'Precis Containing Information in regard to the First Connection of the Hon'ble East India Company with Turkish Arabia, as far as the Same Can Be Traced from the Records of the Bombay Government, together with the Names of the Several British Residents and Political Agents Who Have Been Stationed at Bagdad [Baghdad] and Bussorah [Basra] between A.D. 1646 and 1846, accompanied by Other Information' [‎17r] (35/226)

WITH TURKISH ARABIA A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire. —1646 TO 1846.
3
lading our shippe would bee the more priddie, our lower ordnance at libertye for defence,
which are got by the deepnes of our shippes, and are so useful, and our roome in hould
the more for pleasuring of the Moors and increase of our freight and customs in Persia.
That in respect of your commission, in ordering the next yeare's silke, to be down at
portc vn that yeare's 1st August attthe furthest, it would be a great forwarJing thereunto
by the advance this way of four or five months' tyme for the furtherance of that mayne
designe. which otherwise, in my opinion, may runne some hazard of prolongason ; that
I myselfe shall have a faire opportunitie of conference with the factors there, whereby
to be informed of many particulars which by letters att soo farr a distance as India
from thence they will either neglect, or peradventure not dare att all to advise; and
lastly the advantage of forestalling of the Duttch in our marketts, chiefly in the choyse
and acomodatting of ourselves with the fittingest assortments of silke, and soo leave the
refuse up on the Duttch, which I consider to be a point of weighty consideration. On
these foundations wee have built our resoluson (at the least to endeavour this our
purpose) for Persia, and shall hasten the prosecution thereof with all possible delligence,
yet with such reservation as wee dare not promise you any other performance save in
than what the windes and faire success in our voyage shall administer, for in case of
any thing occurring in the passage to crosse us. Wee shall then disturb this intention,
and apply ourselves for Surratt first as other fileets heretofore."
9. The following' are extracts from the letter to which I have
alluded above as having been addressed by the Chief in Council at
Surat to the Chief in Council of the East India Company's Factory An East India Company trading post. in
Persia, dated the 6th October 1630. In order to render these and other
extracts which I shall have occasion to quote in this summary the more
readily intelligible, I purpose to adopt the mode of spelling followed at
the present day, and not to observe the abbreviations in the different
words as they occur in the orig'inals. The letter above alluded to com
mences—" Worshipful and our very loving- friends, Mr. Burt in
Council," and is addressed " to Persia, Overland."
" The loss of the Charles and Jonas, the monsoon this year, for England hath
forgotten a resolution in us to avoid the like inconvenience for the present by making
Persia the last port of despatch to the home-bound ships Discoverye and Refor mason ;
your account of the old joint stock therefore, together with that of the new, would be
in a readiness, namely, and copy of oath to be sent to the Company by that conveyance,
and the others to be dispeeded unto us, wherein, if any remains of either, you may have
recourse to the Company's orders herewithal, appointing how you shall govern your
selves in its valuation and transport from one unto another. We will not fail to
correspond with your desires in the sending the particular account of * * freight
from hence, together with their entries in Custom-house, if possibly to be * * and
on the contrary shall expect like care in you to compare the same with their entries
there; and that for whatsoever goods landed over and above the specified, though they
should endeavour to pass them under the name and title of surplus of * * you
exact for the same like freight and customs, that from thence they may cease to pester
our ships with unnecessary lumber.
"Your relation of the Persian war in defence against the Turks and the other
progress therein, together with the Portugals getting privations in those ports, was
acceptable unto us. Advices by the way of Mocha, since both seem to ascertain that the
Turks hath received a fatal overthrow, and of the Portugals' proceedings in those ports,
you have already heard our discourse, their supply out of Europe this year being only
a currack and one galleon, which will very much disappoint the wise King's designs
by the want of men and money, and so full * * intelligence tells us are things he
exactly stands in need of; that which we most dread are his stratagems by fire in
Swally, and his frigates intercepting of your boats in Gombroon ;* the Khan's assistance
therefore so poorly promised unto you would be further solicited to your orders as well
by sea as land, namely, by boats or frigates of that country, to be manned partly with
his, and partly with some of our choicest shot, occasion so requiring."
* Now known by the name of Bunder Abbass, close to the Island of Kishm, in the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . The East India Company, as will be hereafter seen, had an important factory An East India Company trading post.
at Gombroon.