ws always
responded with three or four less guns than were given him. On one
occasion there is a record of his replying with one gun only.[3] Wherever
Matthews could find an opportunity for lowering the credit or hurting the
interests of the Company, he seized it.

On reaching Carpenter's Bay in Mauritius, he found an impudent message
from the pirates, 'writ on Captain Carpenter's tomb with a piece of
charcoal,' to the effect that they had been expecting him and had gone to
Port Dauphin. The squadron next proceeded to Bourbon, where they sold some
casks of arrack and madeira to the French for a very good profit, and
thence proceeded to Charnock Point, St. Mary's Island, Madagascar. Here
they found the wrecks of several merchant ships that had been run ashore
by the pirates. Scattered on the beach were lying their cargoes, china
ware, rich drugs and spices, cloth, guns, and other articles, lying where
the pirates had cast them. Men waded knee-deep in pepper, cloves, and
cinnamon, such was the quantity. In shallow water were lying the remains
of a fine Jeddah ship that had been taken, with thirteen lakhs of treasure
on board, by a pirate named Conden, who commanded a ship called the
_Flying Dragon_. Matthews at once began to transfer the guns and such
commodities as were least damaged to his own ships. A flag of truce had
been first sent ashore to communicate with England and the other pirates,
but it was found that they had fled inland. A week later, a white man,
accompanied by a well-armed guard of natives, made his appearance. He told
them that he was a Jamaica man named John Plantain, that he had been a
pirate, but was tired of the trade, and had settled down on the spot. This
John Plantain was a man of some note in the piratical world. Every and
England had sailed with him, and treated him with much consideration and
some fear. He had made himself master of a considerable tract of country,
so that the pirates had given him the name of the King of Ranter Bay.[4]
He gave an invitation to Matthews to visit his castle, where he
entertained some of the officers of the squadron. Matthews' first idea was
to seize him, but finding that John Plantain had a good number of armed
natives with him, besides a Scotchman and a Dane, and that his castle had
plenty of guns mounted, he decided to trade with him instead. The pirates
made no secret of having taken part in the capture of the Goa Viceroy's
ship, and of a rich native vessel