The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-10-06 00:00:00

PIRACIES IN THE PERSIAN GULF.

From the Bombay Courier we extract the following
portion of a letter from an officer on board the Hon.
Company's sloop of war Elphinstone, now in the Gulf,
which gives an interesting account of deeds of plunder
and battle done by the pirates in those latitudes:—
" At daylight on the 16th of April, we observed several
baggalows to the S.W., upon which we turned the hands
out and made all possible sail towards them. At six we
got them cattle lee bow, when the whole of them closed.
Shortly afterwards we fired a shot at the leading bugga-
low. This was immediately returned, and she and the
others lowered their sails and pulled towardsais. On
minutely observing the former, we found she was full of
men, and no doubt remained that the piratical fleet be-
lunging to Abothabee was before us. The Arab pilot,
indeed, recognised the vessels, and declared that the
leading one contained Shaik Sooltan Shakbood. When
within pistol shot the huggalows formed on our beam for
action, upon which we immediately stood towards them,
and, having got the- shaik's latiggaloW on'the starboard
and another large boat which she was towing on the lar-
board, we passed between them and poured into each a
broadside of round grape. The crew of the shaik's boat
at the same time cheered, and some of them tried to throw
grapnels towards us, but were immediately shot. About
one hundred of them then rushed towards the head ofour
vessel with their long spears, for the purpose of boarding
us, but failed, having been repulsed by the fire from the
small arms. There must have been at least two hundred
men in the shaik's boat, and they must have sustained a
very severe loss altogether. Immediately after passing
about ninety men jumped overboard from the other vessel
(which proved to have been recently captured) and were
picked up by the shaik's buggalow, which then made
and stood to the northward. We endeavoured at
the same time to close, but did not succeed, as the wind
failed, and the chase made use of its sweeps. In the
meanwhile the remaincW of the piratical boats boarded
the abandoned buggalow,-and stripped her of everything
that could be conveniently carried off, and then escaped.
In the night, having lost sight of the shaik's buggalow,
we stood to the southward, discovered the abandoned
buggalow, and boarded her, finding eight bodies on the
deck. About the same time we observed a raft at some
distance, which we made for, and found nine men on it,
who stated themselves to be part of the crew of the bug-
galow we had taken•possession of, which, it appeared,
was from Mangalore, and had been captured a few days
before by the fleet we fell in with. Tile crew consisted
originally of forty men. A few are supposed to have
escaped ; but the greater part, including the nacquedah,
were put to death. The cargo, consisting of rice, piece
goods, and iron, remains on board, with the exception
of the piece goods. The nacquedah's brother, who was
on the raft, states that the pirates were in chase of another
buggalow when we fell in with them ; but that, on ob-
serving us, they abandoned it. He also states that Shaik
Ktilifa, one of the principal chiefs of the Beniyas tribe,
war on board the prize ; that the plan which had been
arranged for attacking ua.was to board us ou both sides,
wkikelaassing between the two vessels ; and that they
felt quite confident of success, having no idea whatever
orthe effects of .our broadside of 32 pounders. It ap-
pears, alsO, that -about twenty-five bodies were thrown
overboard, and that nearly the same number were taken
away wounded. The _number killed, therefore, in this
bungalow alone was thirty-three. The oth4•lntist have
suffered much more.'"7--.:Repakcy,GazettC,- May 13.