Page 252 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

i 252 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

been made untenable by the land battery which the un­
fortunate Baffin had so skilfully directed. Tendering his
submission, this time unconditionally, he was escorted with
his brother officers to one of the English ships, much to the
disappointment of the Persians, who had hoped that they
might have secured possession of the person of the eminent
captive and so have been able to grace their triumph in a
t manner which would have appealed to the native imagina­
tion.
;
As soon as the joint occupation of Kishm had been
I arranged, the English fleet sailed across to Gombroon to

prepare for the larger task of attacking Ormuz. There
was a splendid audacity about the contemplated operation
I
which would have appealed to a Nelson or a Howe. The
city was defended by a strong fort occupying a position at
the end of a narrow spit of land, the approach to which was
completely covered by the Portuguese guns. Apart from
the land defences there had to be reckoned with the Portu­
guese fleet, which was in every way superior to the English
force. The Persian alliance, no doubt, was a counterbalan­
f
i cing advantage, but the experience of Shah Abbas’s troops
gained at Kishm had not been of a character to justify undue
reliance on their prowess. Moreover, the conditions were
i such that the principal fighting would necessarily have to
be done on the seafront of the city.
The English commanders appear to have been from the
i first fully confident of their ability to carry the attack to a
I successful issue, for they deliberately weakened their force
by despatching one of their ships, the Lion, to Surat with
1 Ruy Freire and his fellow-captives. They doubtless
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reckoned on the moral effect of their victory at Kishm and
I ,
on the confusion which would necessarily be caused by the
i

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