The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.108

c7.s9.108

The next operation was the reduction of the small island-fort of Aruála, ten miles north of Bassein, and it was not until preparations were made for bombarding it from Agáshi on the mainland that the commandant on January 18, 1781, surrendered.³ It was now determined to threaten Poona rather than secure the Konkan, and the army marched across to the Gháts, and having met with little opposition forced the Borghát on February 8 and occupied Khaṇdála, General Goddard with the head-quarters remaining at Khopavli. Some negotiations followed, after which 12,000 men under Parashrám Bháu Patvardhan were sent into the Konkan, and getting between Goddard's force and Bombay, they, on the night of March 15, attacked a detachment of two regiments with a convoy of stores which had reached Chauk on their way from Panvel. The English force suffered severely, but with the assistance of a reinforcement from Khopavli the whole convoy was brought into the head-quarters camp on the seventeenth. Soon after this Holkar arrived to reinforce Parashrám Bháu, and the Marátha force now amounting to 25,000 cavalry attacked a large detachment which had been sent to Panvel with unloaded bullocks to bring up stores. The convoy got back from Panvel after a three days' march in which the constant attacks of the Maráthás caused a loss of 106 killed and wounded. The army was now ready to return for the rains to Kalyán and Bombay, but the Maráthás had in the meantime assembled all along that part of the Gháts in great force, and immediately on Goddard leaving the Borghát open, Haripant Phádke followed, and took a considerable quantity of baggage and ammunition, and though the Maráthás dared not molest the army when in camp, yet on the 20th 21st and 23rd of April during the march they so harassed our troops that Goddard's loss before reaching Panvel was 466 killed and wounded, including eighteen European officers. A great part of the army was from here sent down the coast, and the rest after remaining some weeks encamped at Panvel, were sent to Kalyán for the rains.⁴