1817.] TREACHERY OF THE PEISHWA. 485 the Peishwa would take a part in the Pindaree war possession of all the Peishwa's forts, and stopped the to the extent of his means." post in Cuttack and other places, thus cutting off all communication with the Marquis of Hastings and the Supreme Council at Calcutta. this time won him the greatest admiration. He knew that if the Peishwa should make a retreat to Ryeghur, among the mountains of the Concan, it would be impracticable to follow him till after the torrents of the rainy season were over; and once in those fastnesses, he might make them the basis of extensive and protracted operations, and there concentrate all the Mahratta chiefs who were bent on strife with Britain. The Resident, an able, energetic, and accomplished man, soon ascertained that, notwithstanding his solemn assurances to the contrary, the Peishwa At this trying and perilous crisis, Mr. Elphinstone was still under the secret guidance of the invisible was destitute of instructions, and could rely on villain, Trimbukjee; that troops were quietly col-nothing but his own judgment; and his conduct at lected among the hills south-eastward of Poonah; that others were being levied at a distance; that the forts were being placed on the war establishment; and that emissaries, with money, had been sent to Malwa to recruit all to do battle with us. Elphinstone demanded that this state of preparation should cease; that the Mahratta troops must not encamp so close to the British cantonments; that the members of Trimbukjee's family should be placed under restraint, and the murderer himself given up to justice. But the crafty Peishwa, in reply to all this-though he affected to put some of Trimbukjee's family under arrest-declared that the troops among the hills were only some desperadoes, armed at the expense of that person, whom he would put to death the moment he caught him. These pretences were too shallow to deceive Mr. Elphinstone, and after bringing the subsidiary force to Poonah, and thus feeling his hand strengthened, he plainly told the Peishwa, who was preparing to join Trimbukjee, that he must not quit the city. He then detached a portion of the troops to the Mahadeo Hills, where they fell upon and dispersed the pretended insurgent army, though it was 20,000 strong. The other portion he can toned near Poonah, in which the Peishwa had 7,000 infantry, a great body of cavalry, and a strongly-fortified palace. Elphinstone's first ideas were to demand hostages for the surrender of Trimbukjee, and for the most ample fulfilment of the Treaty of Bassein, and, in case of refusal, to storm the palace at the point of the sword, and make prisoner the Peishwa; but he humanely shrunk from a measure that would plunge in carnage and ruin the more peaceful of the inhabitants by a war in the streets; he, therefore, waited the course of events, in the hope "that the Peishwa would throw off the unaccountable spell which that low ruffian, Trimbukjee, had cast upon him, and would listen to the advice of better counsellors, and to the wishes of the majority of his subjects, for the continuance of peace with the Company." But while Mr. Elphinstone waited, numerous attempts were made to tamper with the fidelity of the sepoys of his brigade; the Mahratta troops, as they crowded into the city, encamped so as to enclose our cantonments; and, finally, Trimbukjee took Resolving to wait no longer, he concentrated all the troops he could collect round Poonah, and demanded that within twenty-four hours the Peishwa should solemnly pledge himself to deliver up the mischievous Trimbukjee within one month, and place his strongholds of Singhur, Ryeghur, and Poorondhur in possession of the British troops till that promise was fulfilled. Bajee Rao lingered in doing this; but the aspect of our troops on the one hand, and of his people on the other, so alarmed him, that within the specified time he accepted the conditions, and placed the forts in our hands; but, steady to no line of action, save his faith to Trimbukjee, he instantly repented of what he had done, and sought evasion. Finding that too perilous with Elphinstone, whose Scottish patience was now utterly exhausted, he offered a reward for Trimbukjee, dead or alive; confiscated his property and that of twelve of his adherents openly; and, at the the same time, secretly took means to provide for his safety and concealment by a remittance of treasure. On the 13th of June, as if to remove all further doubts and difficulties, Bajee Rao signed a treaty offered to him by Mr. Elphinstone. By this document he bound himself to relinquish all negociations with powers hostile to British interests; to renounce his supremacy over our ally, the Guicowar, and all right and pretensions to Bundelcund, Goojerat, and every part and portion of Hindostan proper; to surrender to the Company, in perpetuity, the great fort of Ahmednuggur; to dissolve the great confederation of the Mahrattas, abandon all connection with them, and thus virtually to resign his position as their Peishwa, or head. In addition to these bitter and humiliating terms, he was compelled to agree to an important alteration in the Treaty of Bassein. In that, he was bound to furnish the Company with 8,000 troops, 1817.] FLIGHT OF TRIMBUKJEE. 487 the vale of Nerbudda, where he could put himself in communication with Cheetoo and the Pindarees. and guns in proportion; this was now exchanged | heart, and the murderer fled to the wild jungles in for an engagement to furnish them with the means of paying an equal force, thus ceding a revenue estimated at thirty-four lacs of rupees. This treaty Trimbukjee found means to do this also with the was ratified by the Governor-General within a Peishwa, who, at the same time that our troops month, or on the 5th of July, 1817, three days were about to cross the Nerbudda to attack the before the latter embarked to put himself at the Pindarees, cast to the winds the treaty of June; head of the army. ordered his great kettle-drum to be beaten at It has been alleged, with truth, that the perfidy | Poonah, and the Mahratta horse began to menace of the Peishwa, and his preparations for joining the most bitter of our enemies when we were about to enter on a combined campaign against the Pindarees, deserved a more severe humiliation than that inflicted upon him by Elphinstone. In the Concan, to which district he would have retreated, if he could, some of his chiefs resisted the British troops, but were speedily crushed by Colonels | Doveton and Scott. In Candeish, the former officer routed and dispersed the followers of Trimbukjee; and the latter, lashing his tent-poles together to make scaling-ladders, bravely carried by storm the strong fort of Dorana. After the loss of this place, the followers of Trimbukjee lost all our cantonments there. The site of these, on the north-east side of the city, had been well chosen for the purpose of defence against any attack from without; but it now became very insecure when threatened by one from without and from within also. Thus it became necessary to remove to a stronger position, and Mr. Elphinstone, though still reluctant to precipitate an open rupture, saw that it was coming fast; hence, on the 31st of October (while the Marquis of Hastings was in Scinde), he gave orders that the stores of the brigade should be transported to Kirkee, and that the brigade should march there immediately after. The site of the old cantonments is described by a writer thus : "The Moota, from the south-west, meeting the Moola from the north-east, forms with it the MootaMoola, which takes an intermediate direction, and flows east. On the right bank, in the angle made by the Moota and the Moola, lies the town of Poonah, enclosed by the rivers towards the west and north, but quite open towards the south and east, in which latter direction the subsidiary force had its cantonments. On the opposite, or left, bank of the Moota, at the point of junction with the Moola, stood the British residency, which had thus the disadvantage of being entirely separated from the cantonments-a river, and the whole breadth of the city, intervening between them. It was to get rid of this disadvantage, and escape from the danger of being surrounded by the troops which were pouring into the city, that the British brigade. removed, on the 1st of November, to the village of Kirkee, situated rather more than two miles to the north, in an angle formed by an abrupt bend of the Moola, and affording peculiar advantages for defence. The brigade, consisting of a Bombay European regiment, which had just arrived, and three native battalions, under Colonel Burr, seemed quite able to maintain its new position till succours should arrive; but it was deemed prudent to send to Seroor for a light battalion that had been left there to meet contingencies, and a corps of 1,000 auxiliary horse that had just been raised in the same quarter." The stupid Peishwa now took it into his head that the British had confessed their fears of his power by quitting the city, though Mountstuart Elphinstone remained, as usual, at the residency. The Seroor reinforcements started from Seroor on the 5th of November, and in the forenoon of that day, the over-confident Bajee Rao began to push forward his confused hordes, with a view to surrounding our new camp at Kirkee. Gokla, a Mahratta chief, who had always been at the head of the war party, pushed round a battalion till it took up a position between the village and the residency, evidently with the view of cutting off the communication between the two. On Mr. Elphinstone demanding the reason of this hostile movement, he was told by a Mahratta officer that the Peishwa had heard of the advance of troops from Seroor and elsewhere; that he had only anticipated the hostile measures of the British, and would no longer be the victim of his own irresolution. He demanded that the newly-arrived Europeans should be sent back to Bombay; that the Poonah brigade should be reduced to its usual strength, and be cantoned wherever he should appoint. A direct answer being required, Mr. Elphinstone replied that if the Peishwa joined his army he would join the brigade, and that if the Mahratta forces moved towards the latter they would be attacked. Bajee Rao seems to have been in such impatience for an answer, that the instant he dispatched his messenger he mounted his horse, and joined his army at the Parbutee Hill, a little to the south-west of his capital. He then advanced towards the residency with such speed, that Mr. Elphinstone and his suite had barely time to mount their horses and ford the Moola, when the Mahrattas took possession of the European houses, from which there had not been time to remove anything. All was plundered in a few minutes, and then the buildings were set in flames. While Mr. Elphinstone and his suite were hastening up the left bank of the river to cross it again by a bridge that led to Kirkee, he could see the smoke and flame amid which his property perished, the most irreparable loss being his valuable manuscripts and library. The view from Kirkee is one of considerable beauty, and there could be seen the hill of Parbutee, with its temple; the walls of Poonah, with its temples and palace; the Moota, wandering among clumps of mango-trees, till it joined the Moola, amid fields of waving corn; the garden of the Heerah Bagh, and its beautiful lake, with lofty trees drooping in the waters, and surrounded by every description of fruit and gorgeous flowers.* CHAPTER XCII. THE BATTLE OF KIRKEE.- -REVOLT OF APA SAHIB.-THE BATTLES OF THE SEETABULDEE HILLS AND NAGPORE. COMBAT OF JUBULPORE, ETC. MR. ELPHINSTONE was received with all honour in the camp, and the moment he was safely there, it was resolved not to await the arrival of the troops who were coming on from Seroor, but to recross the river, and attack the Mahrattas without delay. Accordingly, Lieutenant-Colonel Burr, leaving a * "Recollections of the Deccan," 1836. 1817.) DEFEAT OF THE MAHRATTAS. small party in Kirkee, advanced, and formed line, with the Europeans in the centre. The troops of the Peishwa were also formed in line, with the right flank towards Poonah, their left towards a branch of the river, and, as they faced Kirkee, the Bombay road lay along their rear. The zurree pulkah, the golden pennon or grand standard of the Mahrattas, which was borne by Mozo Dickshut, was unfurled on this occasion. Dickshut was a chief of tried valour, who fell in defence of it; and this circumstance being deemed ominous by the soldiers, they were thus deprived of confidence ere the battle was well begun. Major Forde, who, with two battalions of the Poonah Contingent, was cantoned at Dhapoora, far on the British right, marched fast to take his share in the glory of the day, but was so much impeded by a body of horse sent to intercept him, that he was obliged to fight every foot of the way, and did not reach the field before the action had commenced with vigour. Colonel Burr's brigade mustered only 2,800 bayonets, including the Bombay European Regiment. The Mahrattas were 25,000 men, with many guns; but the Peishwa was a noted coward, and the mass of his troops were an undisciplined rabble. They began the battle, or combat rather, in the afternoon by a distant but heavy cannonade in front, while attempting to push bodies of horse round the British flanks. In this they partly succeeded; but on being repulsed, with loss, did not again attempt to come to close quarters. Before nightfall it was ended by the flight of the Mahrattas, who either threw themselves into Poonah, or a fortified camp near the city. They left 500 killed on the field, while our total loss was only eighteen killed and fifty-seven wounded. During the conflict, Mr. Elphinstone-as "generally the civil servants of the Company were ambidextrous, or capable of wielding with the same hand as well the sword as the pen"-remained on the field in order to give Colonel Burr the advantage of his very great local knowledge.* On the following morning, the 6th of November, the light battalion and the irregular horse from Sirmoor joined Colonel Burr; the Mahrattas hastened to draw up in order of battle: but they did nothing save mutilate, in a ferocious and abominable manner, some poor women and dependants of the When the Prince of Wales was at Poonah, in November. 1875, he ascended the steep hill of Parbutee (or Parivati), on the summit of which stands a famous temple; and he contemplated the view from the same window from which the cowardly Bajee Rao, the last Peishwa of the Mahrattas, overlooked the to him-fatal conflict of Kirkee. A rough staircase leads to the temple, in which is a sacred shrine, attended still by priests. 489 Company's Brigade, whom they had found in the cantonment; these unfortunate creatures were then turned loose to find their way to the new camp. In other instances, between the 5th and 6th of November, as if to make reconciliation impossible, and impart a savage character to the war, they committed other outrages. Two of our officers, Captain Vaughan and his brother, when travelling with a small escort, were surrounded, and induced to surrender on a promise of quarter, but were both hanged. Ensign Ennis, of the Bombay Engineers, who was found surveying some miles from Poonah, was shot; and Lieutenants Morison and Hunter, of the Madras Cavalry, were attacked when marching towards the city, all unconscious of the sudden rupture. As the numbers of the enemy seemed to increase, and as the city, with the old cantonments facing the river, when occupied, presented a formidable line for defence, Mr. Elphinstone and Colonel Burr resolved to await the arrival of Brigadier-General Lionel Smith, of H.M. 65th Regiment, who, suspecting the state of affairs at Poonah, from the interruption of his communications, was hastening on from the Godavery. That officer, who had very few horse (and no regular cavalry) with him, was molested during every mile of his march by hordes of wild Mahrattas, all well mounted, who succeeded in cutting off much of his baggage. On the 8th of November he was at Ahmednuggur, and after he passed Seroor, the enemy appeared in such numbers that he was surrounded on every side; but forcing his way on, he reached Poonah on the 13th, and then the time for retribution seemed to have come. In consequence of some unexpected difficulties, however, the British did not advance against the city till the 16th. A large Mahratta force, which endeavoured to dispute the attack, was routed; in this we lost one officer and sixty soldiers. In the course of the ensuing night the Peishwa fled; and when our troops marched up to his advanced camp at daylight on the 17th, it was found with all the tents standing, but deserted by the enemy. Smith now got his guns into position, and threatened to bombard Poonah; but the only troops in it now were a few Arabs, whom the people compelled to give way. The gates were flung open; our troops quietly took possession, and the standard of Britain was unfurled on the capital of the Mahrattas. In these changes the people of Poonah saw only the direct vengeance of heaven for the horrid and sacrilegious crime committed in the murder of Gungadhur Shastree within the precincts of one of their most holy temples; and |