Public opinion at Surat was at once excited against the English, and further inflamed by the Dutch and French, who were only too anxious to see a rival excluded from the trade.

Sir John Child, to pacify the Governor, offered to send a man-of-war to look for the pirates; but the Dutch and French factors continued to 'spitt their venom' till the Governor laughed in their faces and asked why they did not join in sending vessels to look for the rogues, since the matter seemed to them so serious.
In the same season a gallant engagement was fought against pirates, though not in Indian waters.

The Company's ship _Caesar_, Captain Wright, bound from England for Bombay, was chased off the coast of Gambia by five ships, carrying each from twenty to thirty guns, under French colours.
Wright had no intention of yielding without a struggle, so put his ship before the wind, to gain time for getting into fighting trim.

The _Caesar_ was carrying soldiers, and there were plenty of men to fight the ship.

The boats were cut away, the decks cleared, ammunition and arms served out, three thousand pounds of bread which cumbered the gun-room were thrown overboard, and the tops were filled with marksmen.