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Mocha

The Red Sea port where the fleet lay that Kidd came in for, and whose convoys the East India Company agreed to continue a year at a time.

Also writtenMocho (the spelling in Johnson's General History and in Wright's history of the Surat factory); Moco (the spelling in the print of Kidd's trial)

Every sent a pinnace in to Mocha and took two men, and they told him what ships were coming down. Kidd's boat was to bring back an account of what ships lay there. It went twice and brought no news. Intelligence came in the end that fourteen or fifteen ships lay in the river or harbour, ready to sail, and it was that fleet, lying at Mocha, that had brought Kidd into the Red Sea.2,3,4,5

There is a separate record for the Red Sea.

The Mocha and Jeddah fleets

Annesley hoped the Emperor would accept the proposal of a convoy for the Mocha and Jeddah ships, and would grant the Company the Sidhi's pay, Rs. 4,00,000 a year. The pilgrimage went in those ships, which may be why Aurangzeb was tender of the convoys and would not press the English hard enough to lose them. Sir John Gayer, for his part, would let the President at Surat concede nothing beyond the convoy of the Mocha and Jeddah fleets for one more year.6,7,8

Captain Richard Lavender told the President that on the 7th March Captain Hamilton had drawn a paper for the English seamen to sign. They understood, it ran, that the factory had hindered their liberty by not performing its contract with the Moors concerning convoys to Mocha, and they would regain the English honour and their liberty "tho' with the hazard of their lives". The paper was brought to Lavender, he said, and he refused to sign it.9

Pirates under Condent, in a ship called the Dragon, took a large Moor's vessel coming from Jeddah and Mocha with thirteen lakhs of rupees aboard, though a later account of the same man calls his ship the Flying Dragon and carries no such prize. A crew that fell in with two Moor ships out of Muscat, carrying horses, brought their captain and their merchants aboard, tortured them and rifled the ships for riches, believing they had come from Mocha.10,11

The Company at Mocha

The Company's letters and accounts from Mocha are said to open on 23 March 1644, and its Chief and Council there to have written home to the Court of Directors for 1717, for 1718 and for 1721 to 1725. A Company frigate carried the port's name, and her own crew took her from the Company. Bellomont wrote of taking James Gillam, "the Pirate that killed Capt. Edgecomb, commander of the Mocha".1,12,13

Robert Culliford and Ile Sainte-Marie carry the rest of that ship's story.

Who held Mocha for the imam, what his customs house took, and on what terms Europeans were allowed to trade are all unsettled, and no document behind this page touches the coffee that made the port's name famous. No chart of the road drawn between 1690 and 1725 has been found; the Dutch East India Company charts in the Nationaal Archief at The Hague are where one would be. The Company's own Mocha papers, IOR/G/17/1 at the British Library, and its Chief and Council's letters in IOR/E/3, would answer all of it from inside the factory gate. Nothing has been dug at the town or in its roadstead.

What the evidence does not settle

Governance and customs at Mocha

  • The identity of Mocha's governor under the imam is undocumented

The Kidd episode at the strait (1697)

  • The exact date of the 1697 Kidd strait episode is unresolved

Volume of enslaved people through Mocha

  • How many enslaved people passed through Mocha in this period

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. The English East India Company's Mocha factory is directly attested in the surviving India Office records: the series of letters and accounts from Mocha at the British Library, IOR/G/17/1, opens on 23 March 1644 and contains a Mocha Dyary entered on 18 March 1721, while letters from the Chief and Council at Mocha to the Court of Directors survive for 1717, 1718, 1721, 1722, 1723, 1724 and 1725. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archival catalogue: British Library, Asian and African Studies, IOR/G/17/1, Letters and Accounts from Mocha, 23 Mar 1644 to 21 Oct 1789; IOR/E/3/99, 101, 102, 103, Letters from the Chief and Council at Mocha to the Court of Directors, 1717 to 1725; and The National Archives Discovery catalogue searches, all Confirmed from catalogue description and not inspected in the original
  2. Dow and Edmonds report that Avery sent a pinnace to Mocha and took two men who gave information as to the ships coming down. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, printed p. 97, footnoted to the Calendar of State Papers, America and West Indies, 1696-1697, pp. 260 to 262 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 4399 to 4401)
  3. Joseph Palmer deposed at Kidd's trial that the boat was to get an account what ships lay there, and that it went twice and brought no news. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, upon six several indictments, at the Admiralty Sessions held at the Old Bailey, May 1701 (London, 1701), the evidence of Joseph Palmer (library file kidd_trial_1701.txt, lines 2649 to 2652)
  4. The summing-up of the evidence at Kidd's trial states that intelligence was brought that there were fourteen or fifteen ships lay in the river or harbour there, and were ready to sail. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, upon six several indictments, at the Admiralty Sessions held at the Old Bailey, May 1701 (London, 1701), the summing-up of the evidence and the evidence of Robert Bradinham (library files kidd-tryal-1701.txt, lines 3107 to 3108, and kidd_trial_1701.txt, lines 2069 to 2075)
  5. The summing-up of the evidence at Kidd's trial states that they had to go into the Red Sea, and had expectations of the Moco fleet that lay at Moco. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Trial print: The Arraignment, Tryal and Condemnation of Captain William Kidd, upon six several indictments, at the Admiralty Sessions held at the Old Bailey, May 1701 (London, 1701), the summing-up of the evidence (library file kidd_trial_1701.txt, lines 3736 to 3737)
  6. Wright's history of the Surat factory reports that Annesley expressed the hope that the Emperor would accept the proposal of a convoy for the Mocha and Jeddah ships, and would grant to the Company the Sidhi's pay, which was Rs. 4,00,000 per annum. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (1918), printed p. 178, quoting Annesley's letter (library file wright_annesley.txt, lines 5536 to 5540)
  7. Wright's history of the Surat factory offers it as one possibility that Aurangzeb was apprehensive that too drastic action would lead to the withdrawal of the convoys of the Mocha and Jeddah ships, for which he had a tender solicitude owing to their association with the pilgrimage. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (1918), printed p. 212 (library file wright_annesley.txt, lines 6577 to 6582)
  8. Wright's history of the Surat factory reports that the utmost concession Sir John Gayer would permit the Surat President to make was to agree to continue the convoy of the Mocha and Jeddah fleets for another year. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (1918), printed pp. 236 to 237, reporting Gayer's instructions to Annesley (library file wright_annesley.txt, lines 7309 to 7312)
  9. The Surat factory's consultation, as printed by Wright, records Captain Richard Lavender telling the President that Captain Hamilton on the 7th March drew up a paper to be signed by the English seamen, whose purport was that they understood the factory had hindered their liberty by not performing its contract with the Moors concerning convoys to Mocha and that they would regain the English honour and their liberty though with the hazard of their lives, and that the paper was brought to Lavender himself, who refused to sign it. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (1918), printed pp. 185 to 186, quoting the Surat factory's consultation on Captain Richard Lavender's evidence (library file wright_annesley.txt, lines 5773 to 5782)
  10. A General History of the Pyrates reports that pirates under Condent, in a ship called the Dragon, took a large Moor's vessel coming from Iudda and Mocho with thirteen lackies of rupees on board, while the later chapter on the same man calls his ship the Flying Dragon and carries no such prize. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), Volume I, chapter V, Of Captain Edward England, the account of Commodore Matthews's squadron in the Indian seas (library file gut40580_johnson_general_history.txt, lines 4129 to 4131)
  11. A General History of the Pyrates alleges that a pirate crew took two Moor ships from Muscat carrying horses, brought their captain and merchants on board, and tortured them and rifled the ships in order to discover riches, believing they came from Mocha. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Period narrative: A General History of the Pyrates (1724), Volume I, chapter V, Of Captain Edward England, carrying Taylor, the Cassandra, and the letter of Captain Mackra dated Bombay 16 November 1720 (library file gut40580_johnson_general_history.txt, lines 3780 to 3783)
  12. Wright's history of the Surat factory states that the East India Company had a frigate called the Mocho whose own crew rose in mutiny and took her from the Company. Possible Consistent with the evidence, not established. Modern scholarship: Arnold Wright, Annesley of Surat and His Times (1918), printed pp. 199 to 200 (library file wright_annesley.txt, lines 6191 to 6196)
  13. Dow and Edmonds print a letter of the Earl of Bellomont in which he writes of taking James Gillam, "the Pirate that killed Capt. Edgecomb, commander of the Mocha". Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Modern scholarship: George Francis Dow and John Henry Edmonds, The Pirates of the New England Coast 1630-1730, printed p. 34, quoting the Earl of Bellomont's letter to the Council of Trade and Plantations of 29 November 1699 (library file dow_piratesnec.txt, lines 2175 to 2177)