Page 26 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat

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blockade of Ormuz. This he did to such effect, by At the beginning of 1624, Ruy Freyre received a
ravaging the neighbouring Persian littoral and burning request for help from the Turkish Pasha of Basra, who
and destroying all boats which he could get hold of, that was being hard pressed by a strong Persian army
all communication with the mainland was practically under the command of the Imam Quli Khan, the
. severed, except for an occasional boat which could captor of Ormuz. Adversity does indeed make strange
n slip across to Gombrun by night. Ruy Freyre might bed-fellows, and it is curious to think that the
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indeed have been able to recapture the Castle, had he Portuguese should now be making common cause with
been properly supported from Goa; but his force was their hereditary enemies, the Ottoman Turks, with
: too small, lack of men and provisions compelling him • whom they had been at war ever since the discovery of
to return to Muscat at the end of the year.1 If Della the maritime route to India. Basra was at this time
Valle is to be believed, the poor support he obtained quite an important centre for the Portuguese trade
from Goa was mainly due to the jealousy of the in the Gulf, and, after the fall of Ormuz, had become
Viceroy; but a more probable reason was the great with Muscat their principal mart. For this reason,
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1 want of ships and men in Goa itself, the India-bound and to divert the enemy’s attention from Muscat, Ruy
fleet which left the Tagus in 1623, having been nearly Freyre readily consented to the Pasha’s proposal, and
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as unfortunate as its predecessors of the two previous sent thither a force of five or six galliots under the
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years.1 During his blockade of Ormuz, Ruy Freyre command of Dom Gonsalo da Silveira, who was by
had made a fireship attack by night on the shipping this time Ruy Freyre’s alter ego. Dom Gon^alo’s little
moored under the Castle walls, which included the force proved very effective in the energetic hands of
English ship Reformation and the Dutch Heusden, this its commander, and was chiefly responsible for forcing
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. latter vessel being the first of her nation to appear in the Imam Quli Khan to quit the invaded province in
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the Gulf. This attack was only partially successful, 1625. Such a thorn did it prove in the Persian’s flesh,
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; for although some “ Moorish ” ships were burnt, the that in 1624-1625, the Khan of Shiras urgently
Heusden .beat off the attackers and quenched the requested the English to send some ships to Basra in
I flames on board the Reformation, which had been support of the Persians against the Portuguese flotilla, *
seriously imperilled for a time* offering to defray their expenses if necessary. The
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l commanders bluntly rejected this offer, chiefly on the
: ‘Della Valle Travels, pp. 201-203.
■ I grounds that it would have involved them in war with
'} *SaO Francisco Xavier. Santa Izabel, Nossa Senhora da ConceifaO, Sao Sim3of \ the Turks, to the consequent detriment of English
Misericordia} Santo Anari) Sao Braz and the pinnace Nossa Senhora da Guia.
Of this fleet, three vessels were wrecked and most of the others compelled to trade in the Levant. Dom Gon£alo remained at
f winter in Mocambique. The Nossa Senhora da Guia was taken by the Basra until November, 1625, when he rejoined Ruy
E.I.C. ship Coaster, outward bound for Batavia, near the Cape, but released
as being “so spoiled in the fight.” which had lasted for 12 hours. The Freyre off Ormuz.1
Captain was sent to Malacca, on nis promising to try to effect the release
of the English captives (from the Unicorn) detained there. ‘Foster, English Factories, 1624-1629, pp. 42-43* t^ois Cafitaes da India,
pp. 7089. Dom Gon^alo ascended the Euphrates with this flotilla as high
9Cal. S.P. East Indies, 1622-1624, p. 230. Terpstra, Opkomst der as Babylon on one occasion. Amongst the documents attesting the value
- Westerqtiartieren der O.I.C. (Hague, 1918), pp. 151-157, q.v. for the of his services in this expedition, are some interesting translations of letters
foundation of Dutch commercial relations with Persia in 162 23-1624. of thanks from the Pasha and the Turkish Grand Virier. In this year the
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