Cockburn, of the Salisbury, less churlish than Matthews, at once put two pinnaces and seventy-six men at the Council's disposal. A small expedition of eleven gallivats under Stanton was also fitted out, and a battery erected by the Portuguese at Surey to hinder provisions coming into Bombay, was captured. One man of the Exeter was killed and another wounded. Just then came news that Angria was fitting out an expedition of five thousand men to attack Carwar, and the Exeter sailed there to defend the factory.
At the beginning of November, the tide turned. News having been received that some of Angria's grabs were cruising off Warlee, the Victoria and Revenge, manned with crews from the Salisbury, were sent out. After a hot engagement, Angria's commodore, a Dutchman, was killed, and his ship, mounting sixteen guns, taken.
On the same day that the captured ship was brought into Bombay, two other captures entered the harbour. The Directors had sent out from England three galleys, the Bombay, the Bengal, and the Fort St. George, manned with sailors from the Thames. As they were proceeding up the coast they found themselves dogged for two days by two strange grabs showing no colours. Resolved to put an end to it, on the third day, on the 1st November, off Cape Ramus, they shortened sail and called on the strangers to show their colours. They proved to be Portuguese, and the English hails were answered by threats and shouts of defiance. The Bengal then fired a shot across the bows of the leading grab, which was answered by a broadside, killing the second mate and two seamen. The Bombay closed in, while the Fort St. George turned its attention to the second grab. In half an hour both of the Portuguese vessels struck their colours, and the galleys continued their course for Bombay with their two prizes, each carrying twenty guns. Such was the difference made by having British seamen, instead of the miserable crews that had hitherto manned the Company's ships.
It was well for the Bombay Council that Matthews had been absent while this was going on. For two months and a half he had remained at anchor in the Hooghly. Early in December he reached Bombay, and at once recommenced his quarrels with the Council and his captains. Cockburn, of the Salisbury, was placed under arrest, presumably for the assistance he had given to the Council. After a time he was transferred to the Exeter, and ordered to proceed to England.
In coming up the coast Matthews had touched at Goa, and informed the Viceroy of his disapproval of the Company's actions, and that his squadron would soon be leaving the Indian seas. But the Viceroy had had enough fighting. The capture of his grabs had brought him to reason. He laid all the blame for recent hostilities on the General of the North, and a peaceful accommodation was come to with the Council, Matthews being disregarded.
In spite of Matthews' failure to destroy the Madagascar pirates, the presence of his squadron in Indian waters impelled them to seek safety in the West Indies, and henceforward they ceased to be dangerous to the trade-ships of India. The Madagascar settlements lingered on till they died a natural death. Angria, too, had been tamed by the slaying of his commodore and the capture of his ships. For years the sea-borne trade of Bombay had not been so little subject to molestation as it was for the next three or four years.
Matthews had sent home two of his ships, remaining, himself, to do another year's trading, during which he lost no opportunity of worrying and insulting the Company's officers. Everybody at variance with the Council found an advocate in him. A Parsee broker, named Bomanjee, was under arrest for fraud; Matthews demanded his surrender. The Council placed Bomanjee in close confinement in the fort, to prevent his being carried off. Matthews promised Bomanjee's sons he would take one of them to England, and undertook to make the Directors see things in a proper light. Men charged with abominable crimes received countenance from him. He told the Council that they were only traders, and had no power to punish anybody. The Crown alone had power to punish. He (Matthews) represented the Crown, and was answerable only to the King of England. One may picture to one's self the satisfaction with which, at the end of the year, the Council learned that Matthews was really going.
In December, 1723, he set sail for England. During the two years he had been in the Indian seas he had accomplished nothing he ought to have done, and done almost everything he ought not to have done. He had been sent out to suppress the pirates and to protect the Company's interests. He had not captured a single pirate ship or rooted out a single pirate haunt. Claiming, as a King's officer, to be exempt from the provisions of the Company's charter, he had indulged in private trade, and had even had dealings with the pirates. He had flouted the Company's authority wherever it existed, and had encouraged others to resist it. Every person who had a dispute with the Company received protection from him. He told the Goa authorities that the Company's vessels were only traders, and therefore not entitled to the salutes they had always received. He had refused to give up the Company's sailors whom he encouraged to desert to his ship. He forbade the Bombay traders to fly British colours, but allowed his own trading friends to do so. He had gone trading to Bengal and Mocha, where there were no pirates; two months and a half he had spent in the Hooghly; three months and a half he had spent at Madras and St. David's for trade purposes; and, when the quarrel between the Bombay authorities and the Portuguese was going on, he gave out that he would send the Goa Viceroy a petticoat, as an old woman, if he did not take every one of the Company's ships. He had quarrelled with all his captains, and one of them, Sir Robert Johnson, owed his death to him. At Surat he had found a discharged servant of the Company, one Mr. Wyche, on whose departure the Governor had laid an embargo till his accounts were cleared. Matthews took him and his eleven chests of treasure on board his ship, in defiance of the Governor's orders, and put him ashore at Calicut, whence he escaped to French territory. From Surat also he carried to England the broker's son, Rustumjee Nowrojee, to worry the Directors. He carried off Mrs. Gyfford, and brought her to England in his ship. His last act on the coast was to call at Anjengo, in order to obtain property she claimed there: but it is probable that he also secured a cargo of pepper.
It is small wonder that, on his arrival in England, in July, 1724, the wrath of the Directors was kindled against him, and an account of his misbehaviour was forwarded to the Secretary of State. The naval authorities called on the Directors to produce their witnesses for the charge of trading with the pirates. The difficulty of doing so was obvious, as the witnesses were all under Matthews' command; so the charge was dropped, and the Directors sued him in the Court of Exchequer for infringing their charter by private trading.
Meanwhile the naval authorities had their own account to settle with Matthews; Captain Maine, of the Shoreham, having made various charges against him. In the last week of December, 1724, he was brought to a court-martial on board the Sandwich in the Medway, and the finding of the court was thus recorded:—