摘要：Derek L. Elliott In the annals of Indian Ocean history the foremost pirates of the West Indian
coast were Kanhoji Angria and later his sons. Today largely forgotten, Angria founded a
dynasty in the late 1690s that became the main obstacle to the rise of the English East India
Company (EIC) as a hegemonic power in the Bombay region. The Company tried to
suppress the maritime depredations of the powerful Angrias for more than fifty years, yet to
no avail. Eventually only a joint Anglo-Maratha force of over 10,000 troops and 100 vessels
was able to put an end to the dynasty. In their day stories of Angrian piracies were popular
and widely printed. The only problem with such stories is that the Kanhoji Angria was not a
pirate at all, nor were his progeny. Instead, they were the commanders of the navy for the
Maratha Confederacy. The EIC knew this was so and recognized Maratha rights to
sovereignty and referred to the Angrias as agents of that state. For example, on May 24, 1724,
William Phipps Governor of Bombay penned a response to Kanhoji Angria warning, “any
state bordering upon a neighbour that lives on plunder and robs under colour of friendship
must necessarily be careful for their defence.”[1] Angria was and had been careful. Over the
previous seven years the Company had launched five major attacks against the Angria’s
coastal fortresses. All without success and all causing a great many more deaths among the
invaders than the defenders.
