Page 23 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

garrisons and the quality of their reinforcements was not what it
had been. The captains of their fleets, when they first arrived,
were almost invincible, but they began to shirk, encounters and
paid more attention to enriching themselves by trade than to
fighting. In the Gulf, Shah Abbas who ascended the Persian
throne in 1587, soon sought means of ousting the Portuguese
from Hormuz and recovering the trade which the Portuguese
had taken from Persia.
In 1602, the Portuguese lost Bahrain. The islanders rebelled
against the Governor, who was a relation of the King of Hormuz,
overpowered the small Portuguese garrison, and seized the fort.
The Prince of Shiraz sent a force to support the rebels and took
control of the islands in the name of the Shah of Persia. Persia
and Portugal were outwardly friendly, and when the King of
Portugal complained to the Shah about his action in supporting
the rebels in Bahrain, Shah Abbas made the flimsy excuse that he
took Bahrain not from the Portuguese but from his vassal the
King of Hormuz.
In 1559, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter to English merchants
‘of their own adventures, costs and charges’ to ‘traffic and mer­
chandise’ in the East Indies. In 1608, the first English ship arrived
off* the coast of India, then for several years the English tried to
obtain permission from the Mogul Emperor to have a factory at
Surat. They had to contend with the opposition and intrigues of
the Portuguese, who were long established at the Emperor’s court
and, with the apathy of the Emperor and his officials, in matters
concerning trade. However, they were finally permitted to set
up a factory at Surat, which became the main English establish­
ment on the Indian coast.
Previously, several adventurous English gentlemen, the most
famous being the Sherley brothers, had visited the court of the
Shah, who showed favour to the English, while endeavouring to
curb the power of the Portuguese by weakening their positions.
Because there was no water supply in Hormuz, the inhabitants
depended on some wells on the mainland near Bundar Abbas
where the Portuguese had built a small fort. In 1607 the Khan
of Fars seized the wells: he retired when paid to do so, but retained
two forts in the vicinity. Eight years later, the Khan took the
town and fort of Bundar Abbas from the Portuguese, thus de­
priving them of their last foothold on the Persian coast.
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