servants to attend to him. His uncle, whether through exasperation or shrewdness, declared that he would starve himself to death so that his murder would be attributed to his nephew. For the next eighteen days, he consumed nothing except for two ounces of deer milk each day. When he was finally exhausted due to pangs of hunger, his nephew somewhat relented by promising him a district and five castles and a jagir of Rs. 12 lakh per annum, provided some of the great chieftains would become surety for his future conduct. Foreign Policy Resettlement of old allies The Marathas led by Mahadji Shinde had recaptured Delhi in 1771. Mahadji Shinde and other Marathas chiefs were later occupied in looking after the affairs of Delhi and collecting revenues from other North Indian districts. Ghazi-uddin Imad-ul-mulk, an ally of the Marathas, was anxious to be reinstalled as the Wazir of the Mughal Empire as he had once been. The Mughal emperor Shah Alam II bitterly hated Ghazi-uddin for he murdering his father and would not give him any help. Meanwhile, Ghazi-uddin had been reduced to the status of a vagabond and so he went to Pune in December 1772 to make his case in front of the new Peshwa. In recognition of the services he had rendered onto the Marathas so far, and likely because of a promise made to him by Narayanrao, Nana Padnavis gave Ghazi-uddin a small provision in Bundelkhand. The previous Nawab of Bengal Mir Qasim was another important friend of the Marathas and expected a similar compensation for his services but it was beyond the power of the Peshwa to satisfy him. British naval attack In April 1772, as Madhavrao was on his death bed, the President of Bombay Council received orders from the Home authorities to try and acquire from the Maratha certain places such as Salsette, Vasai, Elephanta, Karanja and others islands in the vicinity of Mumbai and to station a British agent in Pune in order to gain that object. British official Thomas Mostyn was chosen for the task as he was already familiar with the Pune court, having led the British mission of 1767. He arrived in Pune on 13 October 1772 and spent the next two years keenly watching the events unfold and advising the Bombay Council to take the necessary steps for the acquisition of those place. Soon after the death of