In December, 1736, the King George and three other vessels captured a large grab belonging to Sumbhajee Angria, together with 120 prisoners.  A Surat ship that had been taken was also recovered.

The year 1738 was an anxious one in Bombay.  The Mahrattas were occupied with the siege of Bassein, which was defended with desperate valour by the Portuguese.  Sumbhajee’s vessels were active on the coast, and Mannajee was restless and untrustworthy.  Commodore Bagwell, with four of the Company’s best ships, the Victory, King George, Princess Caroline, and Resolution, was sent to cruise against Sumbhajee, while Captain Inchbird was deputed on a friendly mission to Mannajee.  On the 22nd December, Bagwell sighted Sumbhajee’s fleet of nine grabs and thirteen gallivats coming out of Gheriah.  He gave chase, and forced them to take refuge in the mouth of the Rajapore River, where they anchored.  Bagwell, ignorant of the navigation, and with his crews badly afflicted with scurvy, boldly bore down on them; on which they cut their cables and ran into the river.  Before they could get out of shot, he was able to pour in several broadsides at close range, killing Angria’s chief admiral, and inflicting much damage.  Fearing to lose some of his ships in the shoal water, he was obliged to draw off, having had one midshipman killed.

Mannajee at once took advantage of Sumbhajee’s temporary discomfiture to attack and capture Caranjah from the Portuguese.  Then, elated at his success, and in spite of his own professions of friendship, he seized three unarmed Bombay trading ships and two belonging to Surat.  To punish him, Captain Inchbird was sent with a small squadron, and seized eight of his fighting gallivats, together with a number of fishing-boats.  Negotiations were opened, broken off, and renewed, during which Mannajee insolently hoisted his flag on the island of Elephanta.  With the Mahratta army close at hand in Salsette, the Bombay Council dared not push matters to extremity; so, invoking the help of Chimnajee Appa, the Peishwa’s brother, they patched up a peace with Mannajee.  At the same time, Bombay succeeded in making a treaty of friendship with the Peishwa, which secured, to the English, trading facilities in his dominions.

While this was going on, a Dutch squadron of seven ships of war and seven sloops attacked Gheriah, and were beaten off.  A little later, Sumbhajee took the Jupiter, a French ship of forty guns, with four hundred slaves on board.  To English, Dutch, French, and Portuguese alike, his fortresses were impregnable.