"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎٠] (١٧٨٢/٢٧٣)

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again, oeteneibly for Buehebr. The "Getromvt" and the " FortJiine"
were both full of men, ammunition and timber, and two small Dutch vessels
which a few days later sailed past Bandar 'Abbas without calling were
reported to be laden with warlike stores. The British Agent conjectured
that the Dutch intended either to attack Basrah or to seize Bahrain; but
they settled instead on Kharag,* where they began to fortify a position
on the north-eastern corner of the island. They were shortly joined
by the Dutch representative from Bushehr, who destroyed his house
and garden at that port before leaving it, but his action seems to have
been due to a difference with Shaikh Nasir of Bushehr. Baron
Kniphausen, not long after his arrival at Kharag, quarrelled with
Mir Nasir over the question of whether or not rent was payable
by the Dutch on account of their occupation of the island; and open
hostilities followed and continued almost without intermission for some
years.
utch In 1756 Mr. Wood, the British Resident at Rig on the mainland
srag opposite, paid a visit to Kharag, where he remained from the 6th to tbe
Baron 15th of April, and he sent a lively account of what he had observed—also a
arisen, p| an 0 f ^ ie Dutch fort, which he had " leisure and opportunity of taking
with the greatest exactness }} —to the British Agency at Bandar 'Abbas.
The military guard consisted of 60 Dutch soldiers, who were under the
strictest discipline, and of 100 African slaves arned with swords and
targets ; but the only vessels allotted to the staticn were a sloop of 10
carriage and 6 swivel guns and a gallivat moulting six 3-pounders
and 4 swivels. The town was to be defended by a deep fosse without a
wall, one end of which, upon the sea, would servs as a boat harbour.
The goods in the warehouses comprised sugar, sugar-candy, pepper,
rice, leather, spices of all kinds, tin, lead, iron, per pets of a double
breadth, and broadcloth of all sorts ; the two last vrere of kinds unsuit
able to the Persian market, but some medleys had been indented for of
which the patterns—Mr. Wood was very sorry to say—seemed to be
exceedingly well chosen. Eight or ten boats were constantly employed
in pearling round the island ; but this part of their operations the Dutch
conducted with great secrecy. The scale on which the Factory had betn
established seemed to Mr. Wood to show a complete disregard of
expense; but, if the situation in Persia were to become settled, he
thought that Kharag might become a populous and flourishing pl^'
* Accord,ri g to one authority of doubtful value the Dutch did not land on KhwS?
until January 1754, in which case it is not improbable that they had spent sometime
m prospecting at other places.