Shivaji and His Times c20.s7.1

c20.s7.1

The records of the English factories on the Bombay coast and inland are of the highest value for dates and facts. Sometimes the factors frankly confess that the reports they have heard and are writing down immediately after are so contradictory that they know not what to believe. But, on the other hand, the English at Rajapur and Karwar employed paid spies who travelled in Shivaji's dominions and brought back news of his doings and plans; the information from the different factories helped to check and correct one another; and a false rumour is usually followed by its contradiction. Above all, these factory records have the supreme merit of having been preserved in the original manuscript without any later garbling or interpolation.