Page 62 - INDIANNAVYV1

30 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

ture proving; snccessftil, a regular trade was establisbeJ
between the Gulf ports and Surat and Bantam.
As was foretold by Sir Tliomas Roe, who returned to P]ngland
in 1619, this traffic could not be conducted without exciting
the jealousy of the Portuguese, who had enjoyed a monopoly
in tiie Persian Gulf since the days of Albuquerque. The event
justified the prediction, and " the Gulf" (as it was familiarly
called in the Indian Navy) afforded to the Service a fresh fiell
for the display of those qualities of enterprise and skill which
they had already exhibited on the West Coast of India.
On the 19th of March, 1620, King James addressed a letter to
Shah Abbas thanking him for the favours he had shown to
English merchants, requesting a continuance of this protection,
and that the additional privilege of having a factory near the
port of Jask* might be conferred on them, when they might
enjoy tlie liberty of trade already conceded to them in Persia
through the influence of his Ambassador, Sir Thomas Shirley.
hurt he received in his leo^, a ragged piece of that broken shell sticking fast
between the two bones thereof, grating there upon an ai-tery, which seemed by
his complaining to afflict him so much that it made him take very little notice of
all the rest of his hurts, it being most true of bodily pains, that the extremity of
a greater pain will not suffer a man to feel much or to complain of that which is
less ; as that tormenting pain by the toothaclie makes a man insensible of the
aching of his head, and wlien the gout and stone surprise the body at once
together, the tnrture by the gout is as it were lost in the extremity of the stone.
And thus was our new commander welcomed to his authority, we all thought
that his wounds would very suddenly have made an end of him, but he lived till
about fourteen months after, and tlien died as he was returning to England. I
told you before that this man suffered not alone by the scattered pieces of that
broken shot, for the master of the ship had a great piece of tlie brawn of his
arm struck off by it, wliieh made him likewise unserviceable for a time, and
three others of the common sailors received several and dangerous hurts by it
likewise.
"The captain and master both thus disabled, deputed their authority to the
chief master's mate, who behaved himself resolutely and wisely, so we continued
alternis vicibus, one after the other, shooting at our adversary, as at a butt, and
bv three of the clock in the afternoon had shot down her mammast by the board,
her mizen-mast, her foretop-mast, and moreover had made such breaches in her
thick sides, that her case seemed so desperate, as that she must either yield or
—
perish." He then describes the loss of the carrack, and concludes: "Our
' Cliarles' in this opposition, made at her adversary for her part, three hundred
and seventy-five great shot—as our gunners reported—to these we had one hun-
dred musketeers that plied them with small shot all that while, neither was our
enemy idle, for our ship received from him at least one hundred great shot, and
many of them dangerous ones through the hull. Our fore-mast was pierced
through the middle, our mam-mast hurt, our main-stay almost spoiled, and many
of our main-shrouds cut asunder. Thus, reader, thou hast the sum of that sea
encounter, which I did the rather insert, because I believe that of all warlike
oppositions there are none tliat carry more horror in them than sea-fights do, if
the parties engaged be both very resolute, as very many who use the sea are, who
will desperately run upon the mouth of a cannon, rush into the very jaws of
death, before they have at all learned what it was to live ; that being most true,
whicli was antiently observed in the geuerahty both of soldiers and seamen, that
they fear neither God nor man."
* The town of Jask is situated about six miles to the north of the cape of that
name, wliich bears about XNW. from Muscat distant forty-two and a-half leagues.
The bay of the same name is to the west of the cape.