The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s8.246

c7.s8.246

The only events recorded during this time in the Northern Konkan, where the Moghals still retained their power, come under the general description of rapine and anarchy. About 1690 a multitude of outlaws with 4000 soldiers, all under the command of a ruffian named Kákáji, went about plundering and burning villages, and even burnt the church of Remedi close to Bassein.³ In 1692 the Sidi attacked Bassein and threatened Sálsette, and for two or three years his troops ravaged the country.⁴ About this period he is stated to have been in alliance with the chief of the Jesuits at Bándra for the extermination of the English.⁵ Then in 1694 Aurangzeb declared war against the Portuguese. In that year and the following he treated their subjects with great cruelty, and numbers were obliged to take refuge in the forts of Daman and Bassein ⁶, but fortunately for the Portuguese Aurangzeb was persuaded to make peace with them with a view to obtaining cannon for the reduction of the Marátha forts. About the same time the Muskat Arabs made a descent on Sálsette, burnt many villages and churches, killed the priests, and carried off about 1400 captives into slavery.⁷ The Portuguese in 1695 succeeded in burning three of the Marátha ships in the Rájápur river, the largest said to carry thirty-two guns and more than 300 men: the Portuguese lost six men killed and thirty-four wounded,⁸ and the triumphant tone they adopted on this occasion shows how little they were now accustomed to victory.