spreading his force over a great part of the Concan, whence he drew both supplies and revenue. This campaign was very successful; Bassein surrendered on the 11th December, while Hartley, taking a judicious position, completely repulsed the whole combined force of the Mahrattas, which attempted to overwhelm him. Thus the English affairs were beginning to assume a prosperous aspect, when Goddard was apprized of an immediate intention on the part of government to open a negotiation. He was directed, therefore, to hold himself in readiness to cease hostilities as soon as intelligence should be received from Poonah of a corresponding disposition. This resolution was connected with certain events of the war in the south of India related in a former chapter. Hyder, having formed an alliance with the nizam and the Mahrattas, had made a terrible irruption into the Carnatic, and was threatening the very existence of the British establishment at Madras. Under these circumstances, it was determined to make sacrifices to a great extent, in order to detach the court of Poonah from this formidable confederacy. The treaty, however, proceeded slowly, especially after tidings had arrived of the catastrophe that had befallen Colonel Baillie's detachment. In these discouraging circumstances General Goddard conceived that an advance with his army beyond the Ghauts, and the placing it in a position so as to menace the Mahratta capital, might produce a favourable effect. With about 6000 men he penetrated with little difficulty the barrier of hills. Nana Furnavese, however, still refused to separate from his ally, and the general was so harassed by attacks on his rear, by convoys intercepted, and by the country being laid waste around him, that he felt at last the necessity of retreating to Bombay. In this movement he was assailed by the enemy with so much fury, that although he reached the coast without dishonour, he sustained a loss more severe than had been incurred in the campaign which terminated in the convention of Worgaom.

Mr. Hastings, meantime, attempted to influence the war by military movements from Bengal, directed towards the very heart of India. Captain Popham, with 2400 men, crossed the Jumna, and attacked the fort of Lahar; but finding it much stronger than was expected, and labouring

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under the want of battering-cannon, he could effect only a very imperfect breach. He determined, however, to storm it; and, though both the officers who led the assault fell, the troops followed with such intrepidity that the place was carried, with the loss of 125 men. But the most brilliant exploit was that against Gwalior, a fortress repeatedly mentioned as being considered in Hindostan Proper the most formidable bulwark of the empire, though it could not rank with the impregnable hill-forts of the south and west. After two months of observation and contrivance, on the 3d August, 1780, a party was employed to make a nightassault. They mounted the scarped rock by scaling-ladders, then ran up the steep face of the hill, and by ladders of rope ascended the inner wall, thirty feet high, when they found themselves within the place. Some of the men gave the alarm by firing prematurely; yet they stood their ground; the garrison were confused and terrified, and the sun had scarcely risen, when the British troops, with almost no resistance, became masters of this celebrated fortress.

In pursuance of the same system, Mr. Hastings sent Colonel Camac to carry the war into the territories of Sindia. He penetrated without difficulty into Malwa; but the Mahratta chief then hastened to oppose the invasion, and by the rapid manœuvres of his numerous cavalry soon reduced the British to great distress; at the same time he kept up for seven days an incessant cannonade. The colonel, however, by remaining for some time inactive, lulled the suspicions of the enemy, then suddenly burst by night into his camp, and defeated him with great loss. Although he was not able to follow up this success, it raised considerably the reputation of the English, who also succeeded, by a large sum of money, in detaching Moodajee Bhonslay, Rajah of Berar, from the other Mahratta chiefs. Thus, after various transactions, a separate convention was first concluded with Sindia on the 13th October, 1781; and, finally, on the 7th May, 1782, a general peace was signed at Salbye, on terms as favourable as the checkered events of the war could give room to expect. The limits of the respective territories were fixed nearly on the same footing as by the treaty of Poorundur; and a monthly pension of 25,000 rupees was assigned to Ragoba. Thus VOL. II.-N

closed the first Mahratta war, by which our countrymen, it must be confessed, had earned very little either of glory or advantage.

From this time the relations of that people with our government were for many years those of amity and alliance. This union was produced by common dread of the exorbitant power and pretensions of the house of Mysore. We have seen them united with the British in successive leagues, and affording a loose and tumultuary aid in the contests which overthrew the power of Tippoo. The history of the confederation, however, was remarkably distinguished by the rise of Sindia to a pre-eminence which made him decidedly superior to all its other leaders. His territory being contiguous to the southern states and to the fragments of the Mogul empire, he added to it successively these different possessions. On the east he subdued Bundelcund; on the west he rendered tributary the warlike princes of Rajpootana. At length, amid the dissensions of the imperial court, Shah Allum, retaining still the name, revered even in its downfall, of Mogul emperor, placed himself under the protection of Sindia. That chief thus became master of Agra, Delhi, and the surrounding territories; and he exercised all that now remained of imperial power. He was so elated by these successes that he ventured upon a demand of chout or tribute from the government of Bengal; a claim which Mr. Macpherson, then governor, repelled with the highest indignation, and insisted upon its formal renunciation.

Sindia's elevated position was in other respects precarious and difficult. Labouring under an extreme deficiency of funds, he was obliged to levy exorbitant contributions from the Rajpoot chiefs. That proud race rose in insurrection, and were joined by Mohammed Beg and Gholaum Kawdir, to whom, as well as to the emperor himself, the domination of the Mahratta ruler had become odious. In an invasion of Rajpootana he was completely defeated, and though the feudal bands of that country, as usual after a victory, dispersed and went to their homes, Sindia was now unable to resist the power even of the Moslem princes. He was again defeated, and reduced to the greatest extremity, when he implored, though with little success, that Nana Furnavese would forget all grounds of quarrel and jealousy, and

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aid in him the general cause of the Mahratta confederation. He was extricated by the savage violence of Gholaum Kawdir himself, who, having obtained possession of Delhi, and of the emperor's person, treated him, his family, and adherents with the most wanton barbarity. With his own. hand he used the point of a dagger to put out that prince's eyes; and committed other cruelties which rendered him the object of general horror and disgust. At length his own associate, Ismael Beg (who had succeeded to Mohammed), went over to Sindia, who also at length obtained a reinforcement from Poonah. He was thus enabled to enter Delhi, and pursue Kawdir, who was taken and put to death. In this way the Mahratta chief regained almost the entire plenitude of his dominion. He sought to

strengthen his military power by various means not resorted to by any of his predecessors. He enlisted into his army the various warlike races in the north of India,-the valiant Rajpoot horsemen, the Goseins, a religious sect, whose tenets did not prevent them from taking arms, and even Mohammedan soldiers who had been thrown out of the Mogul service. But the force on which he chiefly relied was a corps of regular infantry, organized and disciplined in the European manner, by a French adventurer named De Boigne. This body, at first consisting only of two battalions, had been rapidly augmented, till it amounted to three brigades, each comprising 5600 infantry, 500 cavalry, and forty pieces of cannon. He had, besides, a separate train of artillery, and was supported by a body of irregular infantry. A considerable territory was assigned for the support of this corps,-which included officers of ail nations, among whom was a considerable proportion of English.

Having thus rendered himself the most powerful among the Mahratta princes, Sindia's next object was to acquire a preponderance at the court of Poonah. He proceeded thither with the professed purpose of investing the peishwa with the dignity of Vakeel-i-Mootluq, or supreme deputy, which he had caused the Mogul to confer,-a most unwelcome visit, which Nana Furnavese sought in vain to decline. Sindia arrived, and was received with every mark of outward respect. The peishwa, amid great pomp, was invested with this new title, which was considered an addi tion to the splendour even of his rank; while the gallant

warrior, being appointed his perpetual deputy, with the right of nominating a successor, acquired all the real power attached to the function. Besides dazzling the eye of the youthful prince by the pomp of this ceremony, he gained his favour by inviting him to field-sports and other amusements, whence he had been in a considerable degree withheld by the austere maxims of the aged Bramin his minister. In short, Sindia seemed about to supplant Nana Furnavese as the arbiter of the Mahratta state, when he was seized with a violent illness, which terminated his life on the 12th February, 1794.

Mahadajee Sindia, who had been the chief instrument in raising his house to be the first in Hindostan, was a person of very great activity and address, long experience, and of so much principle as to be supposed incapable of committing any very enormous crime,-a praise which cannot often be bestowed on the great men of India. His death at the present moment, when a danger of the greatest magnitude impended over the state, may probably be considered as the main cause of the ultimate decline of the Mahratta power. Dying without issue, he adopted as his successor, not the nearest heir, but Dowlut Rao, his grand-nephew, the son of his youngest brother; a youth only fifteen years of age, who, though possessed of talents and enterprise, was without that experience which would have been necessary to guide him through the difficult circumstances in which he was soon placed.

Nana Furnavese, on the death of his rival, seemed again replaced in the supreme direction of affairs; but the very eagerness with which he clung to power soon involved him in a deeper calamity. While he kept Madoo Rao, the peishwa, in very strict tutelage, he held also in close confinement Bajee Rao, the son of Ragoba, who, in approaching manhood, displayed high accomplishments and engaging manners, which rendered him an object of general interest. This was particularly felt by his cousin Madoo Rao. An epistolary communication was opened, and a romantic friendship formed by these two young men, who stood in a position of such deadly rivalry. In their correspondence they were wont to anticipate the moment when, delivered from their present thraldom, they might form a personal intimacy, and emulate the great actions of their ancestors.