C H A P T E R IX. 
After residing five years at Bombay, a slight indisposition 
occasioned me to go for a few weeks to the hot-wells at Dazagon, 
a village belonging to the Mahrattas, in the Concan, or Cokun, 
near the English settlement, of Fort Victoria; a small fortress sixty 
miles from Bombay, garrisoned by a company of sepoys, for the 
protection of a few villages, and a small district in its vicinity: it 
was then the residence of two gentlemen in the Company’s civil 
service, who collected a trifling revenue, and procured cattle and 
other articles for Bombay. This settlement was ceded by the 
Mahrattas in 1756, for Ghereah, a place of far more importance, 
then lately conquered by Admiral Watson and Lord Clive: during 
the subsequent wars between the. English and Maharattas, it has 
never been molested. 
Fort Victoria is situated on a lofty hill, near the entrance of 
Bancoote river, where there is also a lower battery: this river was 
formerly navigable for large ships; but the sand bank at the 
mouth constantly increasing during the south-west monsoon, it now 
only admits a passage for small vessels. Its source is among the 
eastern mountains; at a considerable distance from whence, wind- 
ing through woody hills and fertile valleys, it receives some tribu- 
