Page 246 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

2-16 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

The gift of Jask to the English in these circumstances was
a somewhat interested piece of generosity. The Shah’s
obvious design in making it was to embroil the English
with the Portuguese. lie doubtless hoped that if the repre­
sentatives of the two nations fell to fighting he might in the
end come by his own again. Whatever his motive may
have been, the effect of his favours to the English was
precisely that indicated. The Portuguese took the alarm
immediately they found that the East India Company was
sending its ships to the Gulf. They foresaw in this new
intrusion another and possibly a mortal blow to a trade
which had already been reduced considerably from its
former splendid proportions to almost insignificant dimen­
sions. They accordingly nerved themselves for a big
effort to oust the intruders.
In the spring of 1619 an expedition composed of five
large ships was dispatched from Lisbon to the Gulf imder
the command of Ruy Freire de Andrade, a brave and cap­
able commander who had done good service for his coun­
try. Information of the departure of the fleet was trans­
mitted to India by the English Company with the conse­
quence that the authorities at Surat sent a powerful force
into the Gulf in 1619 for the safeguarding of their trade, a
measure which served the immediate purpose of ensuring
due protection to English interests that year.
Meanwhile, in Persia the plot was decidedly thickening.
The Portuguese ambassador at his final audience of the
Hhah took up a line of studied insolence. He demanded
firstly the restitution of Gombroon and other territory
recon tJy occupied by the Persians, claiming that they be­
longed to Ormuz, and secondly, the exclusion of all other
European powers from Persian ports.