Page 25 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

for military help, there was an English fleet at Jask, which had
lately arrived from Surat. The Khan made it plain that if the
English did not come to the assistance of the Persians they would
lose the trading facilities which they had obtained with so much
difficulty. It was the granting by Persia of these facilities to the
English which had provoked the hostilities with the Portuguese.
The idea of supporting the Moslem Persians against the Christian
Portuguese was repugnant to some of the English captains, they
were afraid, too, that they might incur punishment from King
James of England for fighting against Portugal with whom he
was at peace. But, after long deliberations, the English decided
to throw their lot in with the Persians. An agreement was drawn
up under which all Portuguese prisoners were to be handed over
to the English, and Moslem prisoners would be taken by the
Persians.
The siege and taking of Kishm and Hormuz by the combined
Persian and English forces are graphically described in the com­
mentaries of Ruy Freire dc Andrada, published in Lisbon in 1647.
The English went first to Kishm where Ruy Freire was holding
out in the castle against a large Persian force. There was a parley
at which Ruy Freire refused to surrender unless all prisoners were
handed over to the English. To this, the English could not agree,
so the attack on the fortress began. It was occupied on February
nth 1622 without much resistance, as some of the Portuguese
troops mutinied, being urged to surrender by their priests. Ruy
Freire and two of his captains were sent to Surat as hostages, later
Ruy Freire escaped from the English and played a distinguished
part in the hostilities between the Portuguese and the English in
the Gulf until his death in Muscat in 1632. He was buried in the
Church at Muscat on the foundations of which the present
Sultan’s palace stands. The Moslem prisoners were handed over
to the Persian Khan who, contrary to his promise, murdered them
most inhumanly.
On February 19th, the English and the Persians’ combined force
moved to Hormuz, the Persians landed without opposition and
took the town: the Portuguese retired into the fortress. The
siege of the fortress lasted for over two months. The English used
the guns on their ships to destroy the Portuguese fleet, and with
their shore guns they bombarded the fortress. The Portuguese
defended themselves bravely, but the walls of the fortress were
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