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.