This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
1660]
ENGLISH FILIBUSTERERS.
263


Afzal Khan, of 450, 350 and 300 tons burden respectively. The magistrate of Rajapur, by order of his master Rustam-i-Zaman, received the junks and landed their cargoes. In the meantime Shivaji had encountered and routed near Panhala, the combined armies of Rustam and Fazl Khan (the son of Afzal.) The latter, who bore the brunt of the battle, lost many of his followers, while Rustam, who had made a mere show of fighting, retreated to Hukri with slight loss, (end of January 1660), and there sat still, while the Marathas continued to make their incursions in Adil-Shahi territory. (Rajapur to Bassein, 4 February 1660, F. R. Rajapur.)

The news of this battle greatly alarmed Rustam's agent at Rajapur, who tried to escape to the open sea in one of the junks arrived from Dabhol. From this incident sprang the first collision between the English and the Marathas, but its real cause was not any hindrance offered by Shivaji to the legitimate trade of the East India Company or its servants. It was solely due to the greed and crooked dealing of one of the Company's officers, Mr. Henry Revington, the chief of the Rajapur factory. An Indian broker employed by him had lent some money to Rustam-i-Zaman and taken a bill for it, falsely in the Company's name as creditor. When the governor was trying to run away from the town, the broker influenced Mr. Revington to assist him in getting his money back. Mr. Revington sent an English ship, the Diamond, to stop the junk occupied by the governor