sions and contests for pre-eminence, but the dominions of one of the most important of the Mahratta confederacy, the Rajah of Berar, also lay at the mercy of the governor-general, and those of a third, Holkar, were speedily to follow.

Events at Holkar's court.

Regency of

On the death of Jeswunt Ráo Holkar, in 1811, his favourite mistress, Toolsee Bye, a young and very beautiful woman, adopted Mulhar Ráo, an illegitimate son of her husband, and assumed the conduct of affairs as regent. Toolsee Bye. Her government was profligate and ineffective; the army was mutinous and uncontrollable, and plundered the country at large for subsistence, and without opposition. Ameer Khan, whose Patáns formed the chief element of Holkar's military esta blishment, withdrew from Indoor soon after his death, to prosecute his operations in Rajpootana, leaving a relative, Ghufoor Khan, as his substitute. Before her own forces, Toolsee Bye was obliged in the sequel to fly to the protection of Rajah Zálim Singh of Kóta; but she could not long remain inactive, and entered into a contest with Ghufoor Khan, in an action with whom she displayed great valour at the head of her cavalry, but was obliged to fly from the field. The hereditary minister of the State was Gunput Ráo, who became her paramour; and there seemed little hope of a reconstruction of an efficient executive government, till Tantia Jógh, formerly a banker, was appointed minister, and rallied the Mahratta party about her. Ghufoor Khan, however, maintained his position, and for upwards of five years the scenes of contention and anarchy were but little, if at all, abated. Towards Peshwah's the close of 1817, the Péshwah's agents were again active at Indoor; and the support of the great military chiefs in his action against the English had been secured. Toolsee Bye's authority was little more than nominal; but it does not appear that she had entered into the schemes of the Péshwah, or the views of her military commanders; and on the proposal of a treaty by the governor-general, she had offered, though secretly, to place herself and the young prince, Mulhar Ráo, under the protection of the Resident at Dehly. It became, however, impossible for her to carry out this purpose, or to escape from the control of the army; and no sooner had the news of events at Poona become known at Indoor, than the commanders resolved the Deccan. to make common cause with the Péshwah; and the army, 20,000 strong, to whom liberal supplies of money were disbursed by the Péshwah's agents, marched at once for the Deccan. At this juncture, the divisions of Sir T. Hislop and Sir John Malcolm had united, and lay in their path. Nor was it possible for Holkar's forces to avoid them. Holkar's army, therefore, took up a strong position near Mehid poor, on the Sipree river, in the

The

intrigues at Indoor.

Holkar's army marches for

middle of December. Here, on the morning of December 20, a long existing plot for the destruction of Toolsee Bye Execution of and her paramour was carried out by Ghufoor Khan Toolsee Bye. and others in his interest. The young Holkar, Mulhar Ráo, was first separated from them, when Gunput Ráo endeavoured to escape, but was brought back and imprisoned; and at night, Toolsee Bye was taken from her tent to the bank of the Sipree, beheaded, and her body cast into the stream.

army.

Sir Thomas Hislop's force was then within ten miles of the Mahratta camp, and he had opened negotiations with Battle of the army; but they were haughtily rejected, and the Mehidpoor. commanders, reliant upon the strength of their position and their guns, decided to fight. The British force advanced upon them on the morning of December 21; and carried the artillery by Defeat of storm, after a sharp contest, when the whole of Holkar's Holkar's army dispersed and fled in confusion, except the horse, which, without an attempt to redeem the day, went off in a body unharmed. The brunt of the action had fallen upon the artillery, and disciplined infantry battalions, who had fought bravely, and suffered severely; and the loss on the part of the English was 778 in killed and wounded. The victory was, however, complete; and sixty-three guns, with all their stores and the camp-equipage, were captured. Holkar retreated with the wreck of his force to Mundisore, followed by Sir John Malcolm; but no further resistance was made, and on January 6, 1818, he con- peace with cluded a treaty with the British Government, which provided for Ameer Khan and Ghufoor Khan, abandoned demands upon the Rajpoot States, which were transferred to the English, and agreed to maintain a contingent of 3,000 horse. On the other hand, the British Government guaranteed to protect his territories for the future.

per

Treaty of

Holkar.

feated.

The Pindhárees alone remain to be accounted for in this remarkable contest. Sindia's forces, closely watched by the The governor-general's and other British divisions, had Pindhárees. force remained neutral; but Jeswunt Ráo Bhow, one of his superior officers, harboured Cheetoo and other Pindháree Jeswunt Ráo chiefs, and so pertinaciously maintained his disobedi- Bhow deence to Sindia's orders, that General Browne's division was sent against him, by which he was defeated at Jáwud, and his guns captured on January 28, and the districts he had usurped from the Rana of Oodipoor rescued from him, and restored to their lawful prince. As to the several divisions of Pindhárees, they had found themselves helpless from the first against Lord Hastings's combinations; and the events of the Pindaree period, at Poona, Nagpoor, and Indoor, proved to them

Q Q

Check of

movements.

Cheetoo,

that they could receive no help from the Mahrattas. Cheeton, Flight of finding no refuge at Jáwud, had fled in a north-westerly direction, his followers deserting him at every march. He was hunted through Guzerat by General Keir, and afterwards by General Malcolm in Malwah; and on January 25, his camp was surprised and attacked by Captain Heath. This was the last appearance of his force; but for nearly a year he wandered among the fastnesses of the Vindhya and Sátpoora hills, and at last was killed by a tiger in the jungle between Aseergurh and the Tapty river, where his half-devoured remains were discovered by a shepherd, and recognised.

His death.

Other

chiefs.

Kureem Khan and Wasil Mahomed were routed by a force under Colonel Adams, in January 1818, and their folPindháree lowers dispersed in every direction. Kureem sought protection from Jeswunt Ráo Bhow at Jáwud, whence he escaped when it was taken, and finally surrendered to Sir John Malcolm on February 15. He received a small estate for his support in the province of Gorukpoor, in Bengal, and his example was followed by his celebrated lieutenant, Námdar Khan. Wasil Mahomed betook himself to Sindia's camp at Gwalior, where he was surrendered, and sent to Ghazeepoor; he was not imprisoned, but he attempted to escape from thence, and was apprehended, when he committed suicide by poison. Thus ended that formidable combination of freebooters, which had wholly desolated large provinces, inflicted inconceivable torture and misery upon thousands of the people, was utterly without control or check, and if allowed to gain further organisation, would have carried fire and sword into every accessible province of India.

Settlement with Ameer Khan

Ameer Khan alone remained, and finding hopes from the Mahrattas futile, he dismissed the Péshwah's agents, and turned to Mr. Metcalfe and Sir David Ochterlony as his best friends. The offer before made to him by Lord Hastings was accepted; but it required all the address and firmness of Sir David to conclude a settlement with his Patán troops, and to obtain their artillery. This, however, was finally effected, and without bloodshed. Without entering into minute details of the alliances contracted with all the smaller chiefs of the central and northern provinces, which the nonminor States. interferent policy had before prevented, it will gratify the reader to learn that two especial instances of fidelity were amply rewarded. The Rajah of Boondee was freed from all demands on the part of Sindia; Holkar's and Sindia's usurpations were restored to him, and the State was established in the prospe rity and independence which it still enjoys. The other was the

and with

Nawab of Bhopal, whose ancestor, it will be remembered, had rendered hospitality and material assistance to Gene- Bhopal.

ral Goddard, in his famous march across India. The

Nawab received a material addition to his small territory from the Mahratta possessions in Malwah, and the gratitude and good faith of the family have since been conspicuously displayed.

Summary.

The results of the campaign of 1817-18 may be very briefly summed up. In the middle of 1817, the Mahratta and Pindháree power, though divided, was unbroken, and has been estimated at nearly 200,000 men, with 500 guns. It was fast hastening to a combination of all interests, which the Péshwah, the Rajah of Berar, and Holkar had already joined, and which Sindia, Ameer Khan, and the Pindhárees would not have refused, had the British preparations been delayed. The whole was utterly shattered in a brief campaign of four months. The Péshwah's dominions had been annexed, and those of Sindia, Holkar, and the Rajah of Berar lay at the mercy of the governorgeneral, and were saved only by his exceeding and honourable moderation. There was at last, after sixty years from the battle of Plassy, no question of the supremacy of British power throughout India, now more perfectly established, and more effectively dominant, than that of Aurungzebe.

by Appa

With the fate of the Péshwah himself, this chapter may be appropriately closed. In the month of March, it was The Peshwal discovered that Appa Sahib, the rajah of Nagpoor, is assisted was still in active communication with the Péshwah, Sahib. and assisting him by every means in his power to continue the war. Mr. Jenkins, therefore, arrested him, and kept him prisoner till Lord Hastings's pleasure should be known. The Péshwah, deprived of the promised succour, was still hunted from place to place by detachments from the several divisions, and His force is his force was attacked and routed at Sewnee, by routed. Colonel Adams, on April 18. The capture of Chandah followed, and he was driven northwards, all chances of aid from the south being cut off. During these wanderings, he had addressed himself successively to Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Elphinstone, and He sues for to the British commanders, offering terms; but as terms. the only replies he received required his unconditional surrender, he pursued his route northwards, hoping to reach Sindia. This, however, was impossible: all the fords and passes were guarded; and abandoned by every adherent of importance, he reached Dhólkote, near Aseergurh, with about 8,000 men. Thence he dispatched an agent to Sir John Malcolm, who was at Indoor, who sent to him his two assistants, Lieutenants The demands Low and McDonald, requiring him to renounce all made on him.

claim to the sovereignty of the Deccan, to give up Trimbukjee Dainglia, and the murderers of the English officers. He was also to proceed to meet Sir John Malcolm. It is almost inconceivable why any negotiations whatever should have been opened, or anything short of unconditional submission accepted by Sir John Malcolm. It was quite impossible, either that Bajee Ráo could have escaped the forces which were rapidly closing round him, or have maintained himself in the rude tract of country into which he had been driven; but the negotiations with him nevertheless continued, and were even protracted. The best and only excuse for them lies in Sir John Malcolm's kindly disposition and generosity, and in spite of his treachery, symThe Peshwah pathy with a prince so lately a monarch, and now a pensioned. fugitive. His final agreement with the Péshwah provided him a pension for life, of eight lacs-80,000 per year; and it is due justice to Bajee Ráo to state that he was able also to secure estates, and other provisions, for those who had

Trimbukjee
Dainglia

arrested and
imprisoned
for life.

followed him to the last. These terms, though accompanied with some censure to Sir John Malcolm for exceeding instructions, were ratified by Lord Hastings, and Bithoor, near Cawnpoor, was selected by the Péshwah as his place of future residence. The surrender of Trimbukjee was evaded; but he was afterwards apprehended, and died at Chunar, in confinement.

CHAPTER V.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARQUESS HASTINGS (concluded), 1818 TO 1823.

campaign of

1818.

WITH an inconsiderable number of sieges and operations in the Closing oper- field, the campaign of 1818 closed. Aseergurh was ations of the surrendered to Sir John Malcolm on April 9: and as his justification for resistance and aid to the Péshwah, the commandant, Jeswunt Ráo, showed to Sir John, his master Sindia's instructions. It was not the only instance of Sindia's treachery which had been brought to light; but he had been effectually restrained and humbled, and the retention of Aseergurh, which was garrisoned by British troops, was thought sufficient punishment. Lord Hastings was, however, determined to make the treachery of the Rajah of Nagpoor an example to all, and ordered him to be transmitted to the fort of Allahabad as a state