Page 28 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

From these ports they competed vigorously with the English.
Peace was made between England and Portugal in 1634, a peace
which has lasted for over 330 years. But besides competition
from the Portuguese, the English had to deal with competition
from the Dutch and, to a lesser degree, from the French.
The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 after
several voyages had been made to the East Indies by Dutch ships.
Within a short time, the Dutch Company had acquired a mono­
poly of the lucrative spice trade which was wrested from the
hands of the Portuguese. The Dutch Company enjoyed the full
support of its Government, it was wealthy and it had a strong
fleet manned by Europeans, not, as was the ease with the Portu­
guese, by crews of Portuguese, Indians and half breeds. Chardin
who was in Persia in 1666, writes: ‘the Indians are by no means
proper to navigate European vessels, they are the worst thieves
and murthcrcrs. The I-Iolland Company would never make use
of them.’ Although on one or two occasions the Dutch com­
bined with the English against the Portuguese, they soon presented
a formidable threat to the commercial and political position of
the English. The situation worsened after the death of Shah
Abbas. His successor showed preference for the Dutch and skil­
fully played off the European competitors in his domain, one
against the other.
In 1660, the Portuguese lost Muscat, their last stronghold in the
Gulf, to the Arabs of Oman. Captain Alexander Hamilton who
was in Muscat some twenty years later, tells the story of how the
Portuguese were expelled. The Imam, which was the title then
held by the rulers of Oman, was preparing an expedition against
the Persian coast. His army was in the neighbourhood of Muscat
and his fleet was lying off Matra, a port on the coast a few miles
from Muscat. The Imam sent a civil message to the Governor
of Muscat, asking permission to buy provisions in the town. The
Governor, in reply, sent a piece of pork wrapped in paper, with a
rude message, saying that if the Imam wanted such provisions he
could furnish them. The messenger, unaware of what the parcel
contained, handed it to the Imam and delivered the message.
The Imam, besides being the temporal ruler, was the religious
head of the Omanis, and it was a gross insult to send him pork.
However, although shocked at the Governor’s ill manners, ‘he
dissembled his resentment’.
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