As buccaneering became more dangerous, or less lucrative, adventurers of all nations again appeared in Eastern waters, and the old trouble reappeared in an aggravated form.

The Indian Red Sea fleet offered an especially tempting booty to the rovers.

Lobo, a Jesuit priest, writing in the seventeenth century, tells us that so vast was the commerce of Jeddah, and so great the value of the ships trading to that place, that when, in India, it was wished to describe a thing of inestimable price, it was customary to say, 'It is of more value than a Jeddah ship.' Every year during the winter months, Indian traders, and pilgrims for Mecca, found their way in single ships to the Red Sea.

On the setting in of the monsoon, they collected at Mocha, and made their way back in a single body.

All Indian trade with the Red Sea was paid for in gold and silver, so that the returning ships offered many tempting prizes to freebooters.
In 1683 John Hand, master of the _Bristol_, interloper, cleared his ship with papers made out for Lisbon and Brazil, and sailed for Madeira.