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1675] that...... no reasonable request we should make to him would he deny us...... The next morning [25th March] we were sent for again in the Rajah's name. We were admitted into his presence. I was placed so near him on his right hand that I could touch him. With him we continued about two hours, which was most part spent in answering many of his questions. At length we presented him our paper of desires [previously"translated into the country language"], which after had been read to him with a little pause, seriously looking on us, [he] said that it was all granted us. He would give us a farman for all." But the siege of Ponda, which Shivaji began immediately afterwards, delayed the granting of such a farman.

In September 1675 Mr. Samuel Austen went to Raigarh on an embassy from Bombay to demand satisfaction for the damage done to the Company's factory at Dharamgaon in Khandesh. This Shivaji refused to pay, saying that the factory was looted by "vagabonds and scouts without order or the knowledge of his general." He, however, "after a strict debate" gave his qaul (assurance of safety) to all the English factories "to prevent like injuries." (O. C. 4106.) But the Rajapur damages long continued unpaid. On 19th July 1676 Surat wrote to Bombay suggesting