CHAPTER XI.
Naval Enterprises.
§1. The Abyssinians of the West Coast.
The expansion of Shivaji's rule across the Western Ghats into the coast-district of Konkan brought him into contact with the maritime Powers of our western sea-board. Chief among these were the Siddis or Abyssinians of Janjira, a rocky island 45 miles south of Bombay, and guarding the mouth of the Rajpuri creek. Half a mile east of it, on the mainland stands the town of Rajpuri, and two miles south-east of the latter is Danda. But these two towns are regarded as one place and formed the headquarters of the land-possessions of the Siddis, covering much of the modern district of Kolaba. From this tract were drawn the revenue and provisions that nourished the Government of Janjira.
An Abyssinian colony had settled here early in the 16th century. One of them secured the governor-ship of Danda-Rajpuri under the Sultans of Ahmadnagar early in the 17th century. But the dissolution of that monarchy and the situation of the district on the extreme frontier of the State beyond the Western Ghats, made it easy for the Siddi to establish himself in practical independence of the central authority, so that, when the partition treaty of 1636 gave the west-coast to Bijapur, that Government recognised the
