Page 38 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat

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! t Ormuz was allowed to lapse for the moment, but by
way of compensation Ruv Freyre founded and
garrisoned a small fort at Julfar, on the Arabian shore
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opposite Kishm island, which was a strategic centre
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of some importance as well as the site of a valuable
pearl fishery.
1 On the conclusion of this truce with Persia, Ruy
I Freyre’s forces were free to be used elsewhere than in
the Gulf, and he soon received a summons from the
new Viceroy, Dom Miguel de Noronha, Conde de
Linhares, to join him in an expedition that was being
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fitted out at Goa for a secret destination, which
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rumour variously reported to be the English ships at
Swally, the Dutch fort Geldria at Paliacat on the
Coromandel coast, and Malacca. On receipt of these
orders, Ruy Freyre sailed with eight well-appointed
galliots for Bassein, which he reached in November.
The news of his arrival caused considerable alarm
amongst the English at Swally, who had not forgotten
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the fate of the Lion, but his force was too small to
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effect anything. Although he put in an appearance off
the “ Hole,” together with fourteen other frigates,
he soon saw that there was no chance of taking the
. English by surprise, and so continued on his voyage to
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0 Goa, where he arrived on December' 21st, 1630.1
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»ii Here he remained until May, 1631, when he was sent
back to Muscat by the Viceroy, since the proposed
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l expedition against Paliacat had been abandoned on
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receipt of the news of Botelho’s death off Jambi in '
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ii the previous year, and the- destruction of Constantino
de S4 with his army in Ceylon. Despite Ruy Freyre’s
^Compare document! calendared in Foster, op. cit,, pp. 57, 60,97 and 100. *An account of the fall and recapture of Mombasa will be found on pp.
The Commentaries give the date of Ruy Freyre’s arrival at Goa as the 2nd
February, 1631, but this is obviously wrong. Father Manoel Xavier, S. J.,
who was an eye-witness gives the date stated in the text, which agrees with
1 the English statements that Ruy Freyre was off Swally during the first week
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t an December.
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absence from the Gulf, the English felt nervous about
i the possibility of their ships being intercepted if they
should sail separately, and accordingly both their
homeward-bound and Persia ships sailed together early
in January for Gornbrun, whence the latter returned
in April having parted with their homeward-bound
consorts off Jask.1
Ruy Freyre did not remain idle after returning to
his post, for the English factors at Gombrun reported
that during 1631, “ Ruy Freery reigning [ranging]
with three gallions and 20 frigotts in the Gulph,
presented the Duke [Khan of Shiras] with 600 tomans
and required the restitution of Ormus; or if not that,
then the free custom of all goods that the Portugalls
should land in all places or ports there, and free trade
without molestacion of the English or Dutch; all was
denied them.” At the end of the same year, he
detached four well-equipped galliots, manned with
picked crews, to .join a force of 20 frigates from Goa,
which had been sent to recapture the fortress of
Mombasa, taken by a sudden outbreak of the native
and Arab population, after all the Portuguese in­
habitants had been massacred to a man.1
In this same year of 1631, the English made an
important alteration in the arrangements for their
Persian trade. The country round Surat had been
ruined by famine and flood, so that the outlook for
1632 was far from promising. In these circumstances,
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!• the factors at Surat resolved to concentrate their
1 James, William, Blessing, Intelligence, Discovery arid Reformation.
Gombrun was reached on February I7th and the ships left just over a month
later, the first three arriving at Swally on the 15th April.
i 475-487 of Faria y Sousa’s Asia Portuguesa, (Lisboa, 1675). The first
attempt to retake it was repulsed with heavy loss and the expedition returned
defeated to Goa, but the rebels abandoned the place without fighting
immediately afterwards, when it was re-occupied by a small force which
had been left to blockade it.
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