Page 30 - The Pirate Coast (By Sir Charles Belgrave)

off many prisoners into slavery and taking great quantities of
treasure.
The departure of the Portuguese from Muscat gave an impetus
to piracy which was mainly carried on by the Arabs of Oman.
They were such a formidable threat both to trade and to the
security of the Persian ports, that the Shah offered privileges to
the English if they would reduce the pirate strongholds, but the
English were in no position to do so. Not only were there Arab
pirates, but the seas were infested with ‘outlawed Portugals and a
mixture of that race, the most accursidly base of all mankind, who
arc known for their bastard brood as Buccaneers’. These, accord­
ing to Fryer, ‘wreak their malice on the unarmed Merchants, who,
not long able to resist their unbounded Lust, become tame Slaves
to their lawless Rage’.
In 1652, England and Holland were at war, and the position of
the English Company in Persia and the Gulf was very precarious.
Trade had diminished and everywhere the Dutch, who were more
popular at the Court of the Shah than the English, were gaining
ground. The inability of the English to suppress the pirates was
held against them by the Persians who, themselves, had no effec­
tive sea power. Throughout its history Persia has been at a dis­
advantage from lack of a navy. Persians as a race have a strong
disinclination for the sea, although the tribes on the coast are
seafaring people, but they, in many eases, are the descendants of
Arabs who crossed the Gulf and settled on the Persian coast.
Although the Dutch took no conspicuous action against the pir­
ates, yet the Persians were impressed by their evident strength
and wealth. Then, as today, nothing impressed the Arabs and
Persians more than strength and wealth. In 1672, John Fryer was
at Bundar Abbas, where the English, the Dutch and the French,
who had recently appeared on the scene, had factories, each one
surmounted by their national flag. He found in the harbour two
large Dutch ships, two large Arab vessels, and one little English
ship. He says: ‘The English Company’s trade is but small here,
only carrying off some few drugs, wool, dates, goats and horses.’
It was the interest of the English in exporting horses which caused
a Persian to enquire whether any horses existed in Europe. The
French had even less trade and, according to another traveller,
only remained at Bundar Abbas because their interpreter was
making a profit out of wine, ‘lounging his time away’, paying and
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