Shivaji and His Times c16.s1.5

c16.s1.5

While the English prisoners were still at Rajapur, the Brahman agent of Shivaji told them that his master would give them a fine salt port (*mit bandar*) on the coast, if they helped him in taking Danda-Rajpuri; but they declined to "discourse about it" unless he set them free. Then Shivaji laid a ransom on the captives, and sent them to Waisati fort. Many other persons—Hindu merchants (*banians*), Indian Muslims, Persians and Arabs—were kept there in his prison in a miserable plight and beaten to extort ransom.