"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎١‎٣‎٤] (١٧٨٢/٢٧٧)

'
French
affairs in the
Gulf during
the Seven
Years' War,
1756.63.
134
who happened to be present in the town, made many fair promises; but in
the end he only agreed to refund what was due to M. Boisroll by means
of a rebate on the customs payable by M. Beaumont,—a concession by
which, as M. Beaumont sold very little of his cargo, the French were
little advantaged. In 1752 a small French ship sailed from the Gulf for
India in company with the Company's galley " Rose " and a Bombay
frigate, the object being mutual defence against Angria, the Indian
pirate, and other dangers. The establishment of a Factory at Rig was
approved by the East India Company in 1754 partly for the purpose of
competing with French woollens, which had apparently obtained some
hold in the northern part of the Gulf ; and steps were taken, probably
somewhat later, " to imitate very exactly the French Fabrick " j but the
imitation was not despatched from England until 1757, by which time
hostilities between France and Britain had begun.
In February 1756, the Seven Years' War being now imminent, the
King of France ordered all British subjects to quit his dominions before
the 1st of March and invited his own people to fit out privateers against
English commerce, promising to pay 40 livres for every British gun and
prisoner captured, and to buy the privateering vessels at prime cost if an
early peace should be concluded; and the Court of Directors of the East
India Company in London, though they seem to have anticipated the
result of the approaching contest with confidence, enjoined extreme
vigilance upon their servants at Bandar 'Abbas. In 1757, war having
been declared by Britain on the 18th of May 1756, the Court of Directors
instructed the Agent and Council at Bandar 'Abbas to be guided in the
main by such directions as they might receive from Bombay, but at the
same time to comply most exactly with any orders received direct from
the Company's Secret Committee in London.
On the 14th of January 1758 the French frigate of war " Bristol '
appeared off Bandar 'Abbas, where for some days she continued to
cruise between Qishm and Hormuz, eventually leaving for Basrah;
in April she was lying at Basrah with another French vessel, and oivilities
were exchanged between the French and the British officers there; and
in June efforts were made by the East India Company's ships
" Revenge " and " Drake " to intercept the " Bristol ", which was
expected to leave Basrah at the beginning of that month on her way
down the Gulf; but they were not, apparently, successful. The captuie
and destruation by a French naval expedition in the following year of
the British Agency at Bandar 'Abbas have already been described in an
earlier section.