conditions of people... That he will lay siege to Goa we do hardly believe, in regard it is none of his business to lay siege to any place that is fortified against him, for it will not turn him to account. He
is, and ever was, for a running banquet, and to plunder and burn those towns that have neither defence nor guard." (Surat to Karwar. F.R.
Surat 86.)
And, again, on 26th November, "Deccan [i.e., Bijapur] and all the South coast [i.e., Kanara] are all embroiled in civil wars,... and Shivaji reigns victoriously and uncontrolled, that he is a terror to all the kings and princes round about, daily increasing in strength... He is very nimble and active; imposing strange labour upon himself that he may endure hardship, and also exercises his chiefest men that he flies to and fro with incredible dexterity." (Surat to Co., F.R. Surat 86.) At the end of the monsoons, i.e., in October, he burst into Kanara. (See Ch. X.)
