CHAPTER XIII.

FIRST MAHRATTA WAR.

Ambitious Schemes of Rughoba-Forms an Alliance with the English-Capture of Bassein by the English-Negotiations with the Mahratta Ministry-Conclusion of a Treaty-The Treaty abrogated by the Bombay Council-Colonel Goddard's famous March-Successes of the English-Treaty of Bassein, and Termination of the War.

It will be remembered that, during the Mahratta occupation of the Doab, the peshwa, Mahdoo Rao, died. The event caused much confusion in the Mahratta state; and the newly appointed peshwa fell a victim to the arts of Rughoba his uncle. This man now assumed the duties of government; but he considered his tenure to be so insecure that he entered into negotiation with Hyder Ally with the view of securing his support. So far, however, from gaining by this step, his influence at once began to wane; and the posthumous infant of Mahdoo Rao received the due homage of his people. He now sought new alliances, and made overtures first to Holkar and Sindia, two Mahratta chieftains famous in Indian story, and then to the English government at Bombay.

The advances of Rughoba were highly acceptable to the English, for they were then contemplating a scheme which the good-will of Rughoba, as head of the Mahratta state, would materially assist them to accomplish. Salsette, in the harbour of Bombay, the island on which the town is situated, was at the time in the hands of the Mahrattas; and it was known to the authorities of Bombay that the Portuguese, to whom it had originally belonged, were bent on attempting its recovery.

The

government now required, as the price of their aid, the cession of the island to them, together with Bassein and other places in its vicinity. Rughoba refused at first to make any such grant; but, at length, alarmed at the defection of Sindia and Holkar, he ultimately agreed to the terms proposed. The aid of the English was therefore promised. In the meantime Rughoba's assent had been forestalled; for, in spite of the protests of the Portuguese, the forts had been stormed and taken. This alliance with Rughoba originated the long and arduous conflict known as the First Mahratta War (1772.)

The Mahratta state ministers of course viewed this treaty with Rughoba in the light of a declaration of hostilities, and forthwith moved to attack their combined forces. They, however, met with no success; and the cause of Rughoba, supported as it was by British bayonets, looked hopeful enough, when his enemies found an unexpected ally in the Council of Bengal, who, entirely disapproving of the convention, sent an envoy to Poonah, the ministerial capital, to order a suspension of hostilities. The haughtiness of the Mahratta ministers, who de manded the surrender of Rughoba's person, imperilled the success of the negotiations; and their conduct finally, in treating with a French envoy, caused the entire matter to fall through. The negotiations were broken off, and the alliance with Rughoba continued.

progress

The step thus taken by the Mahratta ministry had, of course, given equal offence to the authorities of Calcutta; and the governor at once determined to support the Bombay forces. An expedition was despatched thence to the seat of war under Colonel Leslie; but, owing to the lukewarmness of Rughoba's Mahratta partisans, little was made. Meanwhile, the Bombay government itself, which hitherto had been exceedingly dilatory, had bestirred itself, and troops were already on their way towards Poonah. The Mahrattas, however, were in strong force; and their progress was, therefore, necessarily slow. Arrived at Tullegaon, their situation appeared so critical that it was proposed to retreat. It was too late; for,

completely hemmed in by the troops or the enemy at Wurgaom, there was no course left them but to negotiate. The terms were, under the circumstances, highly favourable to the English, who, however, by their failure, lost much of that prestige which was so valuable in these struggles.

The authors of this convention of Wurgaom were dismissed, and the treaty itself ignored by the Bombay council; while the Bengal government were more than ever determined to push forward their scheme of co-operation with their brethren of Bombay. Colonel Leslie was superseded by Colonel Goddard, who now undertook the most interesting march that had as yet been accomplished upon the soil of India. His road lay through a hostile territory; and with great difficulty it was that he made his way, at one time fighting, at another negotiating, until he arrived safely at Surat, three months after his departure from the banks of the Jumna. Hastings had joined with the Bombay council in rejecting the convention of Wurgaom, and a new one was now set on foot; but Nana Furnawees, the Mahratta chief minister, insisted upon the surrender of Rughoba, and the restoration of Salsette to the Portuguese.

Such terms were, of course, inadmissible. Negotiations were consequently discontinued, and preparations made for a renewal of the war. Operations began with the capture of Ahmedabad, when the district of Guzerat was occupied by English troops. The Mahratta leaders, Holkar and Sindia, on their part, took the field with 20,000 men-the latter reluctantly, for he had ever been favourably inclined towards the English. Goddard, the general opposed to them, could make but little impression upon his enemy. Indeed, so hardly pressed were the English troops by the overwhelming numbers of the Mahratta horse, that it was found necessary to open a campaign elsewhere. Captain Popham was accordingly despatched with an army to operate in Bundelcund. The strong fortress of Gwalior fell into his hands; and the campaign, which terminated with its capture, was singu

larly effective, inasmuch as it caused the withdrawal of the forces of the Mahratta chieftains from Guzerat.

Next year, 1780, Bassein was besieged by the Bombay army; and, after a long investment, this almost impregnable fortress fell. A considerable Mahratta force was about the same time defeated by Colonel Hartley; and the Bengal and Bombay forces, at last united, were ready either for an active prosecution of the war, or to negotiate an advantageous treaty. They rather inclined to the latter course, because war had again broken out between the Madras government and Hyder Ally; and a league between him, Nizam Ally, and the Mahrattas, was an extremely probable event.

Nevertheless the war progressed; for the Bengal government did not care to make advances in the direction of peace, but rather to force their opponents to do so. The contest was marked by many vicissitudes, and the British forces were often so hardly pressed, by reason of the numbers of their enemy, that it required the most skilful generalship to enable them to maintain a position in the field. At length, the action of Sindia relieved the governor from further apprehension of disaster, and at the same time spared him what he would have considered the disgrace of initiating a peace, by entering into negotiations with his opponent, Colonel Muir. Through the good offices of Moodajee Bhoslay, nabob of Berar, whose neutrality had been secured by the payment of thirteen lacs of rupees, a treaty was concluded at Salbye between the English and Sindia, and, through him, with the Mahratta nation, May 1782. This treaty provided a pension for Rughoba, who was permitted to reside where he pleased; while he on his part restored to the English the conquests of Hyder Ally from them and the nabob of Arcot. Altogether this first Mahratta war, though an unfruitful was a brilliant and honourable one.

CHAPTER XIV.

SECOND WAR WITH HYDER ALLY.

Preparations of Hyder Ally-His Forces-His Successes-Operations of Colonel Coote-Hyder joined by the FrenchSudden death of Hyder; he is succeeded by his son TippooTippoo deserted by the French makes Peace with the English -Genius displayed by Hastings-Cheyte Singh-Impeachment of Hastings-- His Trial and Acquittal-Macaulay's Peroration.

It was intimated in the last chapter that an apprehended alliance between Hyder, the nizam, and the Mahrattas, was among the considerations that induced Hastings to come to terms with his enemies. Hyder had never forgiven the English the evasion of the treaty of Madras. He had, indeed, amply recouped himself for the losses their defection had caused him; for, by a successful warfare with the Mahrattas, he had recovered all he had previously been compelled to cede to them, and had pushed his northern boundary to the banks of the Kistna; whilst the action of the emperor, who, it was believed, had made over to him the whole of the Deccan, had driven the nizam to seek alliance with his Mahratta neighbours, and to court the forbearance of Hyder.

To the remembrance of past wrongs was now added the sting of a recent insult. The English had, notwithstanding his remonstrances, wrested Nangore from the Dutch, who held the settlement by a guarantee from him, and had likewise attacked and taken Mahé, the only possession of the French in India. This measure they followed up by assigning, against his will, a body-guard of British soldiers to Basalat Jung, the unruly brother of the nizam.