At a consultation held in Swally roads on the 14th November, 1621, a commission was given by Mr Thomas Rastell, president, and the rest of the council, of our factory at Surat, to Captains Richard Blithe and John Weddell, who were bound for Jasques, with five good ships and four pinnaces.  The ships were the London, Jonas, Whale, Dolphin, and Lion, and the pinnaces the Shilling, Rose, Robert, and Richard.  They were directed to sail with the earliest opportunity for Jasques, keeping together for their mutual defence against the enemy; and, as the Portuguese had disturbed the trade, and made sundry assaults on our ships, killing, maiming, and imprisoning our men, they were authorized to chase and capture any vessels belonging to the ports or subjects under the viceroy of Goa; as likewise, if they met any ships belonging to Dabul, Chaul, or other ports of the Deccan, or to the subjects of the Zamorin of Calicut, to arrest them, in replacement of goods robbed and spoiled by these powers, without embezzling any part of their cargoes, that restitution might be made, after due satisfaction rendered on their parts.  A sixth part of the goods taken from the Portuguese were to be distributed as prize, the ship and the rest of the goods to remain to the company; and all the prisoners to be retained, that they might be exchanged for our countrymen, held by them in miserable bondage.  They were directed to hasten their business and dispatch at Jasques, if possible within thirty days.  And as our enemy under Ruy Frere de Andrada, was reinforced to six galleons, with other small vessels, waiting on the coast of Persia in all likelihood to attack our fleet, they were authorized, both defensively and offensively also, to use all opportunities or advantages against the Portuguese fleet, even in their own ports, if approved by a general council of war.

We arrived in Costack roads on the 23d December, about twenty-seven leagues from Jasques, Ormus being in sight about ten leagues W.N.W. by a meridional compass.  Our factors here informed us, that after our sea-fight in the former year, the Portuguese governor of Ormus had erected a fort on Kismis, an island within sight of Ormus, to which the Persians had laid siege for seven or eight months ineffectually, and had lost eight or nine thousand men in the siege; wherefore the Khan or prince of Shiras had, by his ministers, demanded the aid of our ships against the common enemy, the Portuguese, otherwise threatening to detain all the goods and money belonging to the company in Persia.  In a consultation held on the 26th December on board the Jonas, in which were present, Captain Richard Blithe, John Weddell, Edward Monoxe, William Baffin, and many others, articles of agreement for giving our aid to the Persians against the Portuguese were drawn up, and being translated into the Persian language, were forwarded by the governor of the province of Mogustan to the Khan of Shiras, then on his way towards Mina, near the mouth of the Persian gulf.