‘The travels of Ludovico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508’ [‎51] (86/492)

INTRODUCTION.
All this is now changed, and Honnuz, like the
Tyre of Scripture, is little better than a rock for
fishermen to spread their nets on. It was captured
by the Portuguese under Albuquerque in 1508, who
were in turn expelled in 1662 by the Persians, aided
by a British fleet, during the reign of Shah Abbas,
who caused the colony to be removed to Gombrun
on the opposite mainland, and dignified it with the
name of Bander Abbas. The intervention of Great
Britain in this affair is thus judiciously commented
on by Sir John Malcolm :—
"If the English ever indulged a hope of deriving per
manent benefit from the share they took in this transaction,
they were completely disappointed. They had, it is true,
revenged themselves upon an enemy they hated, destroyed
a flourishing settlement, and brought ruin and misery upon
thousands, to gratify the avarice and ambition of a despot,
who promised to enrich them by a favour, which they should
have known was not likely to protect them, even during his
life, from the violence and injustice of his own officers, much
less during that of his successors. The history of the English
factory An East India Company trading post. at Gombroon, from this date till it was abandoned,
is one series of disgrace, of losses, and of dangers, as that of
every such establishment in a country like Persia must be.
Had that nation either taken Ormuz for itself, or made a
settlement on a more eligible island in the gulf, it would
have carried on its commerce with that quarter to much
greater advantage ; and its political influence, both in Persia
and Arabia, would have remained unrivalled." 1
We are now to accompany our traveller through a
part of the journey where the landmarks of his route
1 History of Persia, vol. i. p. 5 17.
c 2