treachery, the Resident, when once his suspicions were aroused, obtained with ease all necessary evidence, not only from Ramchunder Waugh and Nagoo Punt, the ministers, but from the blundering rajah himself, partly through them, to prove that he had sought for, and even expected, assistance from the Peishwa Bajee Rao.

the Peishwa's sorely - diminished treasure, three against the British power. As India is ever full of elephants, 200 camels, and the last five guns he possessed there, with 1,000 dead on the field; while the loss of Adams was only two men. As usual, on the first sign of fighting, Bajee Rao had mounted his horse and fled he scarcely knew whither. The elephants, known to be those on which his treasure was usually conveyed, were expected to yield a rich booty; but some one had anticipated Although such an expectation was somewhat the captors in the confusion, as only 11,000 rupees delusive, certain movements of the Peishwa at that were found. General Doveton, who was only time (and when his affairs had not become so twelve miles distant, and could hear the noise of desperate) in the direction of Chanda—which was the cannon, immediately took up the pursuit. Apa Sahib's most powerful stronghold, and to Dividing his force into two brigades, for five con- which he seemed about to repair from Nagpore secutive days and nights he continued upon the-so startled Mr. Jenkins that, acting upon his track of the Mahratta army, and during that time own responsibility, he arrested him together with famine and fatigue did more than the sword to his two favourite ministers. After this, the proofs cut up the troops of the Peishwa, so that soon of their intended revolt rapidly grew on every after he had little more than a third left of those hand; and among other crimes, it now appeared who encamped with him at Soonee. that Pursajee Bhonsla, the late rajah, instead of dying a natural death, as was pretended, had perished under the hands of Apa Sahib's hired assassins.

In his camp, on the 17th of April, Adams complimented, in General Orders, the division under his command on the severe blow which was given to the Peishwa's whole force," adding that, had the country been favourable for the movements of cavalry, a most decided close of the contest must have been the result.

While the pursuit of the Peishwa was in progress, the restless Apa Sahib was working mischief elsewhere.

Though not sure of the sound policy of what he did, the Marquis of Hastings had ratified the treaty by which that prince had been restored to the throne of Nagpore. It might have been supposed that the narrow escape he had of deposition would have led him to avoid all future collision with Britain, and that if he were without gratitude, he might have had at least a sense of his own selfish interests. He seemed to possess neither. He never recalled the secret orders he had issued to the rajahs among the mountains, whom he had desired to summon their armed retinues, and throw every obstacle in the way of our troops; but after Lord Hastings had signed the treaty, he actually ordered the commanders of the various forts and districts which had been ceded to us to defy every summons to surrender them.

So while this false prince, on whose alliance he had counted, was a prisoner, the Peishwa was continuing his flight from place to place. We have mentioned the restoration of his victim, the Rajah of Sattara. The fortress in which he was detained prisoner was deemed one of the strongest places in India, and certainly must have been so, prior to the invention of artillery; the latter now rendered that strength unavailing, as the walls were commanded by a hill, named Old Wusota. It had been attacked on the 31st March, 1818; the guns, when placed on this height, opened with such effect that one day's cannonading enforced a surrender, and valuables to the amount of three lacs were found in the fortress and restored to the rajah, to whose family they had belonged.

Two British officers, who had been taken prisoners in Poonah at the first commencement of hostilities, were released here. They were Lieutenants Hunter and Morrison, who were discovered in a dreary dungeon, clad only in dresses of coarse unbleached cotton, made in a fashion neither European nor Indian, but partaking of the nature of both. Their beards had grown, says Captain Thus, on the 18th January, 1818, little more Duff, and their appearance was, than a week after Apa had returned to his palace, imagined, pitiable and extraordinary; they had he instructed the Killedar of Chanda to beat up been kept in perfect ignorance of the advance of for recruits, and to enlist Arabs, in direct defiance their countrymen and the progress of the war. of a clause in the treaty; and a little later, it was The noise of the firing, and driving in the outposts discovered that when Gunpunt Rao joined the round Wusota, had been represented by the guard Peishwa, he was accompanied by a vakeel, who as an attack by some insurgents, and it was only was authorised to invite a mutual confederation when they heard the roar of the shells bursting

as may

be

1818.]

THE ATTACK ON SHOLAPORE.

overhead, "the most joyful sound that had reached their ears for five dreary months," that they began to suspect the hour of deliverance was at hand.*

It was on the 11th of April, shortly after the fall of this place, that the rajah was seated on his throne, and then Smith pursued the Peishwa as far as Sholapore.

Several who have writtten on India have, with some justice, questioned the policy of the Marquis of Hastings in erecting, in the person of the rajah, a new Mahratta power, after he had crushed that of the Peishwa. "Had it been what it professed to be," says one, "a real sovereignty, it might have excited expectations which it was never meant to gratify, and kept alive recollections which it would have been safer to suppress. As it was only a nominal sovereignty, the rajah continued to be, as formerly, little better than a pageant."

513

time-to attack some infantry and guns which the Peishwa, in order to accelerate his flight, had been compelled to leave behind him at Sholapore, the capital of a district, part of which belonged to the Nizam and part to the Mahrattas, and the whole of which lies between the Kistna and the Beemah.

Situated on the bank of the former stream, the town-once a place of considerable wealth, and when taken by the army of Aurungzebe from the King of Bejapore, deemed the strongest bulwark of the capital towards Ahmednuggur-was well fortified when Pritzler's columns came before it, on the 9th of May.

The pettah of Sholapore was of irregular form, but measured about 1,200 yards each way, and had twenty-four circular bastions. In its south-west angle stood the fort, also of irregular form, measuring about 350 yards each way, and armed with sixteen round bastions. Its gate opened on the north towards the pettah, and a great marsh or tank lay on its south. The road from Poonah entered it on the

or thickets gave a beauty to the vicinity of the decaying town, which was strongly garrisoned by Arabs in the service of the Peishwa.

In addition to these, when our troops came before it on the 9th of May, a body of his infantry, with eleven field-pieces, were posted in rear of the fort, and to the south of the tank.

Captain James Grant Duff was the officer selected by Mr. Elphinstone to arrange the form, and as agent to exercise the powers, of the newly-west, bordered by rows of trees, and several topes erected government. He had thus the most ample opportunity of weighing well the event, and the issue of it; and though he wrote with reserve in his Mahratta history, his tone indicates an opinion. far from favourable. Purbah Sing, the restored rajah, was in his twenty-seventh year, and was of a good disposition, and naturally intelligent; he was, however, "bred amongst intrigue, surrounded by men of profligate character, and ignorant of everything but the etiquette and parade of a court. His whole family entertained the most extravagant ideas of their own consequence, and their expectations were proportionate; so that, for a time, the bounty which they experienced was not duly appreciated."

These formed eight columns in four divisions, which ultimately advanced, and by a considerable circuit took post with their guns in front, on the north-eastward of the pettah, as if to menace the left flank of Sir Thomas Munro, who threw forward his reserve of cavalry and infantry to hold them in check.

The attacking force, formed in two columns, Eventually the rajah was bound by a treaty to advanced against the northern face of the pettah, hold his territories in subordinate co-operation with one by the road which leads to Toliapore, and the the British Government. These extended between other on its left, collaterally, both with bayonets the Wurda and the Neera, from the Syadree moun- fixed, making a rush straight against the walls. On tains, a range of the Western Ghauts on the west, to the 10th the latter were taken by storm, and Sir Punderpoor, on the frontier of the Deccan, and Thomas Munro, perceiving that the Mahrattas were yielded a revenue estimated at thirteen lacs, 75,000 stealing off in small parties from the camp, detached rupees, or £137,500 sterling, together with three Pritzler after them, with three troops of his own lacs permanently alienated, and three more granted regiment, the 22nd Dragoons, and 400 other horse, in jaghires, making a total aggregate of £200,000, who overtook them at the distance of three miles, from lands, all of which, in the event of direct when marching in close column. At his approach heirs failing, were to become an integral portion of, they broke, threw aside their arms, and dispersedthe fast-growing British Empire in India.

On the 13th of April, Brigadier Pritzler, after reducing the forts north of Poonah, placed himself under General Munro, thus enabling that officer to accomplish a design which he had in view for some * "Hist. of the Mahrattas," 3 vols., 1826.

all, at least, save the Arabs among them, who fought manfully to the last, and perished in great numbers under the sabres of our cavalry.

After undergoing one day's cannonade, the fort surrendered on the 15th of May, and with it there fell into our hands thirty-seven pieces of cannon, the

CHAPTER XCV.

CAPTURE OF CHANDA AND RIAGHUR-THE KILLEDAR OF TALNERE.