foreign merchants therefore received no reward from the ruler of the land this time. (Master to Swally Marine, 3 Jan. 1671, in F. R. Surat, 105.)
An official inquiry ascertained that Shivaji had carried off 66 lakhs of Rupees' worth of booty from Surat, — viz., cash, pearls, and other articles worth 53 lakhs from the city itself and 13 lakhs worth from Nawal Sahu and Hari Sahu and a village near Surat. (Akhbarat, 13-10.)
But the real loss of Surat was not to be estimated by the booty which the Marathas carried off. The trade of this, the richest port of India, was practically destroyed. For several years after Shivaji's withdrawal from it, the town used to throb with panic every now and then, whenever any Maratha force came within a few days' march of it, or even at false alarms of their coming. On every such occasion the merchants would quickly remove their goods to ships, the citizens would flee to the villages, and the Europeans would hasten to Swally. Business was effectually scared away from Surat, and inland producers hesitated to send their goods to this the greatest emporium of Western India.
For one month after the second sack, "the town was in so great a confusion that there was neither governor nor Government," and almost every day was troubled by rumours of Shiva's coming there again. "On the 12th (i. e., only a week after his departure) it was again rumoured that he was returning with 6,000 horse and 10,000 foot, and that he had
