Page 186 - INDIANNAVYV1

154 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY,
vessels of considerable size, besides several of lesser tonnage.
The ships of the expedition then returned to Bombay, leaving
a small garrison* in the forts.
In 1771 the Bombay Government, in order to exact certain
claims on the Nawab of Baroach, or Broach, where they still
maintained an agency, sent some troops to enforce their demands,
but the expedition failed ; in the latter part of the following
}ear, after entering upon some abortive negotiations, a second
combined expedition, of which the Bombay Marine supplied the
naval portion, was despatched from Bombay, and the city was
taken by storm on the 18th of November, 1772, when among
those who fell was the gallant and accom})lished General David
Wedderburn. In the same year the Bombay Government took
steps to obtain possession of the islands of Salsette, Kenery,
Elephanta, Caranja, and Hog Island, and of the port of Bassein,
on which they had long cast an envious eye ; indeed, the acquisi-
tion of those places had now become almost a necessity for them,
in order to prevent any rival maritime power from having access
to the spacious and unrivalled harbour of Bombay, already
celebrated for its dockyard and other advantages, which conduced
to make it the emporium of the trade of the East. Moreover,
the expenses of the Bombay establishment far exceeded the
receipts, and it was hoped that, by the possession of these places,
and the Mahratta share of the revenue of Surat, the balance
sheet would show a profit.f
In order to further these wishes, the Company appointed
Mr. Henry Mostyn, Resident at the Court of the Peishwa.if
At this time the Peishwa was at war with the Nizam,
and was on\j too glad to come to terms with the English,
and, while near Surat, renewed his overtures to Mr. Gambler,
the Company's acting agent, for the assistance of a force to enable
him to establish his government at Poona. Accordingly, the
President and Council came to a resolution, the original of which
is signed by Mr. Hornby and three councillors, one of whom was
Commodore Watson, of the Bombay Marine, to assist the
Peishwa, Rugonath or Rugoba, with a force of two thousand
five hundred men, on condition that he would advance fifteen or
twenty lacs of rupees, and, on his being established at Poona,
* In May, Hjder Ally, with his whole army, appeared off Mangalore, and,
after a poor defence, the garrison, consisting of forty-one artillerymen, two
hundred European infantry, and one thousand two hundred Sepoys, made a
hurried embarkation, abandoning their sick and wounded, numbering eighty
Europeans and one hundred and eighty Sepoys, and all tlieir guns and stores.
Onore and Fortified Island yielded almost without resistance, and Hyder, after
recovering all that had been wrested from him in Canara, was able to reascend
the Ghauts before the monsoon set in.
t Grant Duff's " History of the Mahrattas," vol. ii., p. 271.
J Malidoo Kao, the Peishwa, died a few days after Mr. Mostyn's an-ival, on
the very day that Broach was stormed, and was succeeded by Narrain Riio, who
again was murdered on the 30th of August, 1773, and gave place to Rugonath
Rao, familiarly known in Mahratta history as Rugoba and Dada Sahib.