Page 63 - INDIANNAVYV1

HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 31

In November, 1620, the 'Hart' and 'Eagle,' two of the Com-
pany's ships, having proceeded to Jask with Surat goods for
trading purposes, found it blockaded by a Portuguese fleet,
consisting of four galleons, one large galley and sixteen vessels
of smaller size, under the command of Admiral Ruy Frere.
The Company's ships attempted to enter the port, but, being
oi)posed by the Portuguese, returned to Surat for reinforce-
ments. Here they were joined by the London ' and ' Roebuck,'
'
and again set sail for Jask, off which an indecisive action was
fought, residting in the Portuguese giving way and permitting
the English ships to enter the port. The former, however,
only retired to Ormuz to refit, and soon returned to renew the
action with a force superior in strength. The fighting that
ensued was obstinate and prolonged, but it terujinated in
favour of the Company's ships, which lost their Connnodore,
Captain Shillinge,'^ an able an energetic seaman. This suc-
cess raised the English name throughout the Gulf, and fiicili-
tated the purchases of Persian silks which the factors were
making.
Mr. Monnox, the Company's agent at Ispahan, had, at this
time, sent a caravan, with several hundred bales of silk from
that city to Jask, but it was stopped on the journey through
Persia by the Khan of Shiraz, with the object of forcing the
English to assist him against the Portuguese, In December,
1G21, on the arrival of the Company's ships at Jask, the
Persian Governor refused to permit them to embark their
cargoes unless they would previously agree to assist his nation
in repelling the Portuguese aggressions ; and, as the ships had
lost the monsoon, they were compelled to accede to this <:on-
dition to avoid the interruption of the trade.f Under this
stipulation an expedition, consisting of a Persian army and a
squadron of the Company's ships and smaller vessels from
Surat, was sent against Ormuz early in 1G22.
At this time Ormuz was one of the chief emporiums of trade
j,X)ssessed by the Portuguese in the East. During its prime,
when under native rulers, it was said to have boasted a popu-
lation of forty thousand souls ; looking, however, to its lack
of water, and the natural capabilities of the island, there can
* This officer, on his outward-hound passage witli tlic squadron of Company's
ships that sailed in tlie season of 1620, touched at Saldaulia liny, and, vu tiie
23rd of Julj, 1020, took possession of it and the adjacent eouutrj, in the nanie of
the King of Eughiud, on the condition expressed in the Company's eliarler, that
no other European Power liad at this time chiiined a right to this part of tlie
Coast of Africa, reserving to His Majesty the right of assuuimg the sovereignty of
those districts by proclamation, the original of which uiay be found in the MSS.
of the India Office. By this act, the right of the Crown of England to the Cape
of Good Hope was established by actual possession, many years prior to tiie Dutch
occupation of it as a colony. Saldauha I3ay reverted to this country by conquest
in the year 1798.
t iiee liruce's " Annals," Tol. I., p. 230.