20 EARLY COMPETITION FOR INDIAN COMMERCE
grievances or settlement of disputes with Dutch,
French, or Portuguese, they would have been very soon
exterminated. They did no such thing; they took to
their own weapons, and their military operations were
often upon a considerable scale. In 1622 there was
formal peace between Portugal (which then belonged
BOATS ON THE PERSIAN GULF.
From Edwin Lord Weeks's Through Persia and India.
(Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers.)
to Spain) and England; but the English East India
Company was at bitter war in the Indian Ocean with
the Portuguese, who had disturbed its trade and mo-
lested the Honourable Company's ships. So the Eng-
lish Company fitted out a small fleet at Surat, and
sent it up the Persian Gulf with orders to assist Shah
Abbas, the Persian king, in turning the Portuguese out
of the island of Ormuz, which they had held for a cen-
tury, and which gave them exclusive command of the
