1835.] 



History of the Ramoossies. 



23 



Bhojajee was somewhere in his neig]i])ourhood, was in hopes 

 tliat he would attempt to surprise him ; and to give the 

 Ramoossy greater expectations of success, the Koley direct- 

 ed his men to affect a more than usual degree of relaxation 

 and negligence, and to pretend they were listening to 

 some musicians, and much busied in cooking their victuals, 

 as they had killed some sheep for an entertainment. A select 

 party of men, were concealed in a house close to them, 

 prepared to rush on the Ramoossies, should they advance to 

 the attack. Bhojajee, however, moved off to the westward, 

 and Bulwunta Koley came up with him in the NouUaie 

 Koorun, and from thence to the Kurry Puthar ; they kept 

 up a kind of running fight ; this was on the 1st December. 

 Bhojajee moved round, by the south side of the Poorundur 

 hill, on the afternoon of the 3d ; and when he was passing 

 along the hills above Keekvy, he fired off several of his 

 matchlocks by way of bravado, merely to let the detachment 

 of the Extra Battalion, stationed at Keekvy know that he 

 had arrived. The detachment, immediately upon discover- 

 ing the Ramoossies, advanced towards them, and after a 

 few shot had been exchanged between the parties, and the 

 sepoys began to ascend the hill, Bhojajee and his men quick- 

 ened their pace, and were soon lost sight of by the sepoys. 

 It Vv'ill be observed, that the skirmish at Sonapoor and at 

 Keekvy took place on the same day. In the course of six 

 days afterwards Bhojajee joined Oomiah, and they moved 

 in a north westerly direction towards the hill fort of Koarry. 

 Oomiah has mentioned, that while he remained in the Poo- 

 rundur district, the inhabitants used to convey to him the 

 earliest intelligence respecting the movements of the troops^ 

 but that when he was at a distance from Poorunder, he was 

 in the habit of employing, four or five active men of the 

 Bund to procure such necessary information. 



His spies now communicated that Captain Davies was 

 approaching from the eastward in search of him. This in- 

 duced Oomiah to halt, till Captain Davies came within one 

 short march of him, and then he plunged into the jungles of 

 the Ghauts, and descended into the Konkan, where he de- 

 manded contributions from the villages which he visited. 

 Captain Davies, commanding the Extra Battalion, who is 

 an active and extremely zealous ofiicer, with the detachment 



