Page 20 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat
P. 20
} * O G"
Persians gradually extended their hold over the whole which done, they would thrust themselves pell-mell
bulwark and could not be dislodged by the gallant with the Persians, and so end their dayes.” Chief
counter-attacks of the defenders led by the heroic amongst these dauntless spirits was the indomitable
\ Dom Gonfalo da Silveira in person. Dom Gongalo da Silveira, who, despite the fact that
.
By the end of April, the situation of the besieged < , he was almost hors de combat from the numerous and
was critical in the extreme. The bastion of Santiago : severe wounds he had received whilst defending the
was held by the enemy, who could overlook part of the breaches in the Santiago bastion, offered his assistance
?
I’ Castle therefrom, whilst other mines had been sprung, to the Governor in quelling the mutiny. Simao de
f
or dug, beneath the bastion of Sdo Pedro, the Cavalier Mello himself, however, if not secretly privy to the
bulwark and the Cistern. Provisions were running insubordination of his men, at any rate connived at
short, being limited to some rice and salted fish, “ two it; and rejecting Dom Gonsalo’s offer, he permitted
very good preparatives to a cup of good drinke if they his second-in-command, Luis de Brito, to open
had it,” as Monnox sarcastically observed ; dysentry negotiations with the English, on the basis of the
and enteric fever raged amongst the hundreds cooped surrender of the Castle to them, in exchange for a
up in the cramped space within the Castle walls, guarantee that its inmates would be shipped to Sohar
it 1
I where the bodies of the slain lay about unburied with and Muscat. The English were nothing loath to
:
“ cats and dogs eating them, with infinite many flies.” accept these terms, and after a brief discussion the
I.. Many of the Castle’s canon had been damaged or Castle was surrendered to the Anglo-Persian com
v dismounted, whilst most of the best soldiers were manders on the 3rd May, which, appropriately enough,
i •
either killed or wounded, and the survivors almost coincided with St. George’s day in the Gregorian
exhausted by the strain of continual toil and fighting. calendar then used by the English.
The last hope of escape had gone when the galleons We have seen (page 79) that when Weddell’s ships
had been sunk or fired, and the prospect of help returned after the capture of Kishm in February,
!
arriving from Goa seemed remote in the extreme. All three of the vessels had been detached and sent back
things considered, it is not surprising that at this to India, with the principal Portuguese prisoners
juncture the majority of the garrison mutinied and taken. Amongst these was Ruy Freyre in the Lion,
demanded that the Governor should come to terms who was particularly well treated by his admiring
with the English ; for all knew that there was no reason captors, from the master, James Beversham, down to
to expect mercy from the victorious Persians, although Thomas Winterbourne, the ship’s cook, who never
half-hearted negotiations had been going on with the •• tired of making tasty dishes for the illustrious captive.
latter, at intervals since April 6th. But there were The English had determined to hold Ruy Freyre as
still some dauntless spirits, who advocated that rather • prisoner until they could secure the release of some of
than surrender they shouldput their Women and the crew of the Unicorn, who had been prisoners at
children with all their treasure into a house, and blow . Macau since the loss of their ship on the South China
them all up with gunpowder (that the Turks should coast in 1619. Together with Ruy Freyre they had
neither injoy their wealth nor abuse their Wives) also captured his commission from the King of Spain,
82 83
I
PM*
