the Delta of the Ganges, in which some Portuguese leaders joined.
Piracy from pre-historic times has been a pro fession with several maritime tribes of the East Indies, who have preyed on commerce on all the coasts from Africa to the remotest islands of the Archipelago. The present seat of piracy in the Indian Archipelago includes Mindanao, Sulu, and the crowd of other islands extending from Mindanao to the north-east coast of Borneo, and separating the Mindoro from the Sulu Sea Formosa to the Sulu Archipelago and Mindanao is all included, and embracing the Philippine and Basayan groups. In the early part of the 19th century, pirates made their haunts chiefly about Lingen, the island of Billiton, and the west coast of Borneo.
On the western side of the Peninsula of India, pirate races were harassing the seaport towns at the time of the arrival of the Portuguese. The Sidi chiefs of Janjira and Sachin and the Mahrattas engaged in it on the western coast, and even at the present day some of the races on the littoral of Cutch and Cambay are scarcely restrained from following this as a profession. Up to the close of the 18th century, the islands of Kenery and Colaba, near Bombay, were the resort of these predatory bands.
The British continue to guard against piracy in the Persian Gulf up to the present day, and armed ships of the Indian and British navies, all through the close of the 18th and in all the 19th century, have been employed there in protecting commerce. Ibn Haukal, in his version of the Koran, informs us that before the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, the subjects of a pirate monarch in these parts seized on every valuable ship which passed. The pos session of a few ports within and near the entrance of the Persian Gulf, where it is not more than 30 miles across, enabled them to perceive and sally out on all passing vessels. In recent times, the Muscat Arabs, during the period of their ascendency, from 1694 to 1736, were highly predatory ; but it was not until 1787 that the Bombay records made mention of the systematic continuance of piracy.
The race whose power and influence were long felt by the neighbouring tribes, and is still inti mately connected with their political condition, occupy a part of the coast within the Persian Gulf, comprehended between the mountain range and the seashore, and extending iii•that direction from Kasab to the island of Bahrein, a distance of 350 miles. On the map, this portion bears the designation of the Pirate Coast. To the Portuguese (luring their brief career in India, they proved quite as troublesome as they did in the latter part of the 18th century to the British ; with these robbers the Imams of Muscat have been repeatedly at war. In 1809, an ex pedition was sent against them under Captain Wainwright, in His Majesty's ship Chi:Anne. Their principal stronghold, Itas-ul-K helm, was stormed and taken, and 50 of their largest vessels burnt or destroyed. Leit, on the island of Kishm, and several other ports, were reduced ; but though this had the effect of checking them for a time, they soon rebuilt these ports, and gradually returned to their old practices. The inhabitants of the Pirate Coast consider themselves to be far superior to either the Bedouin or town Arab. The latter, especially those from Oman, they hold in such contempt, that a Muscatti and an arrant coward are by them held to be nearly.synonymous. They are taller, fairer, and in general more muscular than either of the above classes, until they attain the age of 30 or 40 years, when they acquire a similar patriarchal appearance.