On First Entering The City, The Persian General, Named Einam Culi Beg,
Placed Captains With Detachments Of Soldiers In Various Quarters,
Proclaiming That Each Officer Was To Be Answerable For The Safety Of The
Quarter Assigned To Him, And Threatening Death To All Who Were Found
Pillaging.
Some infringing these orders were severely punished, some
being hanged, others having their ears or noses cut off, and others
bastinadoed even for trifles.
Yet, in two or three days after, the shops
and houses were forced open, and every man so wearied with carrying away
plunder all day long, and sleeping so securely at night without any
proper military precautions, that the Portuguese might easily have slain
many, if they had ventured upon making a sally.
On the night of our landing, I took possession of a very commodious
house for a factory, which, for convenience and goodness of its rooms,
exceeded, as I think, any factory belonging to the Honourable Company.
But it proved too hot for me on the 13th, in the night, as one of the
master's mates of the Whale, with others of his companions, after I was
in bed, by carelessness of candles, while searching for plunder, set a
room on fire in which were some goods given me in charge by the general.
Fortunately the wind favoured us, so that the house was not consumed.
Considering the strength of this city, and that every house was as it
were a little castle, I was astonished the Portuguese should have
abandoned it so soon. But it seems they were afraid of being intercepted
by the Persians in their retreat to the castle, and dreaded that the
Mahometan inhabitants might have betrayed them.
The Persians began presently to throw up trenches, and daily approached
nearer the castle, and, with our help, erected batteries for ordnance,
and sconces or redoubts for securing their men, and protecting the
trenches. With the cannon from our ships, we sore galled the Portuguese
ships, forcing them to haul in as close as possible to the castle. On
the 24th of February, four of our boats set fire to the San Pedro,
formerly admiral of Andrada's fleet, which put all the rest in great
danger, but the tide carried her out to sea, and her relics were towed
on shore at Gambroon by the Arab and other country boats, some iron
ordnance and shot being got out of her burnt carkass. The Khan was much
rejoiced at this exploit.
The Persians having succeeded in constructing a mine under one of the
bastions, which was charged with upwards of forty barrels of powder, it
was exploded on the 17th of March, by which a practicable breach was
made in the salient angle of the bastion. The Persians made immediately
a fierce assault, and Shah Culi Beg got possession of the bastion with
200 of his bravest men, and maintained himself there for at least three
hours; but the Portuguese made a brave defence, and with powder-pots,
scalding lead, and other devices of fire, did much hurt to the
assailants, burning, scalding, and slaying many of them, so that the
Persians were at last driven out with considerable loss, most of them
being wounded, scalded, or scorched. On the same day, the city was set
on fire in several places, by the command of the Persian general, as was
reported, because his Arab soldiers lurked among the houses, and could
not be got forth to do any service in the siege.
To the number of four or five thousand men, we were now cooped up in a
barren island without shelter, producing nothing in itself except salt;
and I know not by what mistaken policy the general had been induced to
send away all the rice and other victuals, by which means we were
reduced to depend upon the continent for a daily supply of provisions,
and even water; so that, if a fleet of Portuguese frigates had come, as
was expected, we must have been famished, as the country boats durst not
have ventured to us from the main. The rain water in the open cisterns
was daily wasted, and became brackish, no care being taken to fill the
jars and private cisterns in almost every house, while it remained good.
The Persians are quite ignorant in the art of war, for they entered the
breach without fear, precaution, or means of establishing themselves;
and they lost with shame what they might have defended with honour. I
observed other defects in their management, even of the very sinews of
war; and I am astonished that Shah Abbas, the wonder of our age, should
have sent his army on this expedition so weakly provided with money,
arms, ammunition, ships, and all other necessaries. I am even satisfied
that all the money belonging to the khan was consumed in one month's pay
to our ships, and I fear we shall have to wait for the rest till the
plunder is converted into money. In regard to arms and ammunition, they
have only small pieces, with bows and arrows, and swords, some of their
chiefs having coats of mail. They were so scarce of powder, that after
blowing their mine, they had hardly enough to supply the small arms for
entering the breach, though furnished with twenty or twenty-five barrels
from our ships. They had not a single scaling-ladder to assist their
entry. Were we to forsake them, they would soon be completely at a
stand, yet they have already broken conditions with us in several
things, and I much fear, when all is done, we shall be paid with
reversions, and what else they themselves please.
Our ordnance so galled the Portuguese ships from the shore, that a
galleon was sunk on the 19th of March, and two more on the 20th and 23d.
The last come ship from Goa, which was their admiral, and one of the
others, were, I think, sacrificed by the policy of the governor, that
the garrison might have no means of escape, and might therefore defend
themselves manfully to the last, in hopes of relief from Goa, though
some thought they went down in consequence of injuries from sunken
rocks, in hauling them so near the castle to get them out of the range
of our battery.
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