The Military System of the Marathas, with a Brief Account of Their Maritime Activities c14.61

c14.61

Shivaji was greatly exasperated with the English for their failure (though for no fault of theirs) to keep their promise. The Sidi’s fleet alone stood between him and Janjira, for on the high seas his light vessels were no match for the heavier craft of the Sidi. And however friendly he might appear in his ordinary correspondence with the English, he could not forgive them for admitting the Abyssinian Admiral to their harbour. On the other hand, it would have been impolitic to drive them definitely over to his enemy’s side by any hostile action directed solely against them. In 1678 the Sidi had much provoked him by making slaves of the people and Braminys he tooke in his incurssions into his terrytorys’, and Shivaji could wait no longer. He ordered Daulat Khan and Dariya Sarang to cross over to Bombay at the head of 4,000 soldiers and burn the Sidi’s fleet at Mazagon. These two officers accordingly proceeded to Panvel, but lack of boats prevented them from crossing, and the Portuguese Government, which was fully as apprehensive of the growing Maratha power by land and sea as the English, would not permit them to make use of its territories. So the two Admirals had to return without effecting any result. The English were on their guard; and the Sidi left Mazagon and took shelter with his fleet under the bastions of the fort of Bombay.¹