History of Aurangzib, Based on Original Sources v4.c70.4

v4.c70.4

An Englishman named Robert Johnson, who had rebelled against the Company's authorities in India, got a commission from Shambhuji to serve him as his "general at sea" for 600 pagodas per annum as salary and 25 pagodas per mensem as diet money, binding himself to bring 30 more Europeans to the Rajah's service. They engaged to come up with a fleet to the mouth of the Tapti river (near which Surat stands), rob, destroy or capture the Mughal and Siddi junks there or "where they could meet with them in this piratical manner." But he was arrested by the President and Council of Surat in September 1684 and deported to England [Orme MSS. 126, Surat to Calicut, 16 Oct. 1684]