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then subsisting in the Mahratta state; they are detailed in a future 
chapter: towards the end of that year those commotions afforded 
the government of Bombay an opportunity of obtaining the islands 
of Salsette, Caranjah and Elephanta; the former was an acqui- 
sition of great importance to Bombay. In consequence of a treaty 
between the Select Committee of Bombay, and Ragonath Row, 
Peshwa of the Mahratta empire, by which those islands were ceded 
to the Company, a detachment of 120 European artillery, 200 
artillery Lascars, 500 European infantry, and 1000 Sepoys, under 
the command of General Gordon, proceeded to Tannah, the prin- 
cipal fortress on Salsette; which, in consequence of orders from 
the Mahratta ministers at Poonah, the Killedar refused to surren- 
der, they being then engaged in a civil war against Ragonath 
Row. 
The English batteries opened on the 20th of December, and 
the breach was effected on the 24th, when the general resolved to 
storm. While our troops were filling the ditch during the night a 
heavy fire from the fort obliged them to retire with the loss of near 
an hundred Europeans, and several officers wounded: they stormed 
again on the 28th, and obtained possession with a trilling loss on 
our side, but a dreadful slaughter of the garrison, who made an 
obstinate resistance. 
During the siege of Tannah, a detachment, under the com- 
mand of Lieutenant Colonel Keating, marched against Versava, a 
small fortress on the west side of Salsette, which surrendered 
on the fourth day when the batteries opened, after our troops 
had been twice repulsed in attempting an escalade. Colonel 
Keating then proceeded with another detachment to the island of 
