Page 39 - Anglo Portuguese Rivalry in The Gulf_Neat

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i efforts on the Persian silk trade, and with this end in This concentration of English shipping in the Gulf
view, after the despatch of the usual Persia fleet at had revived the plans of the Khan of Shiras for the
the beginning of 1032,1 they made arrangements to . '1 capture of Muscat, on which he was as bent as ever.
send the outward-bound fleet straight from its usual Both English and Dutch had been broached about the
■RIB ! rendezvous at the Comoro islands to Gombrun, in matter, and hitherto both had replied with evasive
1.1 •addition to despatching two vessels for the coast of answers. This time, however, each believed the other
I. 1* Coromandel to take in freight goods for Persia. The to be in earnest, with the result that they both
factors at Gombrun strongly objected to this decision promised to assist the Persian for fear of being
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I' when they heard of it; one of their reasons being that forestalled by their rivals. The Khan of Shiras
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no transport could be obtained during the hot season commenced to assemble troops for the expedition in
! when the vessels from England were due to arrive, so 1632, and he further presented the Hollanders with
!, that the goods would lie at the port, exposed to some of the now rotten and leaky Portuguese frigates
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capture by Ruy Freyre’s frigates. The President and taken at Ormuz in 1622,. in order that the Dutch
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council at Surat, overruled the objections, pointing might use them for in-shore work against the Portuguese
|i out that it was in the highest degree unlikely that the light craft at Kung, Bahrein and elsewhere.1 Only
* 5 Portuguese, who were living in Kung under an three Dutch vessels arrived at Gombrun in October,
agreement made with the Shah, would dare to attempt so that the Khan was forced to abandon the idea, as
any robbery at a port of his, and thus expose their own the English likewise displayed no undue eagerness to
factory to reprisals. They further added that the go. At this point, death removed two of the chief
protection afforded by “ Gombroone Castle ” might protagonists from the scene, for in December, 1632,
surely be relied on. This reading of the situation was Ruy Freyre, who had been in poor health ever since
apparently correct, as Ruy Freyre made no attempt his return from Goa the previous year, died of dysentry
to interfere with the ships of his old acquaintance at Muscat, worn out by his twelve years continuous
Captain John Weddell, which reached Gombrun in active service in the trying climate of the Gulf ; whilst
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% October and left for Surat after a stay in the port of almost at the same time, his old opponent the Imam
twenty days.1 Quli Khan, the captor of Ormuz, was executed
i together with most of his family, by his treacherous
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lMaryy Exchange, Blessing and fVilliam under Captain Slade.. They and ungrateful master Shah Safi.1 This was the news
were back at Swally by the middle of April. A Dutch fleet consisting of
I>| which Weddell found awaiting him at Gombrun,
the Amboyna, Flisstngenf *t Hoff van Hollands, ’s-Gravetihagej Vere, ’/ Wapen r
ven Delfty Buiren and Malaccay under, the command of Philips Lucaszoon, whither he had sailed from Swafiy at the beginning of
1 was in Gombrun at the same time.
r •MacLeod, Oost-Indische Compagnie als Zeemogendhetd in Aziey 1602-16<z,
•Foster. English Factories. i630-1633, pp. xxv-vi, 140, 195, 235-239. I, p. 450. Foster, English Factoriesy 1630-1633, p. 319. The English
Weddell’s fleet consisted of tne Charles, Jonas, Doli>hiny Hart and Swallow informed the Portuguese of this plan early in 1634, during the negotiations
from England, together with the Sea-horse. James ana Intelligence from Surat, for a truce, Diario do Conde de Linharesy p. 29.
which they had met off the Comoro islands. On reaching Gombrun in
October, they found the Mary and Exchange with freight goods from •The best and fullest contemporary accounts of this tragedy are to be
Masulipatam in the road, as also the Dutch ships Utrechty Amboina and Groly found in the documents printed in MacLeod, Oost-Indische Compagniey etc.,
*! under Jan Carstenszoon from Batavia.
r; n, pp- 74-76.
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