تقارير إدارية من الخليج العربي ١٨٨٣/١٨٨٤ – ١٩٠٤/١٩٠٥ [و‎‎٣‎٩] (٦٠٢/٨٢)

EESIDENCT AND MUSCAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOE 1884-85.
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to the east of the town on the site of an aacient tower. It was completed in 1587 and called
Sam Jao, now known to the Arabs as Jelali.
The fort left unfinished by daLisboa thirty years before^ on the west side of the town, was
brought to completion in the following year, 1588, and was named Fort Capitan. Its present
name is Merani. In the year 1616 a force was despatched from Goa against Sohar to act in
co-operation with an Arab Chief, the Ameer Umeyr-bin-Himyar,who had sought the Portuguese
alliance and had probably instigated the enterprise. Besides a land force from Muscat, the
expedition was joined by a number of ships from Hormuz laden with stores and munitions of
war. After some indecisive skirmishing between the Arabs in front of Sohar, the Portuguese
landed their men and guns and commenced to bombard the fort, using gabions stuflPed with
cotton for the seige batteries. The walls were soon breached, and the fort was then carried by
assault, the Arab garrison routed and dispersed, and the town burned to the ground. The
Portuguese henceforward remained in undisputed possession of the place, and the Ameer
Umeyr, having gained his object, retired to Nakhl. This took place on the 16th March.
The Portuguese now found themselves confronted by foes of a different calibre to the
Asiatics they had hitherto had to deal with. The Dutch and English had appeared in the
East to contest the supremacy by the sea, to grasp their share of the commerce, and eventually,
as it turned out, to overthrow their Eastern Empire.
Many and severe were the engagements that ensued between these three nations, but the
Portuguese power had already begun to wane and could not long sustain the unequal contest.
The oriental navigations of the English commenced towards the close of the sixteenth century,
and it was not very long before they felt strong enough to venture into the Gulf as rivals
with the Portuguese for the Persian trade. In 1613, the ship Expedition, of 260 tons,
with the Ambassador to Persia, Sir Thomas Shirley, on board, arrived at G-wadur, from whence
Sir Thomas proposed to march up to the capital, Ispahan, overland. A plot of the treacherous
Belooches to murder the whole Embassy and crew of the Expedition was, however, fortu
nately discovered in time, and the vessel proceeded on to India. On the way they captured a
terada of 15 tons having a pass from the Governor of Muscat, which was transcribed as show
ing to what subjection the Portuguese had reduced the maritime trade of the Gulf, allowing no
vessel, large or small, to navigate the sea without their pass.
The first encounter between the English and Portuguese, in the Gulf of Oman, appears to
have taken place in 1620, in which year a fleet, consisting of the London 800 tons, Rart 500
tons, Roebuck 300 tons, and the Eagle 280 tons, sailed from Tilbury Hope for Surat, from
whence two of the ships, the Rart and Eagle, set out for Jask. Here they found the Portuguese
fleet, sent purposely from Lisbon to oppose the English trade with Persia, waiting to intercept
and attack them, and, judging themselves unable to cope with it, were returning to Surat
for reinforcements, when they met the London and Roehuch on the way to join them.
The four ships together then steered for Jask, where they arrived on 15th December 1620,
having captured on the road, on the 21st November, a Portuguese ship of 300 tons bound from
Muscat to Chaul with a cargo of horses. The Portuguese fleet consisted of two galleons, one of
which was larger than the London, two galleots and ten frigates under the command of General
Dom Ruy Frere daAndrada, the Vice-Admiral being Joaa Boralho. There were also two
Dutch galleons, one commanded by Ant. Mesquitta and the other by Balthazar deChaves. On
the 16th the English were engaged in fitting up their prize as a fire-ship, but as it fell calm
d.uring the day, they were only able to exchange long shots with the enemy. The breeze
springing up the following morning, the Portuguese, who had the weather gage, weighed and
closed. The battle began at 9 a.m ., and continued without intermission for nine hours -, the
two fleets manoeuvering and exchanging broadsides until night coming on, the smaller Dutch
ship, pressed by the RoehucJc, turned tail and fled, and was soon followed by the rest of the
Dutch and Portuguese fleet, which disappeared in the darkness. The English ships anchored
for the night in the road. The prize that had been fitted up as a fire-ship had been fired early
in the day, but had failed through mismanagement. The advantage, however, remained with
the English, who lost only one man, and had but little damage done to their ships^ while the
Portuguese lost their Admiral Boralho and thirty men in one ship alone. The next morning the
Portuguese were discovered in the offing, to the eastward, from whence they made no attempt
to renew the engagement, but remained there during the next ten days watching the English,
and occupied in obtaining supplies and reinforcements from Muscat, their object being to
harass and delay the English and prevent them prosecuting their trade with Persia. This
Fabian policy suited them well, as Hormuz, their base of operations, was near at hand, while
the English had no port nearer than Surat to retire to.