Storia do Mogor 183.1

183.1

Aurangzeb received the reply of the Goa viceroy, in which he promised to allow free passage up the river to his fleet coming from Surat with supplies for the army of his son, Shāh 'Ālam. The king ordered that prince to march with forty-five thousand horsemen in the direction of Goa, traversing the kingdom of Bijapur. His instructions were to capture the island of Goa by treachery, thus becoming able thereafter to invade easily the territories of Sambha Ji. On this march Shah 'Alam took several of Sambha Ji's forts, and arrived near Goa in time to deliver the island from the hands of that prince. It was already in great danger. Sambha Ji made every possible exertion to take it before Shah 'Alam arrived, but it did not happen according to his desire. Thus, on the arrival of the Mogul fleet, he was obliged to decamp; but before he disappeared he ordered the mortars in Santo Estevao to be charged, with the idea of bursting them, seeing that he could not carry them away. But in this he did not succeed, for only one of them burst; then, spiking the rest, he fled.