Page 16 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat

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if the English fleet should appear. This voluntary' I
■ 1 Ruy Freyre from Kishm, was made from the Castle,
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abandonment of the offensive to the enemy met witn. but that it passed unnoticed in the besieged fort. Be
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! its due retribution. A strong squadron of nine ships that as it may, neither the acting admiral of the fleet,
ill under the command -of Captains Blyth and Weddell : Luis de Brito, nor the newly elected Captain of the
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reached Jask on Christmas Eve 1621, and the Khan of fortress, Simao de Mello Pereira, had any stomach for
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Shiras at once applied to the commanders for their 1 : the fight, and they made no move.1 The English,
assistance against the Portuguese, threatening to understanding that Ruy Freyre was at Kishm, did not
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prohibit them from trading at all, in the event of their waste any further time, but sailed across to this island,
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not complying with his request. The English captains where they arrived on February 2nd, “ in fit time to
urged on by Monnox, were nothing loath to fall in save both the lives and reputations of the Portugals,
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ii with his plans and, despite some “ murmuring among not able long to hold out against the Persian siege, and
ill! the commonality,” they induced their crews to follow willing rather to yield to us.” At first the Portuguese
them. An agreement was speedily concluded with “ weived us with naked swords ; yet one more wiser
in the Khan of Shiras for the conduct of combined than the rest, hunge out a napkin or white cloth,
(I n operations against the Portuguese by land and sea, on whereupone in Christianlike compassion, Edward
the general basis of (1) the castle of Ormuz to be Monnox was sent on shoare to parlie with them.” He
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handed over to the English on its capture ; (2) the spoil was duly admitted to the presence of Ruy Freyre,
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•:i to be equally divided between Persians and English ; . “ And beinge sett together in the courte of guard, the
it (3) the English to be for ever Customs-free ; (4) the sayd Rufrero began with a long storye of the antient
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Christian captives to be at the disposal of the English love and amytie betwene the two nations, English and
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and the Moslems at that of the Persians, whilst (5) the Portugalls, and the noble acts that the English had
ill latter would pay half the cost of the upkeep of the done in asistinge the Portugalls to expulse the Moors
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Ii1 English fleet during the operations.1 This treaty out of their countrye ;* to which the said Monox
i|i was concluded at Kuhistak, whither the English had
'• xLuis de Brito, a cousin of Fem2o de Albuquerque, had gone to Ormuz in
gone from Jask, as being a better port and nearer the
the galleon Todolos Santos in April, 1621, whilst Sim2o de Mello, who had
scene of action, on the 5th January, 1622 ; and at the gone as commander of a flotilla in November of the same year; succeeded to
end of the month, having embarked the silks lest the the captaincy of Ormuz Castle on the death of Dom Francisco de Sousa.
1 -! He had previously served as Captain of Mombasa and of the. Malabar fleet.
1 >' Persians should play them false, the English squadron After the fall of Ormuz, SimSo de Mello fled to the domains of the Adil
l *, stood over to Ormuz. 1 Shah, Raja of Bijapur. whence he subsequently proceeded to the Coromandel
' coast near S2o Thome. Here he led a fugitive existence as a kind of hermit,
Weddell and Blyth hoped that the galleons moored •* but he remained in touch with the authorities at Goa, acting as a. sort of
under the Castle would come out and fight them, but spy on their behalf. An interesting letter of his to the Conde de Linhares,
is printed in the latter's Diario. Amongst other things, de Mello discusses
i( nothing of the sort occurred. Some Portuguese a project for the capture of the Danish Fortress of Tranquebar. Luis de
accounts allege that the agreed signal for the recall of Bnto was more unlucky, being apprehended by the authorities and executed
at Goa in 1622.
1Thii is the gist of the agreement as stated by Monnox. Other •
a This is of course a reference to the English crusaders who assisted .Dom
contemporary copies (i.e., that in Records relating to Persia, Vol. I), state Affonso Henriques, the founder of the Portuguese monarchy to wrest Lisbon
that the Castle was to be garrisoned equally by Persians and English, with
a Governor for each. from the Moors in 1147. (Cj. Professor Gibus lecture on English CrusatUrs
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