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1673] his soldiers for a Dutch attempt to conquer Bombay.] Shivaji, however, durst not trust the Dutch and continued friendly to the English,though he had by this time spent a vast treasure and incurred the loss of nearly 15,000 men in his vain attempts to recover Danda-Rajpuri. (O. C. 3760.)

The Mughal fleet of 30 frigates, commanded by Siddi Sambal, returned from Surat to Danda-Rajpuri, in Mav 1673, and after passing the south-west monsoon (June-September) there, sailed down the coast, taking many Maratha trading vessels and some ships of war. On 10th October the Muslim fleet entered the Bombay harbour, sent landing parties to the Pen and Nagothna rivers, laid waste the Maratha villages opposite Bombay, and carried off many of the people. These devastations were frequently repeated. But at the end of the month, "some of Shivaji's soldiers [from Raigarh] surprised a parcel of the Siddi's men as they were on shore cutting the standing rice in his country, and destroyed about a hundred of them, carrying away the heads of some of the chief est unto Shivaji." The great cruelty practised by the Siddis on his subjects and their burning of several small towns in his territory "provoked Shivaji much," and his reprisals were apprehended in the Mughal dominions, especially at Surat. (O. C. 3779 and 3870.)

In February 1674 we learn from an English letter, "The war betwixt the Siddi and Shivaji is carried on but slowly, they being both weary," and