Page 137 - Arabiab Studies (IV)

European Accounts of Muscat 127
Portuguese at Azeeba (Sib) and put in jail in Muscat for three
months. They had a garrison there of 40 men and also a
Church with two Friars. Salbanckc was released after the
intervention of an English Jesuit, Fr Drurie.
1621 Factories, i, 227. London and Roebuck took a Muscat ship
about 14 leagues from Diu and in it were 42 Arab horses, with
154 persons of whom 48 were Portugalls and the rest from
Muscat. The British ships took 770 pieces of gold of the value
of sequins and 10,200 laris (silver coin worth a shilling).
Factories, i, 284. British ships captured the San Antonio, 200
tons, taking rice from Goa to Muscat,
i, 288. Some Portugalls were sent from Muscat to prevent
British ships watering at Masira.
1623 Factories, ii, 201. Report that Persians want to capture
Muscat where the Portuguese have 7,000 men, a galleon and
many ‘friggotts’.
1624 Factories, iii, 27. Discussion of possible co-operation with
Persians to capture Muscat but ‘it is a beggarly poor town
and will never defray the charge.’ If we do take it we should
keep the castle and let the Persians keep the town.
Factories, iii, 50. After a naval battle 400 Portuguese were in
hospital in Muscat.
1625 The Travels of Sig. Pietro della Valle, A Noble Roman, into
East India and Arabia Deserta, London, 1665. 232-4. Visited
in January. Muscat ‘well clos’d and encompass’d about with
little Mountains, but lyes open to the Northwest, whereby it
receives much dammage.’ It has few walled houses but mostly
‘sheds made of Palm-boughs’. The Portuguese have begun to
raise an eastern wall but it is ‘plain and weak, with a few
Bastions, very distant from one another; which wall, drawn
from Mountain to Mountain, incloses and secures their
houses on that side, as the Sea doth on the opposite and
inaccessible little Mountains on the other two sides’. On the
right as you enter the harbour is the Castle, not very strong
but with a good natural position. Towards the sea there is a
level platform for guns, reached by a covered ladder. A Fort
‘of less consideration’ stands across the harbour. The
population consists of Portuguese, Arabs, Indians, Gentiles
and Jews. Two Churches—one is the See of the Vicar who
was an Augustinian Friar: other is a convent with four Friars.
The Captain only lives in the Castle in summer. Della Valle
took lodgings ashore and went to nearby village of Kelhuh
outside the mountains on the road to Sohar. It consisted of
sheds too small to stand up in.
Factories, iii, 61. We capture a Portuguese ship from Muscat
with 37 Arab horses, besides dates, runas etc. with total value
of 41, 470 mahmudis.
1630 RUY FREYRE de ANDRADE, Commentaries, London,