"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الأجزاء Iأ و Iب. ج.ج. لوريمر ١٩١٥" [‎٦‎٦] (١٧٨٢/٢٠٩)

66
Predomi
nance of
Dutch over
English
trade, lC5d-
81.
Hostilities
between the
Dutch and
the Persians
1684.
Dutch intri
gues against
the English,
1686.
Residence of
Dr. E.
Kaempfer
English name; indeed the crews on both sides appear to have been the worse
of liquor. So completely was the Gulf in the hands of the Dutch after
this, that the Company's Agent at Basrah was ordered to remove to a
place of greater safety, and it was thought that it might be necessary to
send silk purchased in Persia to Europe by way of Isfahan. News of
peace, however, at length brought this critical state of affairs to an end.
During the remaining portion of this period, as may have been
gathered from facts already mentioned, the power and activity
of the Dutch in the Persian Gulf continued to be a source of disquiet
to the East India Company; and the proposal to form an English
station at Masqat in 1659 was made partly with the object of
counteracting their influence. In 1664 the Dutch seem to have had
the advantage in trade at Bandar 'Abbas, and were now accustomed
to send three or four large and well-stocked ships there every
year, " whicii makes; them esteemed, but wee a despised people/' ^ hen
Dr. John Fryer, F.R.S., vioited Bandar 'Abbas in 1677, he found the
Hollanders Absolute in the Spice Trade," and so strong was their mono
poly that he seems to have credited a report that on one occasion they
deliberately burned four ship-loads of their own spices in order to oblige
the Persian merchants to accept rates for the other two; the Dutch, before
this, also dealt largely in sugar and copper ; and their exports were esti
mated by the worthy doctor to amount to "Fifty thousand Thomands worth
of Velvets, Silk, Raw and Wrought, with Rich Carpets besides many
Tunn of Gold and Silver, Yearly." In 1682 the Dutch etill sent two
large ships annually to Bandar 'Abbas, and the contrast between these
and the vessels supplying the English Factory was as yet to the entire
disadvantage of the latter.
Disagreements between the Dutch and the Persians from time to time
occurred, and, as we have already seen, a blockade of Bandar 'Abbas was
undertaken by the Dutch in 1684. The Court of the East India Company
censured their Agents in Persia for not having given them immediate
notice of these hostilities and for having neglected " to let out the
Company's ships on freight, during this war, which would have yielded
considerable profit."
In 1686 the Dutch were labouring to alienate the Persian Court from
the English, but their machinations were defeated by the Company 's
interpreter, an Armenian, at Isfahan.
In November 1685 the Westphalian traveller Dr. E. Kaempfer, who
had come to Persia in 1684 as Secretary of a Swedish Embassy to the
Persian Court, having accepted the post of Chief Surgeon to the Dutch