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4.10  The aftermath of the Portguese defeat

Pietro Della Valle who had spent 1622 in Shiraz now moved south again to Bandar Abbas at the beginning of 1623 to continue his trip to India aboard an English ship.

 

So to begin: on Thursday, 19 January, having expedited and put in order all that was needed, a little while before daybreak, after some cannon shots had been fired as is customary on departures, we began to gently to unfurl the sail, moving slowly meanwhile, as we were waiting for the ship’s boat which was still at shore. When it eventually arrived, we unfolded all our canvas, and, though there was little wind, directed our course between the islands of Ormuz and Kishm, passing on the outer side of Ormuz towards Arabia, since the shallowness of the more narrow channel towards Persia prevents big ships such as ours sailing there. On this voyage there were only two English ships, namely the Whalem, which was the command-ship, on which I had embarked, commanded by Captain Nicholas Woodcock, and another called the Dolphin, captained by Master Matthew Willis.

At midday, finding ourselves near to Lareck, and becalmed, we cast anchor, without dropping sails, and our captain sent his long-boat ashore with two greyhounds, which the English at Gombroon had given him to catch game. Towards nightfall we again set sail; but though the wind was rather stronger, as the boat had not yet returned, we took in a little sail and stayed put to wait for it, also discharging some musket shots, so that it might be heard and seen where we were. For it was already one o’clock at night, and as it had not returned, we feared some disaster might have befallen it, through the frequent habitual visits to Lareck of those Arab thieves called Nouteks, who go plundering through those seas, and very often set up home on the island of Lareck. But at length the boat returned safe and sound, and brought us a lot of goats. So then we again spread our sails freely to the wind which, though not very favourable to our course, blew rather more forcefully. We continued going forward, plying from the coast of Arabia to that of Persia; and early on Saturday morning as we approached the land of Arabia, we saw three small islands, close to each other, which were near to a certain cape, whose name, as with that of the islands, they could not tell me so I might write it down correctly. From this, I realised why it happens that there are so many corruptly written names in the geographical charts, for even in the countries themselves, where exchanges take place mostly with rude and ignorant people, few know or hear how to pronounce them correctly and well.

On Sunday we descended from the ship into the boat, and went for some recreation to the other ship, the Dolphin, our companion, where the captain entertained us lavishly all day long. Meanwhile a very good wind began to blow astern; and so, sailing directly in the middle of the gulf, we saw the two coats, both of Arabia Felix and Persia; and on the latter we beheld a certain famous rock, which, standing in the middle of a low sandy shore, looks like a little hill made by hand. And we passed the Cape, which in Persia Bombarack, that is, ‘small sand’, and the following night we also left behind the point of Jask.^[1]

 

At this point Della Valle relates a conversation with the Captain on the Monday and on the Wednesday 25 January mentions that they were sailing off the Mekran coast which in his opinion was part of the ancient Carmania or Gedrosia. We return to the narrative on the Thursday:

 

The evening of the next day, our captain, who was a little more merry than usual (because the captain of the Dolphin had dined with us that morning and a fair amount of drinking accompanied the conversation), chatting as he used to with me after supper, spoke very freely to me about their negotiations over Ormuz. In conclusion, he told me that it was on the point of being agreed with the Persians that if they restored the English fortress of Ormuz, with half the revenues of the customs house and the city, as they had desired from the beginning, then the English in return would bind themselves to people Ormuz, and restore the trade as it was before, keeping it continuously open to Persia; and to this end, and also to guard the sea there against the Portuguese and other enemies, they promised to keep four ships in Ormuz. Then, when this was agreed, the English were to bring large numbers of people from England, and entire families with wives and children, to live in Ormuz, as the Portuguese used to; and they would also prosecute the war against the Portuguese at Muscat and everywhere else. But if they did not come to an agreement over these matters, then they would not make war on the Portuguese any longer, nor did they care for the traffic of Persia on any other terms.

These treaties, were they to come into effect, would not be at all good for the Catholic religion, and would, apart from everything else, close the door for ever to the recovery of Ormuz by the Portuguese, and indeed threaten all the rest of their possessions hereabout. Bey Imanculi, who was general of the Persians in the late wars, and with whom the English had dealt over this business in Combru, Captain Woodcock said, was inclined to the bargain; but it was not known what the Khan of Shiraz would do or, more important, the King. On the one hand, I know what the Persians ardently wanted to have Ormuz all for themselves, reckoning it was worth little, from so much warfare and so many people lost, to have acquired only half of it - or rather less than half, with the fortress subtracted, which the English wished themselves to possess - so that the Persians would stand there exactly as the King of Ormuz stood with the Portuguese, and with no more. They also think they have done little and perhaps very ill if they make no greater gain, but have only changed the Portuguese for the English in Ormuz, and Christians for Christians; for on similar terms it could be expected that perhaps the Portuguese, after the loss of Ormuz, would readily reach agreement with the Persians, now that there was no more to lose, and just give to the Persians that which the King of Ormuz, a Mohammedan like them, enjoyed.

Moreover, to the Persians the friendship of the Portuguese on this basis would no doubt be useful, because of the many states they have in India, enabling them to maintain the traditional commerce with Persia with more ease and safety. But, on the other hand, to see now the Portuguese so beaten, and the English enjoying better fortune, at least, and having more spirit, if not more forces, means plainly that Ormuz will never be reinhabited, nor trade set on foot again, unless one of the Christian nations is there with ships and armed force at sea; these are things the Persians totally lack, possessing around the sea in Persia neither mariners nor timber to build vessels. And because of the loss resulting to Persia from the extinguishing of that trade, the expense involved in maintaining the fortress of Ormuz without profit, and under continuous threat of losing it at any hour if the English do not guard the sea with their vessels and help defend it, for these and other reasons, it would not be at all hard to induce the King of Persia, content now to have shown his power and valour and chastised the Portuguese enemy the way he wished, to concede to the English as much as they ask. For he would not be yielding it to them upon force, but, out of his own liberality and for his own gain, he would be giving them as a gift something that to keep for himself, the way matters now stand, would bring him no benefit, but rather loss. He may also perhaps imagine now, in the pride won through victory, that, just as he has driven the Portuguese from Ormuz with the help of the English, so it must prove easy for him to drive out the English too, either with the help of others, or with his own forces, if they do not act well towards him.

However, because these treaties with the Persians are handled by the Company of Merchants, which has also conducted the war, and not by the King of England, up till now it has not been known whether their King approves the action or not, or if he wishes or not to prosecute this enterprise. So they are awaiting the will and pleasure of the King of England, as well as the consent of the King of Persia, for its conclusion, and the best hope I have for the defeat of these plots, which are so harmful to the Catholics, is simply that the English King will not dabble in them, and perhaps will forbid his subjects to do so, as a person whom we know to be a friend of peace, and most hostile to any sort of war - especially with the King of Spain, whose greatness in some way he seems both to fear and honour. This will be still more the case if the marriage alliance between these two crowns is achieved or at least goes forward, and if the affairs of the Palatinate in Germany are settled, wherein, having lost the state, the King of England has more need to ask for mercy than to stir up fresh passions. So therefore, with reason, I hold that the affairs of Ormuz are still totally dependent on those of Europe.

 

We began, in the meanwhile, to find the sea very rough, having left the Persian straits or gulf completely behind and sailed into the open sea (called by the ancients ‘Mare rubrum’ and by us today the Southern Ocean) and having passed not only the Cape of Giasck, but also that of Arabia, which the Portuguese commonly call Rosalgate. (This is how it is found in the maps, but it ought to be described as Ras al had, which in the Arabic language means ‘cape at the end’, or ‘at the confine’, as it is the last of that land, and juts further than any other port into the sea, like that of Galicia in our Europe, which for similar reasons has come to be called by us, ‘Finis terrae’.) ^[2]

 

Della Valle landed at Surat in India on Friday 10 February 1623 and some months later that year learns that reinforcement for Ruy Friere had been despatched from Portugal but too late to prevent the loss of Hormuz.

 

On the 30 October Signor Giovanni Fernandez, having decided to depart the next day, sent some horse on ahead with some of his family. The same evening a man from Goa brought us news of the arrival in Goa of some Portuguese from the fleet which came this year from Portugal, reported to consist of four great trading ships, as they are called, two brigs and four galleons of war. They had been despatched in order to be consigned to Ruy Friere for the war of Ormuz, the loss of which and the deliverance of Ruy Friere being already known at the court of Spain, but not the loss of the ships of the fleet last year. These Portuguese who have arrived in Goa, it was reported, are from one of the galleons coming with the fleet, which had been separated from the rest and touched at Mozambique, where, as it was old and shattered, it was lost; but all the people and goods were landed safely and came in other ships to Goa. Then, as the rest of the fleet is so late in arriving, it reckoned to have taken its course outside the island of San Lorenzo, which does take more time. It is also reported that the marriage between England and Spain has been concluded, and that England’s prince is already in Spain, having gone there in advance of the marriage which is expected shortly.^[3]

 

The English stood little chance of benefiting from the spoils through the numbers of Persians and even though they did remove in the order of £100,000 on the Whale it was lost on the sandbar outside Surat. This did not prevent the Duke of Buckingham as Lord High Admiral and a favourite of King James from declaring his right to one tenth of the spoils. The fact that the spoils were lost and that the Company argued that it had acted by rights of its charter and not in letters of marque from the Lord High Admiral made no difference and Buckingham stated that as they had acted as pirates the whole sum of monies was forfeited to the crown. In conclusion and after a long dispute including the detention in early 1624 of the Company ships on the pretext that they might be needed for service against Spain, Buckingham received £10,000 as did the King for not having letters of marque.

In London on the 18 August 1623 the Spanish Ambassadors, the Marquis de La Ynojosa and Don Carlos Coloma, had complained to King James about the action at Hormuz and on the 28 added the following:

 

That in the ship London are brought goods stolen from their King’s subjects to the value of 500,000l.; that the very dishes that the lowest and basest sort of the crew put their meat in are of silver, stamped with the arms of many families of Portugal, whom they have miserably sacked and slain; that the gold, jewels, &c. sacked in that city are inestimable; that the captain of the London doth boast that with his own hands he hath taken the Castle of Ormuz, killed an infinite number of Portugals, and burnt two caracs named El Salvador and Todos Los Santos, by which the Company is beholden to him that for three years no ship can come to the King of Spain with East India wares; that the Portugals and other nations, subjects of the Catholic King, were made slaves, and Persians who had renounced Mahomet were, at the request of their own nation, delivered up to be barbarously torn in pieces; and that on their arrival in England, having (though falsely) heard that the match with the Infanta was broken off, the crew made no difficulty to shoot off all the artillery, and for a greater demonstration of joy, the captain giving the example, threw their hats and caps into the sea.^[4]

 

During 1623 various petitions were made to the East India Company for compensation as a result of the action at Hormuz. In September, Jane, widow of Thomas Archbell, master of the Jonas who was killed at Hormuz requested “charitable comfort” for herself and her four fatherless children. A petition she repeated again in November. Robert Sargeant who in rowing a barge to fire five of the ships at Hormuz was shot through both knees and had a foot burnt, requested charity and received 20 nobles. William Morris requested “benevolence” for a wound received at Hormuz and William Copp requested compensation for the loss of his servant. John Broker, an apprentice, whose hand and arm were shrunk and scorched with powder at the siege of Hormuz, received a charitable donation of 3 pounds. William Whalely lost a leg in a fight at sea with the Portuguese was offered 10 pounds and refused. He later asked for a place as a porter at Blackwall but was turned down as there was no vacancy.^[5]

Ruy Freyre who had been captured by the English at Kishm had been escorted back to Surat with the intention of sending him back to England as a prisoner. Unfortunately the English boats that were to take him had already left for England accompanied by some Dutch ships. With Easter approaching, Ruy Freyre extended an invitation to Captain James Beversham to join him in celebrating Easter as was common practice in Portugal and then requested permission to send his servant to the Portuguese fort of Damao to obtain food and wine. Using drugged wine at the meal, Ruy Freyre was able to slip away from the boat and reach Damao by the next morning despite orders given to Beversham to:

 

… as well per wrighting as per word of mouth, to continue a strong guard on Ruy Freyres person and constantly to releave the same turnes to prevent whatsoever his intents, eyther escape or otherwise.^[6]

 

Ruy Freyre then purchased a vessel with monies raised by the people of Damao and falling in with two other ships arrived in Muscat by way of Tiwai. Constantino de Sa de Noronha had arrived there with 14 out of the 20 galliots and was waiting for the arrival of the remaining six before setting out for the relief of Hormuz. Realising that his fleet was inadequate to take Hormuz, he and Ruy Freyre decided to return to Goa. Ruy Freyre set out to clear his name but the appointment and arrival of the new Viceroy, the Conde da Vidigueira, Dom Francisco da Gama who was taking over from the Governor Fernao de Albuquerque, interrupted the proceedings and Ruy Freyre, although determined to retire as a monk, was sent back to Muscat where he arrived about the end of April 1623 with six galliots.