had long been hankering after the island of Salsette and the flourishing port of Bassein. In hopes of gratifying their wish, as well as frustrating the designs of the Portuguese, the Bombay Government agreed to help Raghuba with a body of troops in return for his cession of those two places and several more.
But they had reckoned without the Government of Bengal and the powers committed to it by the Regulating Act. Hastings joined with his colleagues in condemning the Treaty of Surat and in countermanding the preparations for war. But later messages from Bombay induced him to modify his former opinion. It was too late, he urged, to withdraw with safety and honour from an enterprise already on foot. Barwell supported his chiefs demand; but the triumvirate were still inexorable. In spite of the success already achieved by our troops and sailors, they declared the treaty annulled, ordered the return of Keating's column to Bombay, and sent Colonel Upton to negotiate a peace at Poona on their own behalf. Some weeks later indeed, when a peaceful settlement seemed hopeless, the Bombay Government were left free to take their own course. But before the new orders from Calcutta could reach Bombay, the Treaty of Purandhar had already been signed on the 1st March, 1776. Under this treaty the English were to give up Salsette, which they had already captured, as well as other conquests, in exchange for a district near Broach; and twelve lakhs of rupees were promised them, 'as a favour,' towards the expenses of the war.
