Page 125 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

ENGLISH AND PORTUGUESE RIVALRY 125

what heavy witted and lacked the foresight desirable in
one who had to conduct strategical operations. When,
on January 14, the Portuguese fleet from Goa appeared
off the port instead of adopting Best’s plan of going out
to engage it where he would have plenty of sea room and
consequently scope for the exercise of his peculiar skill he
remained at anchor at Swally in the confined roadstead
which Sir Thomas Roe afterwards contemptuously but
not inaptly described as “a fishpond.” The blunder
might have been fatal if to his temperamental shortcomings
Downton had added a lack of courage. But he was as
brave as a lion and as tenacious as a bulldog, and the
balance was, as will be seen, redressed by these splendid
qualities.
The Portuguese had made the most elaborate prepara­
tions for the fight. They were determined, if possible, to
deliver a crushing blow which would not only settle the
immediate difficulty but serve as a definite and final notice
to their English rivals to quit the shores of India. The
force they got together for this purpose consisted of six
large galleons, two smaller ships and sixty small ships
called frigates, with, in addition, two galleys and sundry
insignificant craft. On the galleons were the flower of the
Portuguese nobility, all imbued with a keen hatred of the
hereticos and a fixed determination to destroy them or die
in the attempt. The whole were under the command of
Don Jeronimo, one of the most distinguished of the
Portuguese functionaries in the East at the time.
A day or two passed after the appearance of the Por­
tuguese fleet without anything of importance happening.
“ In order to give an edge to their courage,” as a letter
written at the period puts it, Downton caused the Mer-