Terms offered to A.D. 1818. their attachment to him, will meet with liberal attention. His representations also in favour of Brahmins of remarkable character, and of religious establishments founded or supported by his family, shall be treated with regard. the Peishwa. 6th, The above propositions must not only be accepted by Bajee Row, but he must personally come into Brigadier-general Malcolm's camp within twentyfour hours of this period, or else hostilities will be recommenced, and no further negotiation will be entered into with him." dated, and accepts them. These propositions were sent to Bajee Row, with a message that they could not be altered, and that not more than twenty-four hours would be allowed for their acceptance. To quicken his decision, General Malcolm had recourse to the rather petty device of allowing one of his writers to give the vakeels of the two leading Mahratta chiefs still adhering to Bajee Row a copy both of He is intimi- the letter sent and of the propositions submitted to him. The effect, as he was told, was, that "they perused them with eagerness, and the knowledge of the consideration meant to be given them, in the event of a settlement, appeared to quicken their zeal in no slight degree." Lest this should not prove sufficient, more active steps were taken. The main body of the British troops began to advance towards Khairee; further communication between the two camps was strictly prohibited; and Bajee Row was distinctly informed that if he did not immediately accept the terms, and encamp near the British force, he would throw away his last chance. At length Bajee Row, thoroughly intimidated, and seeing that nothing was to be gained by further evasion, began to approach the British camp, and arrived in its vicinity at eleven o'clock on the morning of the 3d of June. The force which accompanied him consisted of about 5000 horse and 3000 infantry. Of the latter nearly 2000 were Arabs. Perplexed situation of The British and the Mahratta forces made several marches together towards Bajee Row. the Nerbudda, General Malcolm repeatedly remonstrating with Bajee Row on the imprudence of keeping together so large a body of armed men, the greater proportion of whom must, from their situation, be discontented. Nothing, however, occurred till the 9th of June, when the Arabs demanded their arrears. They had been hired some months before by Trimbukjee Dainglia, but had only been a short time with Bajee Row. On this ground he offered to pay only for the time of their actual service with himself, whereas they insisted, with some show of reason, that they were entitled to pay from the time when they were hired. After a whole day spent in discussion no arrangement could be made, and Bajee Row, in the greatest alarm for his life, sent contradictory messages to the British camp, calling for relief, and at the same time praying that no movement towards him should be made, as he thought that the first appearance of it would be the signal for his murder. There was indeed good ground for alarm. The Arabs had completely surrounded his tent, and in all probability, had they proceeded to extremes, not only Bajee Row himself, but all his family, including women and children, would have been sacrificed. By A.D. 1818. dexterous management on the part of General Malcolm, and great forbearance on the part of the troops under his command, the mutiny was happily quelled, and an award was pronounced which satisfied all parties. Subsequently to this event Bajee Row's attendants were reduced to about 700 horse and 200 infantry, and he readily complied with every wish expressed, as to marching, encampments, and all other points. tion of the general Bajee Row. The governor-general, when made acquainted with the terms on which the Dissatisfacsurrender of Bajee Row had been obtained, was considerably disappointed. He governorthought that General Malcolm erred, first in negotiating at all with Bajee with terms Row, next in deputing an officer to his camp, and lastly, in the large amount granted to assigned to him as a pension. The governor-general, in giving this opinion, was influenced by the belief, that "the troops with which Bajee Row had crossed the Taptee were completely surrounded. He found progress towards Gwalior impracticable, retreat as much so, and opposition to the British force altogether hopeless; so that any terms granted to him were purely gratuitous." On the other hand, Sir John Malcolm, when reviewing the transaction in his Political History of India, says: "But after all, the real fact was, that Bajee Row was not in our power. He had the means, by going into Aseerghur, of protracting the war for five or six months, and keeping all India disturbed and unsettled during that period." In support of this fact he produces a letter, in which General Doveton says, "that Bajee Row had the perfect power of going into Aseerghur at any hour of the day or night, without its being possible for any efforts of ours to have prevented it at that time." The question is not of much importance, but if it was possible, as here alleged, for Bajee Row to have protracted the war for other six months, the pension which induced him to terminate it at once was not extravagant. This was the opinion of the court They are of directors, who, in their general letter to Bengal, wrote as follows:-"It was by the court also possible that he (Bajee Row) might have been compelled to surrender of directors. unconditionally, had no terms been offered to him; but it does appear to us that he still had some chance of escape, and that by throwing himself into Aseerghur, he might, at all events for a considerable period of time, have deprived us of the important advantages which resulted from his early surrender; and, in this view of the subject, we are disposed to think that these advantages justified the terms which were granted to him." The governorgeneral, though disapproving of the terms, did not for a moment question the validity of the engagement, and the residence of the ex-Peishwa was fixed at Bithoor, on the right bank of the Ganges-a residence recommended to him for its sanctity, as the place where Brahma is said to have offered an aswamedha, or sacrifice of a horse, on completing the act of creation, and recommended to the government from being only twelve miles north-west of Cawnpoor. During the arrangements with Bajee Row, several of his leading adherents VOL. III. 210 approved of of Bajee A.D. 1818. endeavoured to make terms for themselves. Among these were Trimbukjee Dainglia and the Pindaree Cheetoo. On finding that an unconditional surProceedings render was demanded, and nothing more promised than that their lives should be spared, they disappeared. Trimbukjee concealed himself for some time in the vicinity of Nassik, but being discovered and captured, was first remanded to Tannah, his former prison, and afterwards sent off to Bengal, to end his days in the strong fort of Chunar, sixteen miles south-west of Benares. Cheetoo, after remaining for a time on the southern frontiers of Bhopaul, joined Apa Sahib, and shared his asylum among the Gonds of the Mahadeo Hills. Row's followers. races in India. CHAPTER IV. Barbarous races in India-Apa Sahib among the Gonds-His flight with Cheetoo-Cheetoo's deathCapture of Aseerghur-Settlements with native powers-Central India--Hindoostan—Rajpootana -Termination of the war-Affairs of Cutch-Treaty with the Ameers of Scinde-Relations with the Guicowar, Oude, and Hyderabad-Connection with Palmer and Company-Close of the administration of the Marquis of Hastings-Its results, external and internal. N both sides of the Nerbudda, and nearly parallel to its course, are two mountain ranges, the Vindhya on the north, and the Satpoora on the south. Near the centre, where they are lowest, they are traversed by the principal routes from the Deccan to Hindoostan; but rising gradually towards the east and the west, Barbarous they form at each extremity a lofty mountain barrier, rendered almost impenetrable by the thickets and forests with which they are clothed. They are inhabited by semi-barbarous tribes, supposed to be the descendants of the aboriginal natives who took refuge among them, when driven from the lower grounds by their Brahminical conquerors. Towards the western extremity, where the mountains separate Malwah from Candeish and Gujerat, the inhabitants are designated by the name of Bheels, and are supposed by Sir John Malcolm, though probably on insufficient grounds, to be distinct from all other Indian tribes. He divides them into three distinct classes, of which he gives the following account: "The first consists of a few who, from ancient residence or chance, have become inhabitants of villages on the plains (though usually near the hills), of which they are the watchmen, and are incorporated as a portion of the community; the cultivating Bheels are those who have continued in their peaceable occupations after their leaders were destroyed or driven by invaders to become desperate freebooters; and the wild or mountain Bheel 1 Central India, vol. i pages 520, 521. comprises all that part of the tribe who, preferring savage freedom and indol- A.D. 1818. ence to submission and industry, have continued to subsist by plunder." The name of Bheel, however, is no longer confined to those properly so called, but The Bheels. in consequence of intermixtures of foreign blood, and the adoption of their usages and modes of life by other classes of the community, is applied generally to all the plunderers dwelling in the mountains, and on the woody banks of rivers in the western parts of India. During the period of non-interference, the Bheels of the plains lost the little civilization which had been communicated to them, and uniting with the wild mountaineers almost annihilated cultivation and commerce by their depredations; but in completing the suppression of the predatory system successful efforts were made, particularly by Captain Briggs, the political agent in Candeish, and Sir John Malcolm in Malwah. Partly by severity, but far more by judicious measures of conciliation, a great proportion of the Bheels have been reduced to order, and a Bheel militia, disciplined and commanded by British officers, have made the most lawless districts secure both to the farmer and the traveller. Khands, Towards the eastern extremity, where the ranges attain their greatest The Koles, height, and separate Bengal and Orissa from Berar, the inhabitants, in some and Gonds. respects still more barbarous than the Bheels, consist of various tribes, of which the principal are the Koles, the Khands, and the Gonds. Some of them lead an agricultural, and more a pastoral life, but a large proportion depend for subsistence on the wild fruits and wild animals of their almost impenetrable thickets. Their chief weapons are bows and arrows, and long knives; their only luxury is ardent spirits, in which they indulge to the greatest excess; and their sanguinary deities, before the British government put down the abomination, were often propitiated by human victims. The Gonds, by far the most numerous tribe, spread from the southern and western limits of Behar into Berar, and for some distance westward along the valley of the Nerbudda. Some of them consequently were the nominal subjects of the Rajah of Nagpoor, and hence it is easy to understand how the ex-rajah Apa Sahib sought and found an asylum among them. His protector was Chain Sah, who had usurped the rights of his nephew, the chief of Harai or Herye, and by extending his authority over several adjacent districts had the seat of his power among the Mahadeo Hills, situated on the east of the road leading between Nagpoor and Hoshungabad. asylum with Apa Sahib's place of refuge was no sooner known than he was joined by Apa Sahib's various other Gond chiefs, as professed vassals of Berar, and by bands of Mah- the Gonds. rattas, Pindarees, and Arabs, whom late events had thrown out of employment. The whole number of adventurers whom he thus gathered around him fell little short of 20,000, and acting in parties, amounting occasionally to 2000 or 3000, immediately commenced a war of posts on the British detachments. The season of the year did not admit of a regular campaign, but in order to confine the operations Sahib and A.D. 1819. depredations of Apa Sahib's followers within as narrow limits as possible, and check any general rising in his favour, detachments from Hoshungabad, NagMilitary poor, and Saugur were stationed in various parts of the valley contiguous to the against Apa hills. In the desultory warfare which ensued, the enemy's better knowledge his band of of the country gave him considerable advantages. A body of Arabs having adventurers. assembled near the sources of the Taptee, advanced and gained possession of the town of Maisdi. With the view of dislodging these, Captain Sparkes was detached on the 18th of July, 1818, from Hoshungabad to Baitool, with two companies of the 10th Bengal native infantry. Stronger detachments followed on the 20th, but Captain Sparkes pushed on without waiting for them, and encountered a body of horse. When they retreated he rashly followed, and found himself brought suddenly face to face with a main body, consisting of 2000 horse and 1500 foot. He took post on the edge of a ravine, and notwithstanding the enormous disparity of numbers maintained his ground till he fell. Ultimately, the whole of the ammunition having been expended, the enemy rushed in and put all to the sword, with the exception of a few individuals who managed to escape. A campaign among the Gonds. Escape of To avert the natural consequences of this disaster, movements on a larger scale became necessary, and troops began to advance simultaneously from Hoshungabad, Nagpoor, Jubulpoor, and Jalna, but the inclemency of the weather and state of the roads so retarded their progress, that the enemy were able in the meantime to gain new successes. In the beginning of August they obtained possession of the town of Mooltaee by the connivance of the civil authorities, and still farther to the eastward, after capturing several places, advanced to within forty miles of Nagpoor. Here great alarm prevailed, and was much increased by the detection of a conspiracy against the young rajah. At length, when the difficulties of the march had been surmounted, and the troops began to act, the work of retaliation commenced, and all that the enemy had gained was soon wrested from them. Not only were they driven from all their posts in the plain, but they were followed into the hills, and made to pay dearly for all their aggressions. With the beginning of 1819 the campaign opened in more regular form, and parties penetrating into every recess of the hills took Chain Sah prisoner, and beat up the head-quarters of Apa Sahib. He had anticipated their arrival, and fled, accompanied by Cheetoo and a few well-mounted horsemen, in the direction of Aseerghur, where they hoped to find an asylum. Attempts were made to intercept them, and well-nigh succeeded, for they only escaped by dashing into a deep ravine, into which, owing to the darkness of the night, cavalry could not follow them. The commandant Jeswunt Row Lar admitted Apa Sahib, but refused to admit Cheetoo and his followers, who remained in the vicinity till they were attacked by a detachment sent by Sir John Malcolm. They would in all probability have been captured, had not the matchlock-men in the fort opened on their pursuers, and given |