‘Stracan our Infernall Phesition’
Strachan spent two years as a servant of the East India Company during which the merchants were bitterly divided due to their lack of success in silk trading. This period saw the first of his recurring attacks of malaria. By contrasting accounts in the company archives with Della Valle’s journal, the chapter describes how unfounded accusations of murder against Strachan brought about his dismissal for incompetence as a doctor. Strachan spent months teaching the Carmelite friars Arabic and saving for onward travel to India but was secretly reemployed by the governor of the EIC in Iran, Edward Monnox, to act as interpreter and company representative during the negotiations with Shah Abbas for EIC naval involvement in the Iranian army’s capture of Hormuz in 1622. In this way he became intimate with the Shah’s court.