"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٢‎٦‎٠] (١٧٨٢/١٤١٥)

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Agent from the town escape capture by the Persians, and in the contrary case to
Bombay ^ make the best of his way to the Presidency ; but the operations were
15th July protracted, and in the end he did not wait for their conclusion. On May
the 12th* H.M.S. " Seahorse " of '20 guns, Captain Farmer, entered the
roadstead at Bushehr, convoying a large Bengal ship destined for
Basrah; and in this manner the number of vessels in port %ing
the British flag was increased to nine,—the " Success it should be
observed, had left for India on the 1st of May with despatches,—and
some Persians professed uneasiness lest the British should attack the
town by way of creating a diversion in favour of their friends the Turks.
On the 24'th of May, Captain Farmer, who had received orders from
his Commodore, Sir Edward Hughes, to assist the representatives of
the East India Company wherever he might meet with them, tendered
his services for convoying to Basrah all or any of the ships at Bushehr
intended for that place; but his offer was courteously declined by
Mr. Moore. At length, on the evening of July 15th, all the British
vessels then remaining at Bushehr except the " Drake " sailed for Bombay
in company with H. M. S. "Seahorse^, the commander of which had
promised to afford them his protection against the Marathas. With
the fleet, in the " Eagle/' went Mr. Moore, whose patience was worn
out by confinement on board ship, for he would not land at Bushehr,
and Mr. Parsons in the " Seahorse but Messrs. Latouche and Abraham
were left behind at Bushehr in order that they might return to Basrah
and take charge of the Company's effects there at the earliest available
opportunity. In leaving for India Mr, Moore wrote to the Mutasallim
of Basrah, stating that he was taking the two Turkish ketches with him
to India for the same reason that he had brought them away from
Basrah, viz., to prevent their fallinsr into the hands of the Persians;
and at the same time he advised the Mutasallim, on account of the
difficulty of returning the vessels to Basrah, to authorise him to sell them
at Bombay on his behalf. In this farewell communication to Sulaiman
Agha the Agent remarked : " The honour that Your Excellency has
" acquired in the gallant defence of Basrah will be remembered to the
latest times. I would that it had been in our power to have assisted
e( you more than we did ; but it was not, of which I doubt not but
* The great Nelfsoir appears to have been a midshipman on the " Seahorse ' at
this time : he was in her from 1773 to 1776, and, in the " ordinary course of cruising in
peace times, he visited every part of the station from Bengal to Bussorab " (Captain
Mahon's Life of Nelson, page [4). Of lis service in the Kast Nelson himself said:
Nothing less tban such a distant voyage oould in the least satisfy my desire of
maritime knowledge ; but he returned to England as an invalid.