The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c7.s9.18.3

c7.s9.18.3

The *Protector*, however, came within gun-shot of some of the sternmost, but the evening approaching, Commodore James gave over the chase, and returned to Suvarndurg which he had passed several miles. Here he found Rámáji Pant with the army besieging, as they said, the three forts on the main land; but they were firing only from one gun, a four-pounder, at the distance of two miles, and even at this distance the troops did not think themselves safe without digging pits, in which they sheltered themselves covered up to the chin from the enemy's fire. The Commodore, judging from these operations that they would never take the forts, determined to exceed the instructions which he had received from the Presidency, rather than expose the English arms to the disgrace they would suffer, if an expedition in which they were believed by Angria to have taken so great a share, should miscarry. The next day, the 2nd of April, he began to cannonade and bombard the fort of Suvarndurg situated on the island;¹ but finding that the walls on the western side which he attacked, were mostly cut out of the solid rock, he changed his station to the north-east between the island and the main; where whilst one of his broadsides plied the north-east bastions of this fort the other fired on Fort Goa, the largest of those upon the main land.