Page 14 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat

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the next day the wind was in favour of the Portuguese, 1 Whilst this campaign was in progress, the aged
' but they made no attempt to interfere with the Governor of India, Fernao de Albuquerque, had been
English, who stood into Jask roads and landed their doing his best to assemble further reinforcements at
n I goods. Ruy Freyre remained in the offing, and on Goa for Ruy Freyre’s squadron. Despite the chronic
New Year’s day, 1621 he received a supply of men and
1 state of penury and want of European sailors, with
munitions which had been sent him in some small which the Portuguese authorities invariably had to
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craft from Ormuz. Thus reinforced, he accepted a struggle, he had succeeded in fitting out two strongly-
renewed challenge of the English on January 7th. This i
\ built galleons,1 manned with 270 men, by the end of
action ended even more disastrously for the Portuguese i the year 1620 ; but did not venture to despatch them,
than the former, partly owing to the greatly superior
:• for fear lest they should fall into the hands of Shilling’s
I gunnery of the English, and partly to the mistaken i squadron, which he knew was on the way to Jask.
tactics adopted by Ruy Freyre, who insisted on fighting f With the return of the English ships to Swally in
I, with his ships moored in a line, against the advice of ••
February 1621, the coast was clear, and the galleons
his most experienced officers, who were in favour of 1 . left for Ormuz on the 6th April, carrying a large supply
getting under sail. As a result of this foolish decision, I
!< s of munitions in addition to their crews. By these
one of the galleons, whose cable had been cut by a:
i ships, the Governor wrote letters to Ruy Freyre,
cannon ball, drifted athwart of the two vessels moored: impressing upon him the necessity for preparing his
in rear of her, so that (it being flat calm at the time), all * ■ armada, thus reinforced, for another struggle with
these ships remained board on board of each other, and
I* the English off Jask in the coming winter. These
exposed to the full effect of the raking English If
appeals fell on deaf ears, for Ruy Freyre had decided
broadsides, without being able to use more than two
.i to carry out the second part of the commission with
or three of their own guns. The Portuguese endured .
which he had been sent out from Lisbon, namely to
5 this terrible punishment for some hours, until finally 1 build a fort in the neighbouring island of Kishm
at three o’clock in the afternoon, “ unwilling after so i
(Qishm). The object of this plan was to gain control
hotte a dinner to receive the like supper, they cutte • i! of some wells situated at the eastern extremity of this
their cables and drove with the tide (then setting
'I island and thereby secure compensation for the loss
westerly) untill they were without reach of our gunnes; of the wells at Gombrun, taken by the Persians some
i and then their frigattes came to them and towed them t 1
i awaie wonderfullie mangled and tome.” The English r :5 lTodolos Santos and Nossa Senhora da Victoria. The'former was a very
in his fruitless attack on Downton’s squadron at Swally Hole in 1615.^ The
:! were not further molested, and were enabled to lade i famous ship which had served as the flagship of Don Hieronymo de Azevedo
the silk and depart for Surat at their leisure.1 Governor admitted that the quality of their crews was verv poor, owing to
the fact that the news of Ruy Freyre’s ill success at Jask had disheartened
xThe caiualties in theie action* were amazingly disproportionate, even the men; hence he had been forced to embark many convicted criminals,
malrina due allowance for the poor gunnery of the Portuguese. The total ; whom he had taken from the jails, or induced to return from the dominions
English losse* did not exceed ten, though they included Captain Shilling, who of neighbouring native princes, by a public proclamation of free pardon for :
wai mortally wounded during the second day’s fight. The Portuguese
l all offences save sodomy, counterfeiting coinage and heresy. See the
confessed to a casualty list of over 410, which is hardly surprising, in view of I interesting letters written by Fem2o de Albuquerque to Ruy Freyre in
the fact that Richard Swan states tne four English vessel* expended a total March, 1621, as printed on pp. 186-191 of Luciano Cordeiro’s Como se
of 4,021 “ great shot," most of them at short range, during the two battles. 1 perdeu Ormuz.
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