The gift of Jask to the English in these circumstances was a somewhat interested piece of generosity. The Shah's obvious design in making it was to embroil the English with the Portuguese. He doubtless hoped that if the representatives of the two nations fell to fighting he might in the end come by his own again. Whatever his motive may have been, the effect of his favours to the English was precisely that indicated. The Portuguese took the alarm immediately they found that the East India Company was sending its ships to the Gulf, They foresaw in this new intrusion another and possibly a mortal blow to a trade which had already been reduced considerably from its former splendid proportions to almost insignificant dimensions. They accordingly nerved themselves for a big effort to oust the intruders.
In the spring of 1619 an expedition composed of five large ships was dispatched from Lisbon to the Gulf under the command of Buy Freire de Andrade, a brave and capable commander who had done good service for his country. Information of the departure of the fleet was transmitted to India by the English Company with the consequence that the authorities at Surat sent a powerful force into the Gulf in 1619 for the safeguarding of their trade, a measure which served the immediate purpose of ensuring due protection to English interests that year.
Meanwhile, in Persia the plot was decidedly thickening. The Portuguese ambassador at his final audience of the Shah took up a line of studied insolence. He demanded firstly the restitution of Gombroon and other territory recently occupied by the Persians, claiming that they belonged to Ormuz, and secondly, the exclusion of all other European powers from Persian ports.
