Page 22 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat
P. 22
M . J • I h tit*
Oim.
i n:
*
■
k English that Dom Constantino de Si, and not Ruy*
of the excuse to abandon the whole enterprise, which
he had looked on from the beginning as doomed to Freyre, was in command of the flotilla which put back
I
failure, he paid no heed to the angry protests of Ruy [■ to Muscat in May, 1622.
Freyre, but, “ like a dogg that has lost his tayle,” put
; about and returned with his fleet to Muscat. 1
That Ruy Freyre’s daring proposal to fall upon the 7-
1
English and Persians in the full flush of their success <
was a perfectly practicable one, is evident from the * Whilst these events were taking place in the Persian
i remarks made by Monnox in his Journal. Ail the Gulf, the government at Madrid had neither been
time of the siege he had been worried by the lax deaf to the appeals for assistance which reached them
discipline kept by both English and Persian commanders, from Goa, nor blind to the fact that the victory of the
! and he was filled with anxiety at the thought of what English over Ruy Freyre’s galleons would mean the
would happen if a relieving squadron should un end of the century-old Lusitanian predominance in
expectedly appear from Goa. “ I think,” he wrote Persian waters. In March, 1621, no fewer than eight
in his Journal on one occasion, “ there is no man soe sail were fitted out for the voyage to India, but of all
•i
weake of understanding to thinke that the Vice Roy these vessels, only one galleon, the Sad Joad, reached
and other Portugall magistrates of Goa, will suffer soe Goa in September, all of the others having lost their
famous a thing as is their Castle of Ormuz to be lost for voyage. Indeed it seemed as if the very stars in their
want of succors, and wherein consisteth that succor courses fought against the Portuguese, since of four
1 but in sendinge a sufficient Armado to beate our other ships which left the Tagus a month later, not
• Englishe shippes oute of their seas, which is not . one succeeded in rounding the Cape of Good Hope.1
I
impossible to be don ... we lull ourselves asleepe On March 23rd, 1622, Sir Walter Aston, the English
in securitie and cry Peace, Peace, before the warr is Ambassador at Madrid, reported that “ about the
trulie begun. I feare before the Castle of Ormus be
possest eyther by Persian or English, we shall singe a
of his Pilgrimes. It may be added that some people at least obtained rather
new songe, or els I will say we have bin more fortunate . more than the ** paultrie pillage ” Monnox derides. Chief amongst the
in the success than prudent in.our proceedings; but offenders was Woodcock^ the master of the Whale, who was popularly believed
I to have acquired an immense store of ill-gotten wealth; the Spanish
I* if it prove otherwise, the dishonour will be more to ; ambassador in England complained to King James I, 14 that the very dishes
our selves and nation than some of us do dream off. I l that the lowest and basest sort of the crew put their meat in are of silver,
stamped with the arms of many families of Portugal, whom thep have
would that those whom it conserneth more nearly than miserably sacked and slain.” Despite these and other allegations, it is dear
! 1 it doth me, would leave looking after a little paultrie that the Company itself was a loser by the enterprise^ from a financial point
of view, whatever their servants on the spot might have secured for
pillage in Ormus and looke to this busyness of greater themselves.
consequence.”1 It was indeed fortunate for the xThe carracks in question were Nossa Senhora de Conceifao:, Santo Amaro
(which was wrecked at Mombassa); the galleons Trindade, Sao Salvador, Sdo
if
xMonnox'f journal, under March 27th. It it interesting to note that Simao, Misericordia, Santo Andri and Sdo Joao. These were followed at the
Purchas has omitted this passage, as also many other similar outspoken end of April by the Santa Tereza, Sdo Joseph, SaO Carlos and Santo Thomfy
criticisms, from his pricis of the journal printed in Vol. II of the 1625 edition who were likewise forced to return to Lisbon.
86 »7
■
\ .
