Page 253 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

THE ENGLISH IN THE PERSIAN GULF 253

enforced withdrawal of the Portuguese commander and
several of his principal officers. Possibly they had definite
information as to the inability of the defenders to make
anything like a vigorous stand against a combined attack.
However they may have been influenced, they formed, as
events proved, a very accurate estimate of the situation.
In conjunction with the Persian commander a plan of
campaign was drawn up by which the city was to be at­
tacked from the land side by Persian troops, while the Eng­
lish assailed it from the sea. The operations opened on
February 10, with the transport to a point on the island of
Ormuz in the rear of the city of a large body of Persian
troops under the command of Imam Zuli Beg. Almost
simultaneously the English ships commenced to bombard
the fort and the Portuguese shipping at anchor near it.
The attack continued intermittently until the 24th of the
month when the Ban Pedro, the largest of the Portuguese
galleons, was set on fire, and in a short time destroyed.
A Persian attack on the town made a few days previously
had been repulsed, and the land operations had somewhat
flagged in consequence. But under the stimulus of the
episode of the 24th both allies threw themselves with great
ardour into the combat. One after another the Portuguese
ships were battered to pieces by the English guns and
closer and closer the Persians drew their lines.
The position soon became for the Portuguese a desperate
one in view of the failure of provisions and the impossibility
of receiving any succour from Goa. Fearing an assault on
the city which would lead to a general massacre of the in­
i habitants by the Persians, the Portuguese on April 23 sur­
rendered to the English commanders. To avoid ill conse­
quences the garrison, which numbered, with women and
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