Page:Our Indian Army.djvu/440

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416
OUR ANGLO-INDIAN ARMY.

their army entire, their courage and confidence were gone; and if their numbers were not greatly diminished, still they were no longer a regular force. The chiefs, therefore, at once accepted the offered terms: namely, that young Holkar should be placed under the protection of the Company, and surrender to them various districts, forts, and passes; in consideration of which the British Government was bound to support a field-force of adequate strength to maintain the internal tranquillity of Holkar's territories; Holkar engaging, on his part, never to commit any act of hostility or aggression against any of the Company's allies or dependants, "or against any other power or state whatever" – a hard condition for a Mahratta. In fact, those who assumed the management of Holkar's interests and their own must have been convinced that they were completely at the mercy of their conquerors, and had no resource but in entire submission.

The treaty was scarcely concluded when some of the Patan chiefs attempted to break it; but these desperadoes were defeated, and most of their adherents slaughtered in Kampoora by some detachments of infantry and cavalry. A few more marches and two or three stormings of forts reduced the whole country of the Holkar Mahrattas to a state of tranquillity and obedience. These rapid successes kept Scindia steady to the treaty which he had recently concluded, and deprived the wandering Peishwa of almost his last hope. They also enabled our troops to follow the Pindarries, who continued their invariable practice of flying when a British force approached them. "Were it possible," says Colonel Blacker, "to trace the several routes of the Pindarries during the time of their flight, such particulars would, perhaps, give but little additional interest to this account of the operations against them. When pressed, they fled collectively, if possible; otherwise they broke into parts, again to unite. In some instances, from inability to proceed, or under the apprehension of suddenly falling in with British troops from an opposite quarter, parties of them lurked